Personal Productivity

How To Get The Right Work Done in Less Time

“It is not enough to be busy… The question is: what are we busy about?” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Keys to Personal Productivity

Here are our main keys to personal productivity:

• Instead of striving to “get more done in less time” focus instead on “getting the right work done.”
• Minimize interruptions.
• Apply the Inbox Zero technique to your email.
• Get all the information cluttering your brain somewhere else! That means maintaining consistent systems: TO-DO list, ideas list, calendar system, and 1-on-1 / check-in agenda items.
• Break projects down into smaller blocks (e.g., goals, tasks, and timelines).

Overview of Personal Productivity

It is important to realize that productivity is less about doing as much as possible and being busy all the time. Rather, it is about prioritizing work and being more intentional about when, where, and how you accomplish your work.

Ideally, you want to get the right work done in less time.

Patterns for Time Management

Time Management is simply the process of consciously deciding what goes into our time box based on our passions and finite time. These five patterns are ways for us to think about where our time goes each day and start to make conscious decisions about our time.

Identify Leaks

What if you could spend more time on the things that are important to you, without spending less time on other things? By cutting out the time “leaks” where you’re not doing anything productive with your time, you can. Find those little moments throughout the day that are just sucking your time away and take steps to avoid those situations, and you could find a ton of time you never thought you had.

Common leaks include: procrastinating, social media, working in areas with lots of distractions, email, TV, commutes, people interrupting you, etc.

Govern Access

You could be interrupted at almost any part of your day by a text, a phone call, or an email. However, this is not great for getting stuff done. We can take steps to limit access to ourselves in our everyday life:

• Stop allowing 100% access to yourself at all times.
• Be mindful of who gets access to you, when, and for how long.
• Bottom line: Set expectations with the people you work with the most about your level of access. Do not make them guess and do not guess for other people.

Minimize Notifications

Studies show it takes 7 minutes to refocus after an interruption. 

So, every little new email ding, Facebook notification, text message, chat message is seven minutes of your time. Consider turning off every notification that is not an alarm.

Work in Dashes

Sometimes tasks can seem large and overwhelming. The most difficult thing is to just start. So work for a while and then take a break (e.g 25 minutes of work / five minutes of break).

You can lower the barrier to entry by promising yourself that you are only going to work on a short task and then take a break to do whatever you want.

• You can adjust this pattern as necessary (10/2, 25/5, 50/10).
• General rule: If a task will not fit in your normal window of availability (25 minutes, an hour, whatever), then it is too big. Break it down into smaller steps.

“OHIO (Only Handle It Once)” 

Robert Pozen in Extreme Productivity writes about the idea of OHIO and how “This means tackling your low-priority items immediately when you receive them, if possible. If you let a backlog develop, you will waste a lot of time and increase your anxiety level…When you get a request, decide promptly whether you should ignore it or offer a response.” 

Always Know Your Goals and What You Are Trying to Achieve

Do not get sidetracked.

Find Ways to Address Your Own Forms of Procrastination 

• Break projects into smaller pieces and have interim deadlines.
• Find/Create a space where you will not be interrupted (be strict and disciplined about this if you are easily sidetracked).

Create Productivity Routines

• Have “no meeting days” or big blocks of times without meetings (e.g., Wednesday/Friday block off for just work and no meetings).
• Plan for the week’s schedule or day’s schedule in advance. 
• Set recurring time on your calendar to do administrative work (e.g., filling out forms, updating databases, sending letters, etc.). That way you keep it limited to a certain time or day. 

Strip Away Anything that “Looks Like Work,” But Does Not Actually Move You Ahead

Seth Godin writes in Linchpin about how a lot of what we do “looks like work” (e.g., meetings, writing reports, updates, etc.), but does not move us ahead on our projects and goals. As much as possible, limit things that do not contribute to you moving ahead on your goals.

Break Projects Down Into Smaller Tasks and Timelines

One of the biggest barriers to productivity is getting overwhelmed by a project. So one of the best ways to address is to break up big projects into small tasks (e.g., “Outreach for the upcoming event” turns into 1. Create a list of whom/where to do outreach, 2. Create a template e-mail to send out and/or template phone call speech, 3. Ask fellow organizers if they can make a flier, 4. Start e-mailing/calling folks, etc.).

Keep Written Track of All Action Items and Tasks

Write down and track everything somewhere. Collect tasks, TO-DOs, etc. to make sure it does not clutter your mind. 

