Productivity Strategy - Reflection

Introduction

This post is a follow up to the New Productivity Strategy post I wrote a few months back. I gave this new strategy a go for awhile and, here are my thoughts.

Problem and Solution

To catch you up…

I found myself in a new role with an overwhelming amount of work to tackle, mainly email. Rather than simply “focus” on the things to do, I was allowing myself to get sucked in to a routine of just accepting ‘interruption tasks’ from email, instant message, etc.

So many in fact, I could go days without getting any of my actual tasks done.

My new productivity framework looked something like this:

• My 50+ item task list will get prioritized with today’s: “must do” top 5
• Those 5 items are my “only do” list (for the moment)
• New emails fall on the “never do” list, so I won’t check email until my “must do” items are done
• After those first ones done, I’ll check email again for anything critical, triage and re-prioritize the task list
• Take a break
• Repeat

Reflection

Looking back - this new approach has been reinforcing several valuable lessons in prioritization:

• We can only prioritize a few things at the same time - realistically, we can only work on ONE thing at a time. Proper goal setting for the day is critical.

• It’s important to specifically call out things that are consistently distractions - email and IM are #1 for me. Email is actually de-prioritized on my list and I no longer log into IM tool or make myself Active by default.

• Some things you just can’t put on the Never Do List. While I can’t remove email completely, I can designate specific times to do it…and do it fast. Internal email usually doesn’t warrant the same priority as something sent from a client.

• Most of the time quantity is better than quality, when it comes to responses.

• The biggest let down is not completing ANY task.

• Delegation is important, but it has overhead on the follow through. If you are consistently delegating a task, it might be valuable to remove yourself from the middle.

• I’ve played with the Pomodoro Technique over the years, but it has recently come in very handy to carve out time for forced breaks OR time to catch up on email.

• Overall, any approach takes a discipline in saying “no”. Historically, that’s been a weakness of mine.

• The biggest challenge in all of this is the feeling of dropping other tasks, letting others down or not appearing as useful as others. That’s simply a personal thing to work on.

Summary

As far as work/outcomes, the change is absolutely making a difference.

As expected, it’s a bit disruptive to others that are used to a quick turn around. But, I think they’ll get over it.

Proper expectation setting goes a long way.

The bigger lesson in all of this is being aware of the need for change and continually experimenting/growing to meet changing situations.