Personal Productivity Part 3: Be Proactive and Don’t Procrastinate

Productivity is a skill that takes planning, intent, reflection, and the ability to adjust your behavior.  While some people are able to achieve a lot without thinking about their process, the vast majority are not. If you want to improve your productivity at work and home, read on!

Our Productivity Seminar covers these and many more topics in an experiential way.  www.dataanalysis.com/speaking  Info@DataAnalysis.com.  Contact us to bring Darrel Raynor in-house to help uncover productivity drains and to help you break free of habits that have sprung up over the years.  This can be a workshop, facilitated session at an annual meeting, or a series of online webinars for your world-wide staff.

This post (Part 3 of 3) discusses two ways to improve your personal productivity.

Before we cover the last two topics of this 3-part post series, I want to make the distinction between busy and productive.  Many people are incredibly busy, yet we feel that they are not as productive as they (or we!) could be.  Perhaps the missing link here is deep thought.  With all our tools including those that make us available sometimes 24×7, we still need time to think.  If you can think deeply on a goal, then break down the goal into deliverables, then at least the first deliverable into tasks, things will almost always go smoother and faster.

Here is a way to think about both prioritizing and being proactive: If something is worth doing, it is worth planning for both positive and negative risks.  If something is worth planning, it is worth thinking about.  This should be deep, uninterrupted thought to decide if it is really worth your time to do it right, and if so what needs to be done now or at least prior to the action to help ensure a positive result.

1.  Be Proactive

Proactive.  The word has reached the status of one of the dreaded business buzzwords.  The definition from The Grammarist is ”acting in advance to deal with expected circumstances.”  When I use proactive, I also mean to act to deal with unexpected circumstances, as in Risk Management.

I know a woman who talked about riding her bike for fun and exercise, and let everyone know she was going for a ride the next Sunday.  When we saw her on Monday and asked her how her ride was, she said, “Oh one of the tires was flat so I couldn’t go.”  What comes to mind here?

Below are a few polite suggestions.

• Could have checked the bike on Wednesday and done any simple maintenance so it would be ready for a Sunday ride.  If she pumped up the tire and it was still good on Friday, it would probably suffice.
• Could have watched YouTube on changing a flat and checked that she had supplies and tools.
• Could have at least run the bike by a bike shop for a quick tune-up and check.
• She could have made arrangements with a neighbor to borrow their bike if hers was not in good shape.

There are undoubtedly more proactive steps she could have taken.  The obvious point here is that with some thought and a little preparation, she would have been able to enjoy a nice Sunday ride and probably gained knowledge and confidence on how to maintain her bicycle.

Below are a few generalizations you can apply to be Proactive in most situations.

• When an idea or task hits you, think it through to see if it is really worth your time.
• If it is, think through the positive and negative risks and how to maximize value.
• Think through the high-level results you want and write them down.
• Break at least the first result down into tasks and write them down.

When writing it down don’t use a yellow sticky note or a running stream of consciousness chronicle in your spiral notebook.  Find a goal/task system that works for you, whether a paper organizer or online.  A prior post covered tools like this.  We love Asana although almost any of them will work if you use them with discipline.

Now we are ready to deal with the second part of the Personal Productivity equation!

2.  Don’t Procrastinate

We will take this one in reverse order, carrying on the above example.  First, we will look at what to do and then provide an example.

Below are a few generalizations you can apply to reduce Procrastination in most situations.

• As you write each goal, leave room to break it down into likely many steps, or tasks.  This is akin to the Agile method of using Epics you break down into Stories that you break down into Tasks that are assigned and done in the next week or two, in order, by specific people.
• As you define each task, schedule time to work on it on your calendar if more than 15 minutes is needed.
• Stick to these times just as if you were in a meeting, with phone, IM, and all the other notifications and other distractions turned OFF!

There are two concepts at play here, one is drive to your goal and one is “What is the next action?”

Drive to your goal is simply a focus on the outcome.  This will help keep you motivated and also by keeping your goal in mind you will make better micro decisions all through your process.

What is the next action?  This is a great way to not be overwhelmed.  It also helps you eat that elephant, just one small bite at a time!

Our most popular soft skills course covers these and many other topics in an experiential way, and while useful for everyone, is especially valuable for those in or seeking or wanting to improve their performance in formal or informal leadership positions.

Topics include: Who We Are & What We Do as Leaders, Change Yourself First, Set and Fulfill Expectations, Lead By Example: Model the Behavior You Want, and many more. www.dataanalysis.com/training/courses/impactful-leadership-and-management-best-practices-for-supervisors-to-cxos

What Should Leaders Do to Leverage You and Your People?  Your Thoughts?

Thoughts on how you can best improve your skills that we did not touch on?  Good luck and keep your eye out for ways to improve your personal productivity skills!

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