The Productivity Pro Blog by Laura Stack - Time Management, Getting Things Done, How to Be More Productive

“I might as well put some action in my life/Breaking the law, breaking the law…” — Judas Priest, British heavy metal band.

“[Parkinson's Law] is the magic of the imminent deadline… The end product of the shorter deadline is almost inevitably of equal or higher quality due to greater focus.” — Timothy Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week

In an essay published in the The Economist in 1955, British historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson formulated his most famous axiom: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Though originally applied humorously, Parkinson’s Law hits uncomfortably close to the mark. You can apply it to everything from committees to finance to corporate structure—and people have.

I believe it’s especially applicable to personal productivity. Have you ever noticed how super-productive you can be on the most tightly scheduled of days, whereas time just seems to get away from you when you enjoy a lighter schedule? It happens to us all.

But what if it didn’t? Imagine what you could accomplish if you set out to break Parkinson’s Law daily. Imagine how we might change the world if we all did. Let’s picture what that might look like!

1. Set deadlines for everything. While you may like the idea of having no set due date for your next report, I guarantee you’ll start putting it off right away, then put it off some more…and then you may never finish it. While a deadline doesn’t guarantee you’ll finish a task or project on time, at least it gives you something to shoot for. If nothing else, set milestones for yourself, representing a certain “distance” into the task per given amount of time. Better yet, combine deadlines and milestones and assign both to everything, even subtasks and minor items, so you won’t dawdle.

2. Refuse to multitask. If you don’t set clear boundaries between tasks, they’ll inevitably interfere with each other. If nothing else, just shifting gears slows you down, as you clear the mental slate of one set of data in exchange for another. Imagine doing this four or five times within a ten-minute span; a fair portion of that time might end up wasted. If you multiply that lost time by the 48 ten-minute intervals in the “typical” eight-hour workday, you can see how this might represent a problem.

3. Be done when you’re done. Rather than succumb to perfectionism, know when to let go. As a writer, I’ve found that releasing a book or article to the world can almost feel like abandoning a child. But if you don’t cut the umbilical once a project has fully matured, you might dilute its impact with constant revision, and you’ll definitely hit a point of diminishing returns before long. Do your very best work, of course, but don’t overdo any task.

4. Challenge yourself. Once you’ve trained yourself to swim laps in an Olympic-sized pool, you can’t go back to dog paddling without being bored silly. Sure, you need R&R, but don’t rest on your laurels too long or you’ll backslide. If a task no longer challenges you, move on to something tougher; otherwise you’ll find wasteful ways to fill up the empty time your competence creates for you.

5. Plan for next. Don’t dwell on it, but always know the next item on your list. That way, you don’t need to waste time between tasks.

6. Always have work on hand. Suppose you finish what you’ve planned five hours into your workday. Don’t waste the rest of it! Instead, reach for your “someday” list: the roll of important but non-urgent things you’d like to take care of but keep deferring in favor of high-priority items, required daily tasks, and crises. If you’ve been itching to tweak your report production flow or brush up on your information processing capacity, now’s the time.

More is Less

Taking it easy always uses up more time than working hard…and if taken too far, it gets boring and wasteful. Rather than let your time slip away, tighten your focus: stick strictly to a time budget, restrain your instinct to multitask, move on immediately whenever you finish something, and always push the envelope. The more efficiently you can complete your tasks, the more time you can recapture for better use.

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” — Mark Twain, American writer and lecturer.

“Many people today don’t want honest answers, insofar as honest means unpleasant or disturbing. They want a soft answer that turneth away anxiety.” — Louis Kronenberger, American critic and author.

Have you found that perfect job yet?

Of course not, because the perfect job doesn’t exist. Every job in the world includes unpleasant tasks that may bore you to death, strain your capacities, or require such brainless repetition you’d rather go hide in the nearest swamp. Whatever your job’s deficiencies, though, you’ve got take ownership of those tasks—or how can you say you’ve done your job?

Here are a few suggestions that’ll help you stay solidly on track.

1. Eat that frog! As Mark Twain once said, if you eat a live frog first thing in the morning, nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day. My colleague Brian Tracy calls unpleasant or tough tasks “frogs,” and advises you to “eat that frog” right away. I agree. Once you choke it down, you can move on to more enjoyable tasks.

2. Own problems, not just tasks. Instead of assuming that frog-eating represents your only option, take a look at the problem behind the task. You may discover a better way to handle it—either because conditions have changed recently, or simply because nobody ever traced the root cause far enough. Wouldn’t you prefer eating a tadpole or a frog egg to eating a mature frog? I’d prefer to eliminate the frog-eating altogether.

