1308, 2013

The best 'yes' is saying 'no'

By |August 13th, 2013|Efficiency|0 Comments

A Hungarian psychology professor once wrote to famous creators asking them to be interviewed for a book he was writing. One of the most interesting things about his project was how many people said “no.” Of the 275 creative people that he contacted, a third of them said “no.” Their reason was lack of time. Another third said nothing. We can assume their reason for not even saying “no” was also lack of time and possibly lack of a secretary or simple organisation. Here’s a few of their responses …

Secretary to novelist Saul Bellow: “Mr. Bellow informed me that he remains creative in the second half of life, at least in part, because he does not allow himself to be a part of other people’s ‘studies.’”

Secretary to composer György Ligeti: “He is creative and, because of this, totally overworked. Therefore, the very reason you wish to study his creative process is also the reason why he (unfortunately) does not have time to help you in this study. He would also like to add that he cannot answer your letter personally because he is trying desperately to finish a Violin Concerto which will be premiered in the Fall…”

And that’s the lesson I’ve learnt over the years. You can be busy but not productive. They’re entirely different things. In fact, I think many people in companies appear busy but are not the least bit efficient or productive. I’ve written a number of posts about how to become more productive in the past.

But I believe this particular learning is one of THE most important and if you get hold of it it is powerful and can become a cornerstone to you having a productive future. Learning to say ‘no’ will save you so much time. Learning to say ‘no’ crystallises your priorities. Learning to say ‘no’ helps you focus on those things that either you WANT to do, or that you NEED to do. Learning to say ‘no’ is the basis for the economic principle of comparative advantage – the same principle we see in action today when people outsource. Learning to say ‘no’ guards your time and so is immensely powerful for all the things you say ‘yes’ to.

Management writer Peter Drucker wrote: “One of the secrets of productivity is to have a VERY BIG waste paper basket to take care of ALL invitations such as yours – productivity in my experience consists of NOT doing anything that helps the work of other people but to spend all one’s time on the work the Good Lord has fitted one to do, and to do well.”

Or perhaps Charles Dickens, when rejecting an invitation from a friend, embodies what I’m saying. “‘It is only half an hour’–’It is only an afternoon’–’It is only an evening,’ people say to me over and over again; but they don’t know that it is impossible to command one’s self sometimes to any stipulated and set disposal of five minutes–or that the mere consciousness of an engagement will sometime worry a whole day… Whoever is devoted to an art must be content to deliver himself wholly up to it, and to find his recompense in it. I am grieved if you suspect me of not wanting to see you, but I can’t help it; I must go in my way whether or no.”

Now obviously this sounds pretty rude doesn’t it. And in fact we have been taught that saying no is rude. It is a rebuff, a rebuttal, a passive form of resistance. But if you want to be productive you need to learn to say no. And in any case – saying no doesn’t have to be done in a rude way. You can say no politely. Here’s an example – “Thankyou you so much for approaching me / considering me / thinking of me. As much as I’d love to be involved / participate / help, unfortunately I wont be able to with the commitments currently on my plate. But all the best. I hope you / it are a a big success.”

Remember, time is precious and how you spend it is important. Time is the raw material of creativity. It is the currency of practice makes perfect, of thinking and finding solutions to problems, of relaxing and having fun, of trial and error, of researching, or getting in and just finishing things. Once it is gone you can never get it back.

Productive people know this. They know how to say ‘no’ and they understand the consequences. They know that saying ‘no’ is effectively saying ‘yes’ to other things that they need or want to do.

My Challenge
Learn to say ‘no’ – it is more powerful than you realise. 

 

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406, 2013

Pareto+ – my best productivity tips

By |June 4th, 2013|Efficiency|1 Comment

You might remember a past post of mine where I gave 5 tips on time management, efficiency and productivity. I like writing about these things because personally I love learning things that will then help me to become more efficient and productive. I mean why would I want something to take me longer than it could? Or why would I do something one way if there is a better way to do it? I’m not into change for change’s sake and I’m no techno geek, but once I’m onto something, if it can work for me in my everyday life and make me more efficient and productive then I’ll happily embrace it. In fact – bring it on!
So here’s some of the best tips I know or have come across to help you be more efficient and productive. Enjoy !


