You Can Get it Done--Keys to Productivity in Your Every Day Life

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Calming the Storm

Capturing Your Thoughts in a Tangible Form

It’s been over a week since my last post, my apologies. Can you guess what I’ve been up to? Planning of course. I’ve been working on multiple projects that all require a lot of my time, and naturally I’ve also been planning and working my plans for these projects. Now that I’m back, let’s talk a little more about the storm.

You’ve got a million thoughts, at least, running through your head about some or all of the things you would like to accomplish. Let’s pause for a moment to talk about these things. What warrants a well thought out plan? It's based on what you need to get done. And, almost every endeavor may require some sort of plan. Plans can be short- or long term. They can have simple steps or they can be very intricate. The amount of planning depends on how much you need to get done, and how much time you have from planning to action.

The best way to calm the storm of thoughts in your mind is to find an outlet to channel those thoughts. You already know that I am a fan of writing things down, but there are other devices that work just as well. If you’re working on a company project, for example, computer planning tools and software can help channel your thoughts into a macro-level view of an entire project. If you just want to get some simple tasks done in one day, the least you may need is a pen and paper.

Other devices beyond a pen and paper can facilitate your plans, such as software programs in the Microsoft Office Suite, i.e. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I’ve used these programs many times to expedite my documentation. (I type much faster than I write.)

No matter what you choose, you’ll see that the long-term benefit of planning is productivity; however, planning can be productive and not productive. What makes it productive is staying focused on the task or tasks and being dedicated to seeing the project until the very end, which at times, can be difficult. Practice getting those thoughts down on paper first (or some other device), before committing to action and save yourself some time, while increasing your productivity.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Where Planning Begins

Let’s talk about the big “P”
Oh no, not procrastination--not yet, at least. Let’s talk about planning. Because I ranted so much in my last post, my punishment is to now provide you with a practical way to look at planning as a necessity to productivity. Shall we begin?

Where Planning Begins
A Brewing ‘Brainstorm’

Did you wake up this morning with a lot on your mind? Were you thinking about yesterday, today, tomorrow or next week? What about your life as a whole? Are you maximizing your time? Are you as productive in your life as you would like to be? What is it that you are striving for or would like to strive for? Do you want to get promoted on your job? Do you want to switch careers? Do you want to increase your business profitability? Do you want to enhance your education? Do you want to get married? Do you want to take more vacations? Do you want to be more consistent in every day tasks?

No matter what you’re working on or trying to accomplish, you should always have a plan. As cliché as it sounds, many people go through their personal and professional lives haphazardly getting things done without a plan. Some might ask, well, what’s so bad about not having a plan if you’re getting things done? The truth is, nothing really. But, if you want to measure your success, then you should have a way to track your progress. That’s just the first benefit of planning. What about knowing how to reposition yourself when how you’re trying to accomplish something isn’t meeting your expectations? If you don’t have a plan, would you know where to begin?

At its simplest level, planning begins in the mind and in the heart--it's also known as a brainstorm. It begins with a detailed thought process about how you would like things to happen in order to reach your end. It can be simultaneous, meaning that you could plan more than one thing at the same time. You could also think about your plans at any time. There’s no set time for brainstorming. It is a continuous mental process in which you envision how you want something to take place, and you think about what steps you will need to take to get you there.

Taking advantage of this first stage of planning is extremely important. You don’t have to make a big deal out of it. You spend a lot of your day in thought about everything else in life, why not think about the plans for your next big or little venture.

Friday, February 17, 2006

A Precursor of Planning

Taking the Time of Others Into Consideration
A precursor of planning.

This week, I intended to discuss the importance of planning as a tool for productivity. I must divert, for the moment however. This post has a lot to do with planning, but bear with me as I “rant” a little.

I attended a function this week for a company that will remain nameless. I will say that the function was a luncheon scheduled for two hours. When my group and I arrived, thirty minutes before the event, we expected to be seated. But, that didn’t happen because the event planners hadn’t arrived with the seating charts. When we were finally sat, after the scheduled start time, we waited patiently for thirty minutes before the event began.

I expected that because the event didn’t start on time, the program would be altered to make up for the thirty minutes. Not so. The program went on as scheduled. And embarrassingly, a lot of the attendees left BEFORE the key note speaker's speech.

When you set the expectation of attendees to start and end a function at a certain time, you have to deliver. If you don’t, then you have to communicate with your attendees about what’s taking place, and you should adjust your schedule to make up for the lost time. What does this have to do with planning? Lots! Although the seating arrangement thing was bad, I think that not altering the program was even worse. The best plans are those that involve lots of contingency, and communication to let others know what’s taking place.

I promise to discuss the many facets of planning in the next few posts. I had to get this off my chest because after leaving this event, I kept thinking about how unprofessional it was to hold an event in that manner. The following article, "Successful Program Agendas: Prior Planning Precludes Poor Performance", by Irene P. Zucker of VerbaCom, an executive development company, expounds on the topic of planning.

Friday, February 10, 2006

Productivity Stopper Number One--Interruptions

Minimizing Your Interruptions

One of my biggest interruptions in the day is the phone. My phone rings constantly, and up until recently I felt obligated to answer every call regardless of how busy I was. I found that I was so distracted after a phone call, I had trouble refocusing. It took a while, and then after being unproductive, day after day, to do list growing and growing, I took action. I began screening my calls through the office receptionist and voicemail to minimize my interruptions.