3. Outsource. Delegate your frog to someone who doesn’t mind doing it; people like that do exist, I assure you. Ever seen the TV show Dirty Jobs? The host obviously hates some of the jobs he ends up doing, but the guys who do them every day have found ways to make them bearable or even enjoyable. If you really feel ambitious, hire an intern to do your dirty work.

4. Reward yourself. When you know you can have a cupcake or a long break as soon as you finish calculating this quarter’s taxes, it might make the task more bearable. Just don’t give in before you’ve completed your task.

5. Find the right spice. Listen to music, experiment with a new work rhythm, take little breaks before and after, sandwich it between tasks you love—anything that might disguise your frog’s taste.

6. Break it into manageable chunks. If you’ve been shirking a task because it seems huge or overwhelming, split it into smaller, more easily swallowed pieces with their own little deadlines and mileposts. Better bite-sized frogs than big ones.

7. Adjust your attitude. Argh! You hate that task so much you want to scream. But what if you didn’t hate it? Can you clear the emotional decks and start over without the negative attitude? It may not make the task any less tedious, but it might help you push through until you’re done. If you hate the task because you think it’s beneath you, definitely adjust your attitude. There’s no shame in honest labor.

Necessary Evil

Let’s face it: no job is perfect. There will always be a snake or two in your professional Garden of Eden. But embrace them along with everything else, and learn to deal with them. The only other choice? Quit your job. But if you do that, you may as well quit the job market, because you’ll never achieve full satisfaction anywhere. So get real—and get on with it.

In some situations, the concept of taking accountability for productivity and performance extends beyond your own job—especially when you find yourself in a leadership position—and team productivity becomes paramount. In situations like these, doing your job well also means helping others do their jobs better and more efficiently, so their performance dovetails with yours in a satisfyingly synergistic way. Carefully cultivated, the result can be a fruitful cycle of productivity, forming a positive feedback loop that expands into all aspects of the workflow process, making work life easier for all involved.

As a manager, you must constantly refine your organization’s workflow processes and streamline your systems. Actively pursue opportunities to eliminate nagging time bandits, frustrations, and productivity-sappers from your office systems every day. For example, my office manager, Becca, frequently received calls from our clients, asking her to send wording they could use to introduce me to audiences at speaking engagements. About 99% of the time, she had already sent the information to the client. Although her job is customer service, it can be frustrating and time-consuming to provide the same information again and again. I uncovered the problem one day when she joked about how a particular client chronically lost the information she had already sent—possibly the very reason the client had hired me in the first place.

We decided to post everything clients might need on our website, so they could help themselves to the information as necessary without involving her. Every time a customer requested information, we added it to the site. The next time we updated it, we proactively sent links to our clients telling them where they could find this information. Becca now fulfills far fewer manual client requests.

When a manager uses this kind of “I’m on your side” approach, the employee is less frustrated, and time is saved, ultimately increasing productivity and boosting organizational profitability. You also create value for clients and show employees you’re willing to listen to them and implement good ideas.

So at your next staff meeting, pose these three questions:

1. What are the three most mind-numbing, time-wasting hoops you jump through on a weekly basis? Carefully listen to the responses. Don’t get defensive or combative. Instead, write down everything people say and soak it in.

2. What time-draining procedures or activities do you find yourself doing more than three times a week? This question helps you identify the “debris” littering your co-workers’ high-speed highway, slowing them down repeatedly. You’ll also discover redundancy if multiple people do the same thing.

3. How can we help you get things done more quickly? Brainstorm ways to automate your systems and reduce wasted time, so you can all get your work done faster, leave the office earlier, and go home to your lives.

Accountability Action Step

Make it your goal to help people blast through time-wasting obstacles. By helping team members, you help yourself. Consider the innovative thinking that can take place, and how much more you can enjoy life, if you didn’t spend so much of it at work. Happy, well-rested people tend to be more productive than those worn to a nub by their responsibilities.

“Procrastination in the name of reducing risk actually increases risk.” — Colin Powell, retired American four-star general and former Secretary of State.

“Many people go through life making nothing but ‘if’ decisions. These are not decisions for success but preparations for failure.” — Zig Ziglar, American motivational guru.

It happens every day: You finish a task, check it off your list, and feel a sense of accomplishment. Great—now what? It’s important to quickly decide what to do next. But it’s equally important to decide what NOT to do next.