General Time Management Tips & Tools 

• Set time boundaries with your team for no interruptions (e.g., no interruptions from anyone before Noon twice a week, so you focus on getting stuff done).
• Practice active reading (i.e., do not read everything, focus instead on reading fewer sections more comprehensively). Read the introduction/conclusion/tops of paragraphs.
• Multitasking is a myth. Do one thing at a time.
• Schedule personal time (e.g., yourself, exercise, family, friends, reading, etc.). Separate your work TO-DO list from your other list, that way you know when to stop doing work.
• Schedule your most difficult tasks earlier in the day (e.g., if writing is tough for you, make sure to do that first thing, instead of scheduling meetings for the morning).
• “Your time commitment should vary according to the importance of a project and the needs of your audience” – “for most of your low-priority tasks, B+ is quite often ‘good enough’” – Robert Pozen in Extreme Productivity.
• Create a document to track all questions/updates/TO-DOs for those you frequently have 1-on-1s with so they are easy to find/update.
• Take time for big picture review and reflection. Set aside time to reflect and review your goals and projects from time to time.
• Too much time is spent on meetings and emails – Find ways to reduce time spent on these. These are NOT work, they are often distractions from work.
• David Allen in Getting Things Done notes to make projects “the heartbeat of your operational system.” Instead of being driven by small TO-DOs, your work should be driven by your larger goals.

Inbox Zero

Inbox Zero is a simple method designed by productivity expert Merlin Mann for getting the important information you need out of your email, without it being scary or eating tons of time.

A study from Daniel Pink in his book To Sell is Human analyzing where people spent their time at work (i.e., what they did for their largest blocks of time) found that “Big surprise: Reading and responding to e-mail topped the list.” Email is actually preventing us from getting the real work done. Inbox Zero can help you cut down on much time you spend on email.

The fundamental principle of Inbox Zero is to “Process to Zero”:

Your inbox should be an inbox! It is for things that have not been read yet. It is not a reminder-box or a TO-DO list box. Processing is more than “checking” your email, it means dealing with them quickly and moving them out of your inbox.

1. Archive or Delete 

• Have one single archive. You do not need a folder for every type of email. That is what the search function is for. Having too many folders can be confusing and time-consuming (i.e., which folder should I put this e-mail in?).
• Delete it if it does not have a place in your life in the future.

2. Delegate/Filter

• If it is something you are not responsible for, pass it on to someone else.
• It might need a follow-up, so make sure to schedule a time to follow up.
• Filter the email (e.g., to social/promotions in gmail) when it is a listserve email. The more you do this, the easier it is to handle your inbox (remember it is NOT a badge of honor to have a lot of emails. The better you get at filtering, the better you will be at doing and responding).

3. Respond

• Can you respond in less than two minutes? Then do it!
• Learn to bust out a short response. Then archive the message.

4. Put on your TODO list/calendar

• You need more info before you can respond or act on the email. Or it is a task to put on your TODO list. In these cases, let the person know a date you will get back to them.
• This is why it is very important to have a strong and consistent TODO list system. Some emails you cannot deal with at the moment, so you need to be able to assign yourself a task to get it done.

5. Do the task/action

• If it is quick, do the task/action right then.
• Do not check your email unless you are prepared to process to zero. Why? Because you will be back to “checking” instead of processing. Start from the bottom and go up, so you do not end up with a few emails at the bottom that never get dealt with.

Tips to using Inbox Zero 

• Automate as much as possible (e.g., Filter listservs, petitions, Facebook notifications, etc into folders that you check less often).
• Do your email in dashes.
• Do not leave your email open all day long. After you have “processed” your email, close it.

To-Do Lists

Having no consistent list (and making different ones each day) can be stressful because you are never sure if you have forgotten things. Having one big list can also be stressful because you never want to start it, as it is so long.

Whatever system you use, your TO-DO list system you use, it needs to have the following elements:

1. One consistent way of tracking TO-DO items 

Do not use email as a reminder for what you need to get done, or avoid using a mix of paper and digital tools. Good examples: Your calendar, a google doc, a journal specifically designed for keeping track of TO-DO items, etc.

Throughout your day you will think of tasks or get assigned tasks, you can write them in one place, but make sure they all get added to your main tracking system (e.g., taking notes in your phone on what you need to accomplish throughout the day and then scheduling blocks of time to complete all those tasks at a later point).

2. Deadlines/Dates to accomplish the TO-DO item. 

Make sure for every TO-DO item you know when it needs to get completed and hold yourself accountable for getting it done.

Calendars

• Consider putting all TO-DOs on your calendar (instead of having a TO-DO list). That way everything gets scheduled right away.
• Setup recurring calendar reminders to do recurring tasks (e.g., reach out to schedule one-on-ones on Mondays 3:30 pm to 4 pm, follow-up with unresponsive folks on Wednesdays 3:30 pm to 4 pm, etc.).
• Block out time to do your work (e.g., Tuesday 10 am to Noon work on fundraising, Thursday 1 pm to 3 pm plan out training, making an agenda, etc.). Treat this time as if it was a meeting, not something you can just skip or move.