Pre-Planning for Productivity: How to Focus on Rocks, Not Sand
Moving into the new fiscal quarter is exciting for me. It comes with bright, shiny new objectives. Critical projects to sink my teeth into. New opportunities for cross-functional interactions. And the most amazing part, three whole months to make it happen. Plenty of time to achieve it all, right? So why don’t we hit our mark every time?
Inevitably, it all gets lost in the mix of the start-up hustle. Often I’ve found myself stopping to look up and realizing that my quarter’s worth of time has dwindled into a few weeks.
I discovered that planning my objectives was only the first step. I had to plot out how I would get them done, too. Adding hours to my day was impossible. I needed to apply the old adage of “work smarter, not harder.” But how?
What I learned is that it all comes down to the Big Rocks vs. the Sand. Seriously, the visualization in this video changed my life. If you have a few minutes and you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend you watch it. It teaches the importance of prioritization: When you fill your time with “sand” (the constant flow of emails, phone calls, notifications and more), it leaves little time for “big rocks,” which are the consequential tasks that really matter. Only by prioritizing the “big rocks” can you fit everything in your day.
These are the techniques I now apply to help me execute my objectives:
I map it out
I start with my deadlines for each objective and work backwards from there, taking into consideration the timing of all the key deliverables and dependencies on each project. Once I start to overlay all of the projects I have ahead of me, I may move timing and tasks around to ensure I can meet not only my deadlines but those of my cross-functional partners. Once all of the pieces are on the table, it’s easier to see how the puzzle is going to come together.
I (try to) plan for the unplanned
Roadblocks are inevitable, especially in startup life. Something always comes up. Priorities change either for my team or a team I am working with. No matter how hard I plan, there is no way to foresee all potential conflicts or blockers. The “map” I create at the beginning of the quarter is often not the same picture two months, or even two weeks, later. I first try to add in a little buffer for all of my deliverable dates, setting these a few days before the day I need to get things done (when I can). I also add in time to tackle day-to-day activities since these will ALWAYS come up.
I (actually) block the time
When it comes to managing my time, I’ve found that if its not on my Google Calendar, it doesn’t actually happen. I add meetings, time blocks and reminders to my calendar to ensure I actually take the time to get them all done. If the unexpected happens, I adjust the calendar accordingly. At the end of each day I review my calendar to determine if I was able to get to everything I needed. If something came up that got in the way, I make a new time block to get the task done. I also block time for “the sand” to ensure I’m not allowing it to completely fill my day.
It’s not foolproof, but I’ve found that this method of approaching prioritization has helped me drastically improve my productivity. By taking time to accomplish these three steps, in conjunction with thoughtfully planning my objectives, I can tackle those big rocks — and a little sand.
