Category Archives: Productivity

Tools for Productivity

Posted on by
2

This your kind of thing? Please think about subscribing via RSS or eMail (it’s free). Thanks for taking the time to visit! Chris

Image By Teo at Flickr via Creative Commons

Image By Teo at Flickr via Creative Commons

“What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it, that’s another matter.” Peter F. Drucker

There are various types of tools that can help you in your quest to be a super productive being. They enable you to be put into practice the skills and techniques of a productivity. Tools to fulfill these requirements are increasingly being developed and refined with more and more becoming available everyday. If you are anything like me, you’ll probably enjoy discovering and trying these tools. But beware – this is essentially procrastination and you’ll probably try and justify ‘sharpening your system’ as productive work, when in fact getting stuff done is far more effective.

In this post I’m going to look at the key ‘Tools of Productivity’ that I have thus far identified. I have identified more that this, but in the interest of elimination and simplification seek to present the essentials.

Planning Tools
Remember to begin with the end in mind. In others posts I have either or will describe how planning is a great skill of a productive and effective person. I’m not using this to tell you why you should be planning (I’ll do that in another post). Just be sure that you have the right tools available.

My preferred planning tool is mind maps on paper. Paper is not constrained and this property along with mind mapping allows free flow thinking and amendments. Remember though that papers tools are not automatically backup up like online tools. If you want to try mind mapping online there are loads of free sites. I’ve tried MindMeister and is seems good.

Other planning tools: Lists, Planning software (for example MS project) I find many tools to complex for most purposes except where I am forced to use it in a professional context.

Lists
I’m a big fan of lists. I keep lists for everything. Things to do, music to buy, dreams (places to go), checklists for planning etc. I find that simple is best so I keep lists in a fairly linear fashion. However, as my lists are important to backup my brain. It’s best not to store information in your brain for a number of reasons!

I was using Gubb for my lists, but I have recently switched to Zenbe on the iPhone, and it is great that it is synced to a website for backup piece of mind.

At work I still haven’t found the right list management system for me. I’m currently using excel for it’s sorting facilities as I manage a team of people and deliverables it is quite useful for this.

Another thing to note is that I do not use Outlook at work for my to-do list management. This is for a very important reason. To keep me out of my email!

Calendar / Reminder System
You should try and schedule as much of your activity in a calendar system to enforce deadlines and make sure you do it. Notice how if something non-important is in your calendar like a staff meeting then you still give time to attend? Make the same commitment to personal high importance tasks.

For work I use Outlook , as it is the standard at my place of work. You can do fancy stuff like colour code etc. but I’ve been there done that and spend the wasted hours maintaining it with the false belief it will make things easier. For me simple is best.

For personal calendar and remind I use iwantsandy.com. I love the interaction element of this tool and I have written a review of iwantSandy here. I think that it is important to enjoy using your system and that is what Sandy gives to me. I am looking to move more of my system to Sandy as more features come available, as having everything in one place is food for the interests of keeping stuff simple.

Outsourcing / Delegation
These are great tools for getting stuff done but do require time and patience and learning for using as an effective tool. You should think of delegation at work (and personal outsourcing as appropriate) as you first option for every task. This way you can eliminate as much as you can. “Can’t someone else do it?” – make this your Mantra. See my other post on delegation.

Against the recommendations of GTD I do keep separate work and personal systems. Both of my systems are accessible from both places. I don’t want them to overlaps to that I can concentrate on the different contexts of work and home in isolation when I need to.

Email
I will write an separate post about this, but seen as email and internet are the biggest distractions in the modern workplace it is worth using the tools available to maximum benefit. Make email your slave not your master.

1) Auto-Responder – Set an out-of-office so that you can dictate when you check emails.
2) Filters – I have a CC folder for mails I am copied on which means that when I look at this folder I approach with the different mind set. I also use a waiting for filter, so that when I send an email I have @wf in the email so my filter puts a copy in my waiting for list.
3) Delete Key – Use it
4) One inbox – Email is great for capture. If someone asks you to do something say ‘can you send me an email so I don’t forget’
5) Turn off notification popups – if you don’t see the popups you’ll be less inclined to dip in to your inbox as often.
6) Turn off Auto Send/Receive – you choose when you want to get emails.