Think about it: the persons on the other end of the line don’t have an appointment to call; they just call. So, why should you drop everything to answer the phone? Having your caller wait for a return call isn’t really so bad. If it’s not a scheduled, expected, emergency or urgent call, then you have the right to place the caller in his or her appropriate place in your hierarchy. If you are used to spending time on the phone with regular and casual callers, you may have to gradually screen their calls so that you can eventually send them to voicemail.

You have work to do, tons of it; and it’s okay to let someone know that although you would love to talk, you just can’t. The same strategies work for e-mail as well. If you create an expectation of urgency for every call, then your caller will expect to be talked to. What I have also found is that most callers don't need to talk to me; they could use the alternatives: asking the administrative assistant the same question, sending me an e-mail (that I might respond to quicker), looking at the company’s website, calling someone else who could probably answer the question better than I can and so on.

The advice in the following articles offers a balanced perspective on dealing with interruptions:

"Handling Interruptions" by Time Thoughts
"Interruptions Are Your #1 Productivity Killer" by Jeffrey J. Mayer of Act News

Reading these made me feel better about prioritizing my day. I hope they do the same for you.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Saying "When"

Food for Thought: Knowing When to Say "When"
Feeling a little overwhelmed?

At the end of my previous post I mentioned accomplishing too little or too much. Is it truly possible to be too productive? Well, the answer is two-fold; however, I would like to stress that your productivity should be managed in pieces. Remember that on your quest to get things done, it is very possible to overdo it by spending too much time on a particular task or tasks. Sometimes you have to distance yourself from what you're working on to gain a better insight for completion, or to rest your brain and body so that you can be refreshed before you complete your task(s). I'll explore this further in future posts, but today it's just food for thought.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Journaling Your Day

Tracking Your Productivity

So, you’re writing things down, but are you getting things accomplished? Increasing your productivity may require you to take an informal analysis of how your time is spent daily and weekly. I’m not talking about documenting how much time you spend on each task in a day per se, but what you actually do in a day. If you’re able to track your tasks, then you will be able to see what you are and aren’t getting done.

To track how much work I did in a week, I wrote down all of the tasks I completed each day. (It’s like a reverse to do list, but I captured things I did that weren’t on the list.) I started with what I completed, one by one, and wrote down everything - who I spoke with on the phone and in person, meetings I attended, and tasks I accomplished that were on my daily and weekly list of to do’s. What a difference the pen makes! Even though I didn’t document how much time I spent, I had a pretty good idea of who and what got the most of my time and what I got done.

Try journaling your day for a week and see how productive you really are. Try it on a regular week. Don’t try it during a holiday, spring break, some major change in the company or your life and so on. Here’s an example of what a journal entry might look like:

  • Talked to Mr. Supply at Office Supplies Co. about lost shipment
  • Worked on finance reports
  • Scheduled and delegated tasks to employees X, Y and Z
  • Sent detailed e-mail to Ms. May about new office products
Once you’ve done this consistently for at least a week, see how much you got done. You might find out that you’re not accomplishing what you should or that you’re accomplishing too much.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Write Your Way to Productivity

To Write or Not to Write

I am an advocate of writing, in case you didn’t read my entire bio. I love to write and I respect the craft. I constantly find myself writing everything down. If I don’t write at my “eureka” moment, then I can forget it. I have sticky notes all over my desk in the office; I carry a legal pad with my planner; I have notepads in my purse, the fridge, desk and nightstand at home. All of this is necessary for me to keep up with my busy life. What’s so awesome about this discipline is that everything I write down, I get accomplished. (This occurs with action of course. Merely writing things down and leaving them on paper will not help your productivity.)

You don’t have to be a writer to benefit from writing things down; all you have to do is get a pen and some paper and go for it. If you are having trouble remembering things, you NEED a pen and paper everywhere you go. I had so much trouble keeping up with my tasks as I got busier, it became almost impossible to keep up. I was forgetting things left and right. I thought it was old age, but really it was information overload. Writing things down gave me the opportunity to get my thoughts out of my head, plan and prepare for everything. The more time I spent in thought, the more I wrote, the more I remembered important dates and things I needed to get done.

If you’re not ready to invest in one of those fancy electronic mechanisms, you can get some inexpensive alternatives that will work just as well. Here are two examples:

Planning--I have an At A Glance Weekly/Monthly Planner, and I sit down every Sunday or Monday and write out what I need to get done for the week. (This usually works for work assignments. I use the Microsoft Outlook Task Manager for routine tasks and reminders.) For home and school, I use generic calendar templates.

Brainstorming--When I have a project to work on, either for home, the office or school, I spend a lot of time in thought and then begin to write down every aspect of the project that I will need to tackle. I usually go through several drafts, which is good. By the time the project is near, I am usually ready. When I have unexpected projects, I cut back my planning time, but I NEVER neglect to write. It’s still important and saves time in the short run.

If the project or task you are working on is common, like planning a party, spring cleaning your house, launching a special event, preparing for a presentation and so on, then you may benefit from pre-made checklists, which may expedite your brainstorm.

Practice writing things down this week. Start small, don’t try to take over the world, just try to conquer your life. You’ll be closer to sanity, more organized, experience less stress and yes, be more productive!