Tip 1 – Don’t mistake being busy with being productive. They’re two different things

I’ve fallen into this trap recently I think. Sometimes doing less and doing it in a more focussed and successful way can make you achieve more and be more productive.  A couple of ways I’ve heard of people putting this into action are:

  • Method 1 – “In days” and “out days” – on the in days you hunker down, do not leave the office or house and work hard. On the out days you do all your errands, meetings and other activities.
  • Method 2 – “Time chunking” – setting aside chunks of time for completing specific tasks to get everything done. For example you could set aside different days or different times of the day for specific types of activities
  • Method 3 – “Pomodoro technique” – Developed in the 90s by an Italian efficiency enthusiast, it’s stupidly simple and aimed at instilling focus and a sense of urgency. Basically you pick a task and take one of those kitschly 90s red tomato kitchen timers and set it to 25 minutes. Next, you churn through your task, ignoring distractions, not stopping to make tea or stare at the ceiling. You then rest for 5 minutes and repeat the cycle three more times, after which you rest for a good half hour and grab lunch or read emails. The aim is to work to these 30-minute cycles daily, building up the self-discipline muscle. (I’ve also come across this same method but applied per hour. That is – work hard for 50 minutes and then have 10 minutes off and repeat).
  • Method 4 – “Eat That Frog technique” – This is based on Brian Tracy’s book and the concept is to sit down and write a master list of everything you need to get done, from the pressingly urgent to the one-day-I’ll-get-around-to-it stuff. (This includes everything from work-related tasks to personal errands). Then you prioritise with a letter beside each item. A items are extremely urgent, B items are things that need to be done but not urgent, C items are things that would be nice to do but are not imperative, and D items you delegate to someone else. Once you have this list, start writing daily lists based off this master list. The idea is that you ALWAYS do your A tasks first, and never do a C item before an A item is completed. So being clear on what needs to be done is key but then just executing it the other half. “An average plan vigorously executed is far better than a brilliant plan on which nothing is done.”
  • Method 5 – “How do you eat an elephant technique” – What is it with the animal examples? Anyway, to do any task, you must chunk it down into segments. So if you are procrastinating, just chunk it down to a small amount of time – say half the time you need. An hour becomes 30 minutes. 15 minutes becomes 7. Anything to begin! This makes hard tasks more digestible. And once something is started, you have more motivation to finish it so it is less likely that you will procrastinate further.


Tip 2 – Never, ever check your email first thing in the morning

Again, I can’t say I’m good at this and I have felt recently that my email has been ruling me rather than the other way around. But when I have employed this it has been very good. Basically the night before I have written a to-do list for the next day and then when I come in I get straight into doing that one main thing that I know needs to be done that day. I do this when I’m freshest and the office is quietest. And before I can procrastinate or before email inevitably derails my day and sends me down a path of being busy but not necessarily productive. So I just get into this main task first up – without opening my email. Then when I’m finished that task, I have this great sense of completion and at that point I check my email and get with all the other things that I need to do.


Tip 3 – Use Hootsuite for all social media.

It’s the only (to my knowledge) free desktop that allows me to post to all (or a few) social media outlets at once. Again, I have a “hootlet” widget in my bookmarks and can share a link everywhere in an instant.


Tip 4 – Use Evernote.

Evernote lets you capture anything – ideas, images, links, photos. And you can get access to it anywhere as it syncs between Evernote works with nearly every computer, phone and mobile device out there. So it is a smart and easy way of keeping everything in one place. Plus you can find things fast because you can search by a keyword or tag (even within handwritten text in an image or within a pdf).

So if you are on the ferry and think of something or see something you like – save it in Evernote and then you can get it anytime – even when you’re not in front of your computer or if you’re overseas travelling and only have your phone. (Apparently they are also releasing a Moleskine that will scan your handwriting directly into Evernote … nice !)


Tip 5 – Use the keychain access function or use Lastpass

Keychain Access is a Mac function. It’s a secure spot where you can put all your passwords on one spot for easy access. I use Lastpass for the same purpose. It is secure and can be accessed from anywhere from any device. You could use it for more than just your passwords – really anything you want – be that passwords or personal information. Don’t forget this password though !