Making the right choice can be difficult when you’re drawn to distraction, react to requests, or randomly select the next task. We must choose the correct course of action by design, not by default. So I’d like to give you some guidance on how NOT to choose your next task.

1. Don’t decide what to do next by what you FEEL like doing. Our emotions are usually poor judges of value. You may have something due tomorrow you absolutely hate to work on. Well, what choice do you have? Instead of reorganizing the files on your hard drive, jump into the tough task immediately, so you won’t have to worry about it anymore.

2. Don’t decide what to do next by the order in which tasks appear. Emails in your inbox, messages on your voicemail, and tasks on your to-do list rarely appear in priority order—unless you’ve deliberately listed your tasks by importance. In a more general sense, don’t open an email and deal with it just because it appeared in your box. If you’re working on a critical task, don’t answer the phone just because it rang. When you’re in a meeting, don’t look at your phone just because it buzzed. Shut down devices if you absolutely can’t help checking.

3. Don’t decide what to do next by who’s screaming the loudest. Unless it’s your boss and you’ll get fired otherwise, don’t respond to other people’s requests in order. Some people have a way of making everything seem like a crisis, and some co-workers try to make their tasks your top priority. If someone comes to you with a true emergency, certainly handle that first; otherwise, state when you’ll be in touch or will handle the request. Let others know what they can expect in terms of a deadline, while communicating with no uncertainty you won’t be doing it now.

4. Don’t decide what to do next by what comes to mind. Just because you think about something doesn’t mean you should do it. The human brain often operates in a seemingly random manner, with your subconscious tossing up solutions or reminders as it comes up with them. If a sudden idea seems useful, write it down so you can come back to it. Don’t just chase the shiny thing or work on the first thing you think about. Though you might feel busy and “in motion,” you’re probably creatively procrastinating.

5. Don’t decide what to do next by the order of the sticky note. Just because a sticky note is unearthed from beneath a pile of reports or project files doesn’t mean you need to get right on it. Weigh all the other factors first. If you haven’t looked through a pile of paper in a year, chances are you can simply toss it with no ramifications. If it had become an emergency, you would have known about it long before your discovery.

You face such moments of truth several times a day at work, where a fork in the road (or 17) appears. Each time, you have a split second to decide what to do next—and what NOT to do next. As I pointed out in my latest book, What to Do When There’s Too Much to Do (Berrett-Koehler, June 2012), making the right choice in the moment represents a three-step process, involving:

• Clarity, whereby you already know your priorities for the day and have a plan in place for their execution;
• Discernment, where you exercise your judgment to determine priority, realizing all checkmarks on your list aren’t equal; and
• Discipline, forcing yourself to stay on point and stick to your plan.

Ready, Steady, Go!

This process of how to decide what to do next vs. how not to may seem complex at first glance, but your mind can race through it in a few tenths of a second. Even easier, you can just decide in advance. Some of us can put a little section of the subconscious to work crunching the numbers and deciding what should come next, based on the day’s changing circumstances.

Whatever your method, don’t spend more than a few seconds on it—and for heaven’s sake, don’t just shrug your shoulders and open Facebook or play a word while you “decide.” If you need a break, take one, on purpose. Otherwise, pick something and go with it, refusing to choose the workplace equivalent of straightening pictures when you need to be vacuuming the floor.

We’ve got a new iPhone app for our Productivity Minute audio podcast! Boost your personal productivity any time with a quick productivity tip from Laura Stack!

Instructions:

1. On your iPhone, visit http://theproductivitypro.podbean.com/mobile/.

2. Click the arrow button to add the Quick Launch icon to your home screen.

3. Visit the app and listen to The Productivity Minute at your convenience!

You can also sign up for FREE to watch the Productivity Minute videos. When you sign up, you’ll receive a weekly email with a link and password for that week’s video.  Enjoy a year’s worth of productivity tips!

I realize all you young go-getters would work 25/8 if possible; however, heed this advice from a 20-year business veteran who tried that:

1. You can’t maintain a breakneck pace forever. Sure, you have to invest plenty of time getting your business aloft, but you shouldn’t still be working so hard three years later. Something’s gotta give—don’t let it be you.

2. Protect your time. Keep external challenges from destroying your focus and eating your precious time. Block out time to concentrate on your strategic priorities and erect barriers against interruptions.

3. Know when to unplug. If you don’t take care of yourself and get the R&R you need, you won’t have the energy to take care of your business and other people. Carve out personal time to do the things you enjoy, away from work and technology.

