Bookmark This! The Productivity Edition
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Years ago, I worked for an organization that measured productivity by location. Every month, a productivity report was distributed with each location listed in order of how productive they were.
There was a line on the productivity report to indicate what was considered acceptable. The executive who championed this effort was so fanatical passionate about it that the line was named after them. Let’s say their name was Smith. When the report came out, the executive team at our location would immediately look to see if we were above or below the “Smith line” because there were consequences if you were on the lower end of the list. True story!
I wanted to share this story because productivity is important. Organizations want to be productive. They want their employees to be productive. We recently did a series of articles on productivity inspired by a post I saw from the Facebook account BooksForAspirants. Here’s a roundup of those articles for easy reading.
Stay Focused Using the Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The idea behind the technique is to use a timer (typically 25 minutes) to break work into intervals. Fun factoid: each interval is known as a pomodoro, from the Italian word for tomato, after the tomato shaped kitchen timer Cirillo used as a student (also true story!). I can see the Pomodoro Technique being very useful when you need to focus on a specific task. Especially an intense one.
The 3/3/3 Method Keeps You on Schedule
The 3/3/3 Method could be helpful when you’re trying to work on multiple tasks. Here’s how to use it: 1) Spend 3 hours on your most important task. 2) Complete 3 shorter tasks that are important but maybe you’ve been avoiding. 3) End with 3 maintenance tasks. These are things that need to be regularly done.
I can see the advantage of the 3/3/3 Method being that it creates structure to your workday. In the morning, spend 3 hours working on your most important task. Then in the afternoon, do the shorter tasks and the maintenance tasks. Another big advantage of this method is that it keeps us from falling behind on maintenance tasks.
The Eisenhower Matrix Can Help Prioritize Tasks
The Eisenhower Matrix is named after Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States. The matrix has two axes: urgent/important and four quadrants: do, plan, delegate, and delete. This is where it becomes helpful to remember what urgent and important mean. Urgent means requiring immediate action or attention. Important means of great significance or value. The matrix assigns an action based on whether a task is urgent and/or important.
You might have heard this quote from Mark Twain before, “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” The “frog” in this quote isn’t an amphibian. It represents a hard task. So, if you have a hard task to do, it’s best to work on it first thing in the morning. And if you have two hard tasks, do the biggest one first.
Break Big Tasks into Small Parts
Years ago, comedian Jerry Seinfeld shared a strategy for getting better at something, which has since been named “The Seinfeld Strategy”. The strategy is simple: do it every day. For example, if you want to be a better writer, then write every day. Whether you feel like it or not. It doesn’t have to be good. You don’t need to show anyone. Just write.
Seinfeld went on to say that he keeps a big calendar in his office and when he completes the task, he marks it off with a big “X” on his calendar. There’s something very satisfying (and motivating) about seeing all of those completed “X” marks.
Time Blocking Helps with Schedule Management
Time blocking is pretty straightforward, identify the things that need to get done and put them on your calendar. I like to think of it as making an appointment with myself to get something done. You can time block on a digital calendar or a paper planner. Doesn’t matter. The important thing is that you’ve identified something that needs to be done, and you’ve blocked off the time to do it.
The goal of today’s Bookmark This! article isn’t to suggest selecting one method and use it exclusively. It’s to understand that there are many different strategies for being productive. Find the ones that work for you. It’s very possible that the best method will be based on the type of work you’re doing at the time.
Productivity is going to continue to be important. That’s not going to change.
Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of Washington, DC