Tip 6 – You don’t have to reply to every email

I reckon about 50% of emails are wastes of time. You know the ones I mean. Everyone is cc’d on them and they go round and round and fill up your inbox. Or the ones that are just stupid and could be better solved by picking up the phone. Every email you write, some study has found, creates an extra three. And the thing is, with everyone writing so many emails without much thought on productivity / necessity, the sender rarely remembers writing it or whether you haven’t replied. So feel free to delete some email (you can always search in trash if necessary) and feel free to not return every email. I figure I can always do a search in my trashed items if I have to find something again.

I really enjoyed Sarah Wilson’s blog post on e-tox on this topic. Have a read.


Tip 7 – Use tools like ‘Siri’ or Oh Don’t Forget or ‘Notes’ to remember things

In my case I tend to use Notes on my iphone and when I think of things on the fly, type them into there and then it automatically syncs to my computer (it shows up in my email inbox). Others use Siri on their iPhone5 (I’m a bit behind the times here I’m afraid) for writing long texts or remembering things . Or you could use a tool like Oh Don’t Forget which sends free text reminders to yourself and others.


Tip 8 – Use Dropbox.

Like Evernore dropbox syncs across all your devices so you can save your photos, files, videos, music to dropbox and access it anywhere. It also acts as a cloud back-up. And then it allows you to share your files easily – so no need to ever email a file to yourself again! Here’s a list of some other things you could do in dropbox.


Tip 9 – Less meetings.

I think people forget that in most cases, meetings aren’t work. In my experience they are excuses for inaction and lack of executive decision making. After all, talking about doing something is different to actually doing it. A day of minimal meetings will see your productivity shoot up. Ask yourself – could a conversation, email or other form of communication be done instead of a meeting? Meetings should be used for 1) communicating an executive decision (one-way information dissemination)  or 2) truly discussing an idea and brainstorming, truly eliciting suggestions from teams and coming up with a solution to a problem (two-way information sharing). However I think you’ll agree with me that many meetings we hold or attend fall into that middle ground in which case they aren’t actually productive. Can this be solved with a simple conversation or simple email? Can you send an SMS to arrange a mobile phone hook-up at a time outside of the core part of the day?

After all of that, if you still need to hold a meeting then the challenge is to make them effective. (In this vain, consider things like – the length of time of a meeting, setting the objectives/agenda for the meeting, having the right people invited, starting on time, sticking to the agenda, assigning action items, ending when you need to not when Outlook says you should).

I could write a lot on this. But another two good posts to read and challenge you on this topic are by Tim Ferriss – here and here.


Tip 10 – Use email folders.

Perhaps this is pretty obvious, but it is surprising how many people don’t use them. Using email folders mean  you can quickly and easily find whatever you’re looking for.


Tip 11 – Get organised. Lists are good.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. I am old school when it comes to much of my diary.


It isn’t that I don’t use an electronic diary or that I don’t share an online diary. I do. But on the whole I use an old school diary. For me it works. Of course, this is fraught with the danger of losing it, but it works for me because it forces me to continue to write lists (see how I have a list for the week cut into various categories and sub-tasks) and then each day has its to-do list. I like being able to print things out that might relate to that week (eg an invitation) and keep it in the diary for that week.

I’m showing you this because arguably the important thing is not which method you use but that you do it. Find what works for you. But regardless do it. Lists. Tasks. Being organised.


Tip 12 – Your environment helps – choose the right environment

Work in a place that you associate with work, such as an office building or library.  Don’t try to work on something that requires sustained attention in the place where you play and relax, such as your bedroom or family room.  Your surroundings set the stage for your focus – if they are associated with work, you will focus on work. And the same goes for play of course – and we can never have enough of that!


Tip 13 – Healthy body, healthy mind – take breaks. 

I actually find this hard. Ask my partner or work colleagues. BUt taking a break will timulate your productivity. Sitting at a desk for hours is not the best way to be the most productive. So get up, grab a coffee, water a plant, go for a run … it will improve your concentration and focus and your productivity will soar. Try it.


Tip 14 – Use Instapaper for long readsI

This is new to me and I’m going to implement it. It is a great program / tool that allows you to save web pages for reading later. Basically Instapaper gives you a Read Later bookmark and when you find something you want to read, but you don’t have time, you click Read Later. It then saves the links you want to read later or use another time. So then when you have time, you go back there, go through your stored links and read them or file them into categories. (For example, read a bunch when travelling by downloading them to read on the plane. Or read a few on the bus / train / ferry on the way home). Read Sarah Wilson’s blog on it here.