4. Cover the gaps. What would happen if you were sick or hospitalized? Find good people to help you early on in your business, so you can actually take a vacation or be out of the office without worrying everything will fall apart.

You can’t let work take over your entire life. The better you balance your work and your life, the greater your success will be.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

In the modern business world, we sometimes tout failure as a virtue that almost inevitably leads to success. Popular examples include Thomas Edison’s 1,000+ unsuccessful attempts to improve the light bulb before hitting on the right solution, and Bill Gates’ unsuccessful first business. Experts tell us repeatedly to fail forward, to fail as fast as possible, to dare to fail—because it makes us smarter and better in the long run.

So it was refreshing to encounter a Harvard Business School working paper called “Performance Persistence in Entrepreneurship” that takes the opposite perspective.[i] The authors discovered that brand-new entrepreneurs succeeded just about as often as those who had tried before and failed (18% vs. 20%). The most successful entrepreneurs were those who had already succeeded, but even they succeeded only 30% of the time.

At the risk of oversimplification, the authors point out that statistically, failure doesn’t necessarily result in eventual success…a common-sense conclusion, frankly. (We all know that persistence and tenacity are what really matter, right?) Furthermore, they admit they looked at a relatively narrow business segment and didn’t control for a number of factors that might skew the results.

Normally, I’d take something like this with a grain of salt. However, they were the first to actually test the assumption that failure is positive in the long run. As several commentators have pointed out, we have no real scholarly work that proves failure is good for the soul; we just assume that. On the other hand, we do now have research suggesting failure doesn’t necessarily contribute to later success.

While I believe you should focus on your strengths, I also believe failure can help you define your weaknesses—especially in terms of the things you should never waste time on again. If I keep failing at something, it’s a pretty big clue I should get some help, instead of continually banging my head against a wall. In general, then, I perceive the hypothesis that failure can help you succeed in the long run as a truism that doesn’t require scholarly proof.

The keyword in the above statement is can. Failure doesn’t automatically anoint you with the oil of future success. Some of my speaker colleagues have gone a bit too far on the platform in suggesting it does…or in outright saying so.

Failure has no special qualities in and of itself; it’s what you do with failure that matters. It offers another opportunity to learn, allowing you to rise phoenix-like from the ashes, to take another grab at the brass ring. Maybe you’ll get it next time; maybe you won’t. But if not, don’t take the failure personally, because that kills your confidence and destroys your chance to profit from your mistakes. Make every effort to take something instructive away from your failure—or you’ve just wasted your time.

I won’t tell you there’s no such thing as a failure. Of course there is. But don’t ignore it, refusing to learn anything, and hope to luck into success. Failure to learn from failure inevitably leads to more failure, in a vicious downward spiral.

Accountability action step:

After a failure, always pull some tidbit from the wreckage and take it to heart. There may be a few intact bricks left standing—successful aspects or ideas within the broader failure—that can serve as a foundation for building once more.

Did you know that one of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions is to get organized?  Maybe it was one of yours.  How will you  accomplish that goal? We’ve got just the plan for YOU to take your personal productivity to the next level!

We have just a few more spots open for the brand new 2013 STACK ATTACK!

This is your perfect opportunity to get all of your “ducks in a row” with a productivity makeover. Spend the day in Laura’s home office getting YOUR systems up and running.

Learn more about the STACK ATTACK, and sign up today!

And in recent news…
Laura was featured yesterday on Entrepreneur.com in this article by Stephanie Vozza:

Forget Your To-Do List: The 3 Lists Every Entrepreneur Needs

“If you look for perfection, you will never be content.” — Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist (Anna Karenina).

“I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.” ― Michael J. Fox

It’s true that as your experience and skills evolve, you should occasionally push the envelope of your personal constraints. But to paraphrase Clint Eastwood in the film Magnum Force, you’ve got to know your limitations. And you do have limitations—which also means you can’t always do everything just right.

It’s important to have high standards for your work; in fact, you need them if you expect to achieve consistent productivity. But be aware of the difference between high standards and impossibly high standards. When your standards for yourself and your team become so lofty they tick over into the unreasonable, they’ll do nothing but slow you down—like an anchor tied around your neck. Ironically, maintaining absurdly high standards can as bad as having no standards at all.

Of course, this isn’t an excuse to slow down or slack off. Always strive for excellence. But at the same time, remember: true perfection is the province of the divine. If you try to consider every possible outcome and arrange for every contingency before making your first move, you may have trouble getting started at all. While some of us like to say we work best under pressure, that’s rarely true. You’re like the undergrad scrambling in the ninth hour, staying up all night to write a paper assigned half a semester before. Indeed, more often than not, the results reflect the amount of time spent on the task.

