Day 74 — Productivity series 1/7: “Manage What, When, & How”
Productivity is probably one of the most commonly discussed topics in the digital age; given the pace of our lives is going getting faster, and the productivity tips in general can be applied to most of us. However, is there a systematic way to think of productivity, instead of reading upon tips and forget right away? In this new Productivity series, I’m going to break down the Productivity Management in the following structure:
- General Guidance: Manage What, When, & How (this article)
- Planning: Manage Goal (May 14)
- Planning: Manage Priority (May 15)
- Doing: Manage Time (May 16)
- Doing: Manage Distraction (May 17)
- Checking: Manage Energy (May 18)
- Checking: Manage Progress (May 19)
As a series kick-off, in today’s article, let’s review what we’re actually managing and what we need to manage to enhance productivity.
The What
Definition
Most of the article about productivity share tips and tricks about managing the pipeline — the list of work that needs your attention. Indeed, granted that the original definition started in economic field, which is “the amount of output created produced per unit input used.” However, these days when people talk about productivity is more about time management, it’s “the process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities.”
That being said, the potential improvement area is not only about “planning for specific activities”, but also “conscious control” and “time spent”. Therefore, it’s a combination of managing time, the activities, and ourselves. When it comes to managing ourselves, our physical and emotional states are the key factors that impact both our work performance, and our ability of decision making. Therefore in order to enhance productivity, we first need to understand if we’re in the right state, and how to manage productivity when we’re not.
The When
Bad Routine
Many people start to manage productivity when they when we see the red flag, and at that point is a bit too late to save the situation. How so? Because the cause of low productivity is either lack of upfront prioritization, low physical or mental energy, or limited time; and when see the red flag, that means our resource is dire and there’s not much we can do unless we have a time machine.
In that situation, more often than not, we’’ll just have to wait till the next day and see if we learned the lesson from the day before, and plan our day better. That being said, the key to high productivity largely relies on upfront planning, so that we don’t fall into the same trap again.
Another key timing to maintain high productivity is setting up check point to monitor productivity. Whether it’s two or three times a day, every two days, these important check points help us see how things goes and how well our body and mind perform, so that we can adjust the plan quickly.
The How
Planning
There are many ways to improve our productivity, but as mentioned before, the most important factor is planning. Here’s some simple pointers in planning:
- Prioritization: Start from prioritizing important tasks so that we can save our energy for them. Understand what we really want to or have to achieve during the day/ week, and plan accordingly.
- Dependencies: Is there anything we’ll have to wait for others before we can kick start? Is there any uncontrollable factor (e.g. meetings with senior managers that cannot be rescheduled?)
- Energy Consumption: How much effort will these tasks will require, physically and mentally? How many tasks can we take on each day?
These are important factors that affect the success of our plan. The more we know, the better we can plan for our day.
Monitoring
Once we have a plan setup, the next step will be monitoring how things go and how we perform. Below are some important factors:
- Overflow: Is there any tasks larger/ harder than we planned for? Do we either continue on them, or do we pick it up later?
- Energy Level: How well are our body and mind doing? Do we need to take a break, switch our mood, or are we “in-the-zone” and can hash out more stuff?
- The Unexpected: Is there any new things come up that we haven’t planned for? (for example, your boss/ subordinate requires your immediate attention for something important)
Learning
Through the monitoring and adjustment process, there’s a hidden but important value of it: learning about ourselves. What’s our habit when there’s a huge pile of work? Do we always soldier-on and get really exhausted? Or do we get overwhelmed and lose track of other things?
Having a diary everyday, and review it in mid day and end of day, helps us learn about ourselves in those situations, and we can start changing/ optimizing how we handle work better.
Conclusion
- Except for managing the tasks we want to tackle, it’s also important to manage our energy level and the velocity of implementation to boost productivity;
- Upfront planning is the key factor of good productivity; prioritize important tasks, understand if there’s dependencies, and how draining each task is;
- Throughout the day, carefully monitor both the progress and your energy level to adjust the plan, so that you don’t get burnout easily.
What are some methods you use for scope management?I’m eager to learn from you.
ABC. Always be clappin’.
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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not represent current or previous client or employer views.
