How to be More Productive: Part I – Work & Efficiency

1. Make a reasonable to-do list...

…and don’t overwhelm yourself. To-do lists often fail because we make them way too
complex or the tasks are unequal. Some tasks will take a long time, others won’t take any time
at all. This creates an unbalance in the way we distribute our time. What happens then is that
our to-do list then becomes a procrastination tool. Yes, that’s right. Because then we do the
easy stuff, and then become really distracted on the hard stuff.
Don’t lie, you’ve done that before. So then you need to manage your to-do list better.
2. Set small goals for the tasks.
With every new project or assignment, the scope may seem too large. But once you start
breaking it down and realizing what can be accomplished, you’ll notice how each part builds
upon the other.
One of the easiest and most practical things you can do is to break down your project into
smaller goals.
What are the pieces and assets needed?
Who do you need to talk to first?
Break up key pieces of information before setting timelines, and then estimate how long they’ll
take you to accomplish.
Understanding the scope of what’s being asked, putting the steps in place, and then estimating
the time needed will help you get a grasp of what’s being asked. Sometimes what seems like a
big project won’t take much time at all, or vice versa.
3. Focus on one goal at a time.
We just talked about how you should get in the habit of setting small goals for tasks. Now we
move on to focusing on one at a time. Hopefully outlining your project ahead of time in the
section before lets you know which tasks are most important, but how does your organization
determine what’s important? Ultimately its for your team to decide, but you can track OKRs,
KPIs, and other metrics to indicate productivity.
Whatever your company’s priority is, it’s your job to execute. Try the 90-90-1 rule. It also works
if you’re managing a team.
Here’s what you do: Commit the first 90 minutes of your day for 90 days to the most important
task. Suggested by HR guru, Robin Sharma, it will focus your priorities before the day even
really gets going.
It’s also very practical. It’s not spending all of your time every day on one single thing.
You can also set up projects to focus on this one goal and to make sure that it aligns with your
overall company goals.
4. Stop multi-tasking.
While we’re on the topic of focusing on one task or goal at a time, let’s talk about multitasking.
Its easy to get distracted and try to work on multiple tasks, but the reality is, it makes you LESS
productive.
The constant task switching is making us more tired and reducing productivity. It’s taking up
brain energy to switch and change that often. We aren’t being more productive, we’re
skimming over the surface of things. The modern workplace environment won’t support you in
your quest to be more focused–it’s virtually an impossible task when Slack, Skype and
Salesforce are jockeying for our attention.
Here’s a quote from a more credentialed person than me. A neuroscience behavior professor
Daniel Levitin at McGill says:
“That switching comes with a biological cost that ends up making us feel tired much more
quickly than if we sustain attention on one thing.” And you know what else? Caffeine won’t
necessarily help us. In fact, we probably just need to take a break for awhile instead…People
eat more, they take more caffeine. Often what you really need in that moment isn’t caffeine,
but just a break. If you aren’t taking regular breaks every couple of hours, your brain won’t
benefit from that extra cup of coffee.”
Ouch. Don’t tell my favorite barista.
To really stop multi-tasking, you may need apps to block you from clicking over. This will keep
the distractions at bay, especially for us constant consumers.
5. Find a method for delegating and following-up.
It’s one thing to give your team tasks and projects; it’s another thing to make sure they finish
the work and get it done. Then passing it off for approvals is another piece of the pie that you
have to tackle.
Finding a reliable method for tracking your team’s projects will make your work more
efficient. Collaboration tools and project management software like Workzone can definitely
help with this, but you also have to commit to using tools like this so you don’t let down your
fellow co-workers. But your individual part is important in this, too. The more you update and
follow-up with next steps, it’ll help your co-workers stay on track, too.
6. Create a proactive dashboard.
This idea is from Noah Kagan, the founder of AppSumo. Essentially, this is a measurable task
list. If you’re noticing that a certain task is having a big effect on our business or is a necessary
task that you need to keep doing, then list out the number of times that you need to do that
task each week. The goal here is to record inputs, not just outcomes.
This is especially useful for marketers. If you know you need to tweet or write a certain number
of LinkedIn posts, then you can list these out and make sure you do that number for the week.
Here’s an example of my proactive dashboard:

Watch this video from Noah Kagan to grab your own proactive dashboard template.
Another way to use a proactive dashboard is using your team’s project management
software during team meetings to track progress on projects.
7. Pick one task and then do it.
This is very difficult because sometimes our projects aren’t a 30-minute or one hour job. It may
take 8 hours or multiple days. What’s the answer then? Break it up into one task and then do
that one task to its completion. But how long should that be? And what’s reasonable? I think
most of our days are broken into hour segments. Which then is really 45 to 50 minutes. We
have meetings that start on the hour or we take a lunch hour or we schedule a call for an hour.
Working consistently for 45 minutes on one thing makes sense, but is very difficult.
The Pomodoro technique suggests 25 minute blocks of time, with short 5 minute breaks,
followed by longer breaks later on.
Pomodoro helps you eliminate interruptions and helps you estimate how long a certain task will
take you. Read more about the Pomodoro technique in this article.