Tip 15 – Use Jing for screencasting

This is free, open source screen capture software that lets you record and share images, video and what you see on your screen. So, you can select any window or region on your screen and then share it in various ways. Or you can select any window or region on your computer that you would like to record and Jing will capture everything that happens in that area. It is good for doing webinars or recording instructions for your virtual assistant or others.

 

Challenge
Which of these tips can you implement to become more productive? 

 

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2405, 2011

Productivity – Parkinson & Pareto weigh in with some tips !

By |May 24th, 2011|Efficiency|0 Comments

Here are 5 quick and easy tips to help you with your time management / efficiency and productivity. Enjoy … and implement ! …

1. Low Information Diet
2. Law of Perceived Importance
3. Saying No
4. 10 minutes of Power
5. Pareto’s Rule – 80/20 Rule

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1. Low Information Diet
We live in a world full of information and the temptation exists to digest as much information as possible. Information is time consuming and most the information you consumer is either negative or irrelevant to your goals. (Think newspaper, TV, Magazines, Social Blogs.) Additionally, we’re finding it easy to get engaged with activities that feel like work, but aren’t. (Facebook or social networking is a good example vs actually doing productive work). One reason for this confusion is that we’re often using precisely the same device to do our work as we are to distract ourselves from our work.

Action => Time management is really about making better use of your time. Living on a low-information diet is one way to do this. For the next week try this:

  • No reading emails before 10:00am. You may quickly scan for urgent emails if required by your role. Use this time instead to achieve one of your most important goals for the day. Focus on the main to-do action first and then get to your emails before getting bogged down by them.
  • Try a two-device approach. Only use your computer for work. Real work. The work of making something. Have a second device, perhaps an iPad, and use it for games, web commenting, online shopping, networking… anything that doesn’t directly create valued output … draw a line, any line, and separate the two of them. (If you don’t like the results from that line, draw a new line). Now, when you pick up the iPad, you can say to yourself, “break time.” And if you find yourself taking a lot of that break time, you’ve just learned something important.
  • Limit your web surfing and avoid newspapers, magazines , blogs that suck your time
  • Limit your television viewing to one hour of relaxation viewing only
  • Before you digest any information, ask yourself – Will this information help me achieve one of my immediate and important goals?

2. Parkinson’s Law of Perceived Importance => Forced deadlines

If I gave you 24hrs to produce a report on the the impact of sleep on the ability to hop on one leg, the time constraints would force you to focus and take action. If I gave you a week, you would spend five days considering options and two days preparing the report. If I gave you a month it would sit on the ‘back-burner’ for two weeks, then you would call a meeting to discuss, send a series of back and forth emails and create the final report in the last two days, am I right? Parkinson’s Law states that “a tasks perceived importance and complexity will increase in relation to the time allotted for its completion.” In other words, the longer you allow for a task to be completed, the more complex and important that task is perceived.

Action => Shorten time frames to reduce the perception of complexity of tasks. Set yourself forced deadlines to get things done.

3. The Power of Saying No

Even more powerful than setting short time frames, is just saying no. It works like this:
Do you think you could put together a report on the impact of room temperature on staff productivity?”
Reply: “No.”
If you’re a bit of a ‘softy’, you could replace the ‘no’ with, ‘I would be happy to help you, but I need you to show me how this will help us achieve our goal of (Insert important agreed upon business goal for which this task is not).

Action => be really ruthless on keeping the main thing the main thing. Do this by saying no more or by ruthless expectations management around talks.

4. 10 minutes of Power

Abraham Lincoln famously said “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” To be efficient and prooductive you need to prepare and plan. Decide what actions you will achieve tomorrow to move you closer to your 90 day goals.

Action => spend 10 minutes before you go to bed or 10 minutes first thing in the morning setting your goals and actions and continue to refer to them during the day.

5. Pareto’s Rule – 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 rule states that 80% of outputs are the result of 20% of inputs. For example, 80% of profit is the result of 20% of customers. This also means that the remaining 20% of outputs are the result of your other 80% of inputs. (i.e. the other 20% of profits is made up by 80% of customers). Or alternatively 20% of customers cause you 80% of your work and hassle. To take back your time you must identify the 20% of inputs that create the 80% of outputs. For example, cold calling 20 clients per day for two hours per day produces one new client per week, whereas one phone call to a local business partner asking to meet and discuss a joint venture takes two hours in total and leads to 10 new clients.

