On Productivity and Professional Development
This is adapted from a talk I gave a few years ago, but I still find it useful to this day, so I’ve decided to put it to “paper” publicly.
When looking to be productive at your job and grow your career, it can be helpful to have a framework for doing so. I’ve done quite a bit of thinking and experimenting here. This is what I’ve found to be effective.
Strategy
Some high-level guiding principles for figuring out what to do, how to do it, and how to make time for it.
Know Thy Role
The cornerstone of professional advancement begins with a clear understanding of your responsibilities. First, know what is required of you on-paper. Then know what is required of you according to your leaders. They’re not necessarily the same thing — and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this mismatch being a significant source of frustration.
I’ve seen too many people do more than they need or work on tasks that aren’t necessary, or spend too much time on tasks that aren’t valued. I’ve been there. It’s not pleasant.
Know Thy Self
Self-reflection is is critical. Get to know yourself and apply that knowledge to how you approach your work. Ask yourself:
- When do I do my best work?
- What environment do I need to do my best work?
- What parts of my job am I great at? What parts do I stink at?
For example: I need systems to do my best work; structure that allows me to stay focused on the outcomes I’m trying to achieve. So I create them for myself. It might seem silly to you, to create a workflow chart for a common task I have to perform, but it allows me get really fast at it, minimize mistakes, and eventually automate the whole thing away.
Guard Your Time
You might be surprised to know that I think meetings are very important. There’s just many that I’m invited to that I don’t need to be in.
Time, undeniably, is your most valuable asset. But beyond just reducing the meetings you’re in, it’s valuable to reduce the dependence of others on your time as much as possible as well. Here’s some practices I’ve used to minimize the time spent in meetings and also reducing the amount of my time that others need.
- Ask what is needed from you in a meeting. Often people schedule meetings hoping that some good discussion happens because they’ve got “the right people in the room.” Often, that’s not enough.
- Create reusable assets that you can refer people to. Often it’s better that 1 person spend an hour reading, than taking 30 minutes from 5 people.
- Explain yourself. If others know your priorities and reasoning when making decisions, they can make similar decisions without you, that are still aligned.
Invest in Growth
A lifecycle for professional growth that I’ve seen many times before looks like this:
- Become proficient at your role
- Become efficient at your role
- Transcend your role
Think of the chart below:
The image shows some lines: a straight horizontal black line, straight vertical black lines, and a fluctuating blue line.
- The horizontal line represents the consistent amount of work needed for job success, which I call “40 hours of value”.
- The blue line represents the amount of actual time and effort required to deliver that 40 hours of value.
- The vertical lines indicate promotions.
What I’m trying to communicate here is that when starting new roles, extra effort is often required to meet job expectations. As proficiency increases, the effort needed decreases, eventually leading to extra time within the work week. This time may be used to take on more tasks or, additionally, to prepare for future advancement by acquiring new skills, learning technologies, and furthering your education.
Tactics
If strategy is the guiding policies for how to make progress then tactics are on-the-ground patterns and practices I’ve used to implement the strategy for myself.
Productivity Systems
There are myriad productivity systems, and there isn’t one that works for everyone. You’ll need to find the one that resonates with who you are and how you work. Eventually, you will internalize the process that works for you and won’t need to follow it by the letter, but it’s worthwhile trying to do that first, until the process becomes second nature to you.
Here are some that I’ve found effective for me:
- Getting Things Done (GTD) — the backbone of everything I do in a day. Without the habits I developed from doing GTD, I’d be lost.
- SMART Goals — I frequently goal set, but I think there’s a way to do it that leads to better outcomes. I think I’ll do some writing on that.
- Pomodoro — I’m the type that needs focus, but I’m also the type that can get lost in a task. Forcing myself to focus, but also come up for air, when working on a particularly complicated task is effective.
- Time-Boxing — I’m bad at asking for help when I’m stuck on something. Time-Boxing helps.
The Right Tools
Just as a craftsman values their tools, so should the knowledge worker. Investing in quality tools that streamline your workflow can have a profound impact on your productivity. Whether it’s a sophisticated to-do list manager, a smartwatch to keep you on schedule, or the right IDE for your coding needs, selecting and mastering the right tools is crucial. Don’t be shy about spending money here. The ROI of these tools is the raises, promotions, and bonuses you’ll receive from crushing your work.
Continuous Learning
l’ll admit that it’s getting noisy in this space. There’s a million and one books promising to make you better at everything and only some of them can deliver a fraction of what they promise, but there’s still enough value to be had here. My advice is to find professional social circles and ask for book recommendations. It’s also not uncommon for each profession to have a list of “must read” books.
It’s also important to know that there aren’t rules for how to read a book. Personally, I have found it beneficial to very quickly skim books and then go back and read them more thoroughly if the first pass drew out enough important concepts. Not all books need to be read cover-to-cover and not all books are of equal quality cover-to-cover.
Conclusion
The foundational strategy for my professional development has been understanding my role, understanding myself, and judiciously managing my time, so that I can continually invest that time back into growth. This was not something I discovered quickly, or early on in my career. It took on-the-ground tactics, from productivity systems to the selection of tools, and a commitment to reading, to put into practice. I’ve been able to cobble together a fulfilling career thus far, and I hope that my learning is able to help you with yours.
I’d love to hear how you’ve learned to progress yourself in your career.
Hope it helps.