Rather than hold yourself to angelic standards, be a REALIST:

1. Recognize your limits. No one knows you better than you. Break your task or project into pieces you know you can manage and set solid deadlines for achieving each.

2. Energize yourself. You know you’re talented and good at what you do, or you wouldn’t be where you are now. Psych yourself up before you start.

3. Accept your imperfections. You might make a few mistakes as you work on the task. You might even fail. So what? Let’s face it: you’re human. Push past your fear of failure; don’t let it stymie your productivity.

4. Leave perfectionism behind. It only drags you down. Sure, do the very best you can; even compete with yourself or others if that motivates you. But don’t expect perfection every time. When it happens, great. When it doesn’t, learn from your mistakes and move on.

5. Implement your plan. Once you have all your ducks in a row, take a deep breath and dive in. Motion beats meditation every time.

6. Seize the initiative. As von Moltke pointed out, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Even in the workplace, most situations prove chaotic, and things you never expected might suddenly appear on the horizon…or in your face. Some may prove advantageous. When new opportunities for success present themselves, grab them with both hands.

7. Take action to handle unexpected details as they occur. Since you can’t foresee every nook and cranny of the future, don’t try. Make all the preparations you can in advance and handle the little things as they pop up.

Geronimo!

Don’t equate a realistic assessment of your situation with pessimism. Realism represents a form of frank intellectual honesty, which beats the pants off both perfectionism and the gung-ho silliness that sometimes sweeps American business. You can and should take every reasonable precaution and gather as much data as possible before taking action; however, don’t let an obsessive need to get everything just right waste your time and energy. Once you’ve meditated long enough, it’s time to put on your REALIST armor and leap into the fray.

“Life is divided into three terms—that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present to live better in the future.” — William Wordsworth, British poet.

If you’re anything like me, you recently looked up and wondered (or said aloud to a friend), “Hey, what the heck happened to 2012?”

As we all know from experience, time really does fly when you’re having fun. When it also flies at work, that’s a good thing, because you know work fascinates you nearly as much as play. Wonderful news, right? Be careful here: just because you’ve kept busy and enjoy what you do doesn’t mean you’ve actually accomplished anything lately. To get ahead, we have to leverage our past experiences to gain an advantage in the future.

So as you close out 2012, take a little time to study what you’ve learned. Ask yourself two fundamental questions when planning for the New Year:
1. How have I changed emotionally, spiritually, physically, mentally, financially, and socially in 2012 (how can I usher out the old)?
2. What do I want to do more or less of in 2013 (how can I ring in the new)?

Ushering Out the Old

On the work front, look back and consider all the projects you and your team have completed, as well as the status of those in progress. How effective and productive were you? Questions you might ask include:

• Have I left anything undone I needed to complete this year?
• What project(s) do I feel happiest about completing?
• What was my greatest triumph?
• What was my smartest decision this year?
• How about my dumbest?
• What good habits did I pick up in 2012?
• What bad habits did I break?
• Did I pick up any new bad habits?
• What surprised me most?
• What was my biggest lesson learned?
• What was my biggest risk, and how did it turn out?
• Who impacted me most this year?
• What action would cap off 2012 perfectly?
• How could I sum up 2012 in 10 words or less?

Think carefully about each question. Take your time and write down your answers as you go.

Ringing in the New

The future represents the original “undiscovered country,” and one should be well prepared before blazing new trails. So after you’ve weighed the lessons of 2012, consider what you’ve learned and use that knowledge as you move forward. Not only will this help you avoid the stumbles of previous forays, it’ll prove useful in defining new strategies and goals. So pose another set of questions to yourself, facing forward this time:

• What accomplishment would make me happiest next year?
• What do I look forward to the most?
• What things (or people) should I avoid?
• What should I improve about myself?
• What can I do to enhance my professional value?
• How can I better my financial position?
• What external changes are likely to affect me?
• Does my current professional path take me where I really want to go? If not, how can I start changing that?
• Should I make more of an effort to indulge myself in any particular areas…or did I overdo it last year?
• What do I most want to learn this year?
• What do I expect to be my biggest risk?
• What’s my one-word theme for 2013?

Bottom Line

Viewed objectively, these questions have no right or wrong answers; the only answers that matter are those that feel right to you. My list of answers may not resemble yours. The point of this exercise is to learn from the recent past, so you have the proper ammunition and attitude as you charge forward into the future. Happy New Year!