So these are the key tools in my current Productivity arsenal. I’m sure that I’ll review this post and refine it and it is something that I could go in to a lot of depth about. I wrote this post in draft a few months ago, and in that type my system has evolved and changed – I am coming to accept that this is a side effect of the productivity culture.

This post will eventually form part of a series on Productivity: Tools, Skills & Techniques.

————-
Bookmark and Share

Thanks for reading.

I hope you enjoyed my post. I’d love to hear your comments below or get a Digg or Stumble!

Eliminate Distractions to Get Things Done

Posted on by
4

This your kind of thing? Please think about subscribing via RSS or eMail (it’s free). Thanks for taking the time to visit! Chris

Image by Chris Campbell on Flickr via Creative Commons

Image by Chris Campbell on Flickr via Creative Commons

“By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination” Christopher Columbus

I’ve just finished a swim at down at my gym, and see as it is the start of my ‘cheat day’ (more to come about my diet plan in the future), I am relaxing in the cafe with an fresh orange.

I’ve decided that I’ll write a post about elimating distractions to get things done. As I sit here there are actually quite a few distractions but they are different to what I would have at my office at home (where there is guitars, a Wii, the internet, TV and always cleaning to do). Here in the cafe there is the noise of the coffee machine, and people having conversations around me, however the change of scenery does enable me to focus on what I am doing for at least as long as the OJ takes me to finish and to write the post.

So here are my ‘Top Top Tips’ for eliminating distractions:

  1. Only check emails at set times in the day.
  2. Turn off IM.
  3. Turn off your phone or at least divert to voicemail.
  4. Schedule a meeting with yourself where you can elimate all other distractions and get done what you need to.
  5. Do the most important thing you need to do first thing in the morning (and before you check that email).
  6. Say NO, to meetings, interruptions etc.
  7. Change your work location – like I am doing now.
  8. Listen to music (so you can block out distractions. I find music the has a medium or lower tempo with little lyrics the best for this).
  9. Turn off the Internet. This is what I struggle with the most. Make a set time when you can go on the internet.
  10. Work from Home. I find that I get more done in the first 2 hours of the day working from home than I probably manage in a whole day in the office.

So there are some top tips for you. Personally I find the Internet my biggest distractions. I have worked hard on not letting email be too much of a distraction for me, but I need to work on stopping the Internet being such a distraction for me.

When I find something I think I need to improve on, I make it a mini goal and plan it. Here’s my plan therefore on how I am going to elimate the Internet attention grabber:

  1. Only go on to the Internet when I need to find out certain information. Therefore I will going on to the internet with a purpose rather than just dor the sake of it which leads to me spending hours on there.
  2. Only go on to the internet at set times. Certainly at home I’m going as far as sticking a note on the iMac saying “Why are you going on the Internet?”
  3. As I find that the Internet makes it so easy to find information I always jump on to Google whenever something pops in to my head. I’ll keep a list on my desk of things to look at then I can batch them altogether and blast through them all in one sitting.
  4. Have at least one, if not two unplugged days per week.

————-

I hope you find this post interesting. I’m trying to get more content on to the site, so I’m experimenting with my best flow for writing. I’ve produced this flow fairly quickly (after having thought about it whilst in the Sauna), and hope that I can find the right balance between post quality, content and time management. From start to finish (at the computer) this post took 35 minutes, and that included a slowish internet connection and over 10 minutes trying to find an image!

Bookmark and Share

Thanks for reading.

I hope you enjoyed my post. I’d love to hear your comments below or get a Digg or Stumble!

The Power Of: Delegation

Posted on by
4

This your kind of thing? Please think about subscribing via RSS or eMail (it’s free). Thanks for taking the time to visit! Chris

This is the first of my ‘Power Of’ series of posts where I look at the power of certain skills used in work and personal life.

By Office Now on Flickr via Creative Commons

By Office Now on Flickr via Creative Commons

“When in doubt, mumble; when in trouble, delegate; when in charge, ponder.” James H. Boren

Utilising the abilities and time of other people effectively is a great lifestyle skill. If you are able to effectively delegate and trust the quality of work, having people work for you can free up your own time greatly for tasks that are a better use of your time, you are more interested in or actually have the skills to do. People often have hurdles to overcome before they are willing to delegate. Common ‘arguments’ for not delegating:

- I can do it quicker/cheaper/faster/better myself

Ask yourself what your time is worth? Do you have the skills to do the task

- It’ll cost more

Again, what is your time worth really?