Action => Use pareto’s rule to critique your time management and efficiency. 80% of the results you have achieved this year are the result of 20% of your actions. Identify what’s creating the most output and scrap the rest.

Don’t worry – this is a challenge for me to. Good luck. I’ll be interested to hear your feedback.

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1101, 2011

New Years resolutions – The Not-to-do list

By |January 11th, 2011|Efficiency|0 Comments

In recognition of the new year I thought I would share some thoughts on 9 habits to stop. The ‘not-to-do’ list. After all, ‘not-to-do’ lists are often more effective than to-do lists for upgrading performance. Why ? : because what you don’t do determines what you can do.

I certainly can’t lay claim to all of these and nor can I honestly say I have implemented all of these in my own life. But, nevertheless they are great food for thought and a work in progress. So be challenged … 9 stressful and common habits that we should strive to eliminate from our work life.

1. Do not answer calls from unrecognized phone numbers
Feel free to surprise others, but don’t be surprised. It just results in unwanted interruption and poor negotiating position. Let it go to voicemail, and consider using a service where you can receive voicemails as e-mail.

2. Do not e-mail first thing in the morning or last thing at night
The former scrambles your priorities and plans for the day, and the latter just gives you insomnia. E-mail can wait until 10am, after you’ve completed at least one of your critical to-do items…

3. Do not agree to meetings or calls with no clear agenda or end time
If the desired outcome is defined clearly with a stated objective and agenda listing topics/questions to cover, no meeting or call should last more than 30 minutes. Request them in advance so you “can best prepare and make good use of the time together.”

4. Do not let people ramble
Here I am distinguishing between being cordial and friendly and relationship building to rambling. The point though is, consider how much time is taken up in conversations and meetings with needless, unproductive ramble. Try “what’s up?” or “I’m in the middle of getting something out, but what’s going on?” when people call instead of “how are you?” if you want to help people to get to the point.

5. Do not check e-mail constantly — “batch” and check at set times only
Focus on execution of your top to-do’s instead of responding to manufactured emergencies. Tim Ferriss’s book The 4-hour workweek is gold for going into this in more detail.

6. Do not over-communicate with low-profit, high-maintenance customers
There is no sure path to success, but the surest path to failure is trying to please everyone. Do an 80/20 analysis of your customer base in two ways–which 20% are producing 80%+ of my profit, and which 20% are consuming 80%+ of my time? Then put the loudest and least productive on autopilot by citing a change in company policies. Send them an e-mail with new rules as bullet points: number of permissible phone calls, e-mail response time, minimum orders, etc. Offer to point them to another provider if they can’t conform to the new policies.

7. Do not work more to fix overwhelm — prioritize
If you don’t prioritize, everything seems urgent and important. If you define the single most important task for each day, almost nothing seems urgent or important. Oftentimes, it’s just a matter of letting little bad things happen (return a phone call late and apologize, pay a small late fee, lose an unreasonable customer, etc.) to get the big important things done. The answer to overwhelm is not spinning more plates — or doing more — it’s defining the few things that can really fundamentally change your business and life.

8. Do not carry a cellphone or Crackberry 24/7
Take at least one day off from your cellphone or crackberry. Turn them off or, better still, leave them in the garage or in the car. Leave the phone at home if you go out for dinner. So what if you return a phone call an hour later or the next morning? As one reader put it to a miffed co-worker who worked 24/7 and expected the same: “I’m not the president of the US. No one should need me at 8pm at night. OK, you didn’t get a hold of me. But what bad happened?”The answer? Nothing.

9. Do not expect work to fill a void that non-work relationships and activities should
Work is not all of life. Schedule life and defend it just as you would an important business meeting. Never tell yourself “I’ll just get it done this weekend.” Get efficient, focus and be productive in set hours. Get the critical things done, and get out. E-mailing all weekend is no way to spend the little time you have on this planet.
It’s hip to focus on getting things done, but it’s only possible once we remove the constant static and distraction. If you have trouble deciding what to do, just focus on not doing. Different means, same end.

What other no-no’s would you add to the list? I’d be interested to know.

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