- It won’t be done correctly

Maybe you aren’t delegating correctly? Sometimes ‘just good enough’ really is fine, or even better than it needs to be.

Tips for delegation:

1. Set clear objectives for the task you are delegating. Begin with the end in mind. If you are unclear about what the required results are, how can you expect the person you are delegating the work to understand? (this is why Wembley Stadium took so long to complete).

2. Seek confirmation of their understanding. (Get the delegated person to explain the task back to you). You could give them instructions verbally and ask them to email you instructions/objectives back for approval.

3. Be clear, concise and consistent with your instructions. Seek not to confuse. If you are not clear they will not understand. If you are not consistent there is room for misunderstanding, doubt and inconsistency.

4. Provide a Timescale. People working for you will expand to fill the time available. Give clear deadlines (even false deadlines) as required otherwise it is easy to creep into overtime and budget problems. Deadlines generate the by-product of making your delegated resource eliminate the unnecessary.

5. Set a Priority. This is useful if you have allocated more than one task to a person, but also if they have to balance several clients with requirements on their time. This is linked to setting a timescale (both elapsed and real time) but gives people a level of focus. Beware of ‘crying wolf’ on priorities; if you use a resource over and over, you need to gain their trust.

6. Reward. This can take many forms. For example, you may in work situations you will have no influence over pay and benefits, however you are still able to provide positive feedback to a superior.

7. Reporting Requirements and Communication Channels. I think that being a good communicator is the single, most important skill that anyone can possess. When delegating, it is important to define reporting requirements (i.e. when and how you want to receive these along with the communication channels (methods)). If the communication flows correctly, there is less room for error.

8. Trust. It is important to trust the person you delegate to. This is a two way process. For them to trust you, you need to behave how you would expect the person working for you to behave. Do what you say you will, be open and honest. For you to trust them this is a mindset you need to get into. To improve trust there are some tools you can use, set guidelines, empower decision making (set fair boundaries).

9. Measuring Results. If you’ve set out your requirements, as stated in the points above, and found the right person for the job, and have open and honest communication you should set out the results your require. Remember when delegating to understand what quality standards you should expect (remember when good enough is good enough). Provide feedback that is honest (this gains respect) and constructive. Also update your own FAQ, quality standards etc. as required. Remember every thing is a constant learning and reviewing process.

Conclusion
Follow the guidelines to utilise the power of delegating to free up your own time and get achieve more. In order to achieve the work:life balance you require, or at least tip the scales in your favour, you want to delegate as much as possible.

“Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere.” Ronald Regan

Bookmark and Share

Thanks for reading.

I hope you enjoyed my post. I’d love to hear your comments below or get a Digg or Stumble!

My leaving work routine

Posted on by
Reply

This your kind of thing? Please think about subscribing via RSS or eMail (it’s free). Thanks for taking the time to visit! Chris

Here’s a post about productivity.

By Mrs. Maze, Flickr via Creative Commons

By Mrs. Maze, Flickr via Creative Commons

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. Bruce Lee

I try to have leaving work routine so that I can go home and have a clear mind and switch off from work. I think that this is a very important part of productivity. By having a leaving work routine, in conjunction with your GTD and other systems, you shouldn’t find yourself waking up in the middle of the night and wondering if you send that email or phoned that person back.

I have a calendar entry called Daily Review and it appears at 4pm daily (unsurprisingly). This is serves two pruposes 1) to remind me to do my leaving work routine and 2) remind me it’s time to go.

Here’s what I try to do as part of my daily review:

1) Review what I have done today – just a couple of minutes look at the items ticked off on my list also shows you what you haven’t done and is high priority. This then enables you to…

2) Get my Inbox to Zero (or as close as I can – I try not to make my self a slave to this). This means that everything that I need to do should be captured on my to-do list.

3) Set my MITs (Most Important Things) to do the next day. For more about this I’ll let Leo over at ZenHabits explain here.

4) Tidy my desk. When I am not working from home I have a minimal ‘mobile office’ consisting of a meeting book, notebook, pad (for capture of tasks and putting my MITs for the day on), scrap paper, USB stick and Pens. At the end of the day I put it all in a plastic pouch and slip it into my laptop bag. Keeps everything together and not loose in my bag.

5) Get out of there and do something good!