Show Transcript:
Meisha: Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Meisha Rouser Show. Thank you so much for listening. We are live here in Seattle on KKNW 1150. This show is all about leadership and professional development, everything you need to know to be more competent and confident in your professional life.
This show will give you tips and insights into everything from communication skills, personal productivity, conflict resolution, emotional and social intelligence, and more. Everything you need to know to become a better leader and to improve your productivity and your professional life. In today’s show we are going to talk about productivity.
We’re going to talk about the three most important aspects of productivity.
- Time Management
- Attention
- Energy
To be more productive you need an effective system in order to be in control of your time management.
The ability to focus your attention is a challenge for most people, yet focused attention is critical for being productive. This means that you need to be able to single task more often versus multitasking.
It is proven that multi-tasking can be detrimental to your productivity. Yes, there are times when you have to multi-task – and I’m watching Benny over here prior to the show, multi-tasking with like three things he was juggling that he had to get done and he had to move through.
Being able to multi-task is fabulous, it’s great. The problem is that, when you’re really trying to focus on doing a project, focusing on writing that right email or having a conversation with somebody else, we really aren’t fully into the potential of who we can be and what we can deliver without focused singe tasking. Getting rid of all those other distractions is critical.
There’s a lot of interesting research on this. There is a lot of speculation that multi-tasking may be contributing to the increase around Alzheimer and memory loss, because when we are really focusing on something we training a particular cognitive ability ‘muscle’. We are using our brain in a way that is unique just to that particular type of focused activity.
When we are constantly shifting out of that, when we are being buzzed by email notices, text messages or other interruptions, it takes us out of that training stage, in the sense. There’s a lot of researchers that are very worried about the long term effects of what multi-tasking does on the brain versus intentional focusing and concentration.
When we talk about productivity, we’re going to talk a lot on being able to focus your attention on the task at hand and getting rid of all those others distractions.
The third part of productivity then is our energy. If we are not feeling energetic, we are not productive. We really need to think about how energy impacts our productivity. One thing I would highly recommend, and I do this with a lot of my clients, is to notice and track when your energy peaks during the day and when it is low. We all have a natural rhythm. I call it your biorhythm but many refer to it as your biological primetime.
We ebb and flow. It’s just the way we are wired and so after we peak our energy then usually goes down. This is when we need to rejuvenate. Then from there we go back up to a peak and feel really energetic. Many people have two moments of peak time within their day. It varies for everybody. There’s no majority or one time that the majority of the population peaks – which kind of goes against this whole thing about working 9-5. You’re going to have peak times in there, then you’re going to have the lows. Understanding your own rhythms is key to learning how to schedule your day so that you get the higher tasking projects done during peak times. Monitor your energy throughout the day so you can start finding when your peak times are. It also helps to understand what drives your energy.
Creating habits that help to cultivate your energy will also enhance your productivity. The fuel you give your body will have a direct result on your energy. Make sure you are getting nutritious food throughout the day. Stay away from processed, sugary foods.
Your body also needs exercise. Exercise helps stimulate the flow of oxygen as well as release certain chemicals that enhance your energy. There are so many benefits to exercise. And, on the other side of the coin, your body needs sleep so that it can recharge.
So, make sure you are eating right, exercising, and getting enough sleep. I know, you hear this all the time. And, you know what…there is a reason you keep hearing this. Are you getting the right amount of sleep? For most people, researchers find that most adults need about 7 ½ hours of sleep. For me, it’s 9. I have learned that I need 9 hours of sleep. Okay, do I always get 9 hours of sleep? Unfortunately, no. But, I usually make that up with naps. I love taking naps. I’ve learned to take naps during those times my energy is low. I will take a little 10-20 minute nap, nothing more, and boom I’m ready to go again. This is much more productive. For if I try to take on a project during my low energy time, it will usually take me 2-3 times longer to complete, if I do complete it. Whereas, if I take a short nap, I can usually crank out the project quickly afterward.
Again understanding what your body needs to be productive and how it maintains that energetic state is vital to being more productive. Thinking about all of those things then what we are going to get into next.
I’m going to share with you my Top 10 Tips for increasing productivity:
- Keep a Master To-Do List.
David Allen, great author on productivity and time management, has a wonderful book, Getting Things Done. Here’s what he says about keeping a master to-do list, “What we’re learning is that your mind is not for holding ideas. It’s for having ideas. People are still trying to use their psyche as their office and their reminder system and it doesn’t work. It’s not designed for that. In an evolutionary way your brain is brilliant at being able to look at things and recognize patterns and tie that into long term memory but it can’t remember worth a hoot.”
I love this because for me I often wonder if it’s just a sign of getting older – forgetting things. We have so many things coming at us these days that we are trying to keep track of it in our head. Stop doing it. You are maxing out your brain’s capabilities by holding useless information. Instead keep track of that information using an app or notepad, and free up that valuable space in your head. Keep a master to do list.
I would highly recommend the master to do list be used to track all your to-do’s. I mean, anything you have to do goes on that list – work related, personal, family, anything. Make sure the list is always accessible to you. I keep mine on my notes application. I use an iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and all of those devices can access the notes app. Every to-do that comes to mind or comes up goes on that list.
For example, if I’m driving (hands free) and having a conversation where the other person asks, “Hey, can you email me that information?” I can quickly click Siri on my phone, good old Siri, and say, “Siri, note. Email John the document.” And there it goes right into my notes and I’ve got it captured. My mind does not have to hold on to that piece of information.
The other reason I really like this one is that it can help you to sleep. Are you are one of those people that wake up at 2 o’clock in the morning thinking, “Oh my, I forgot I have to do this,” or, “I have to do that.”? It’s because that’s finally when your mind is relaxed and has time to sort through these less significant items and then it’s going to freak out, “Oh my gosh, what am I’m forgetting!” Whereas, if you had everything on this master to do list, you just freed up your mind and it’s going to sleep like a baby because it knows all that information is captured somewhere. So that’s productivity tip number one.
- Capture Open Loops.
I love this idea of capturing open loops of the mind. Open loops are all those things your mind is trying to hold onto or are spun up around. This could be information you are waiting for from someone else so that you can finish a project. Or, it could be things you are worried about, like a project that you delegated to a new employee.
Capture these open loops to free up valuable thinking space and memory space. Every day, or at least once a week, take 5-10 minutes, ideally in the morning, to capture those open loops. Capture these open loops just like your to-do list. For example, create a “waiting for” list and a “worry” list, and put whatever is on your mind on an open loop list.
Let’s say what’s on your mind is something you are worried about. Create a worry list and put your worries on that. For example, currently I’m worried that about finding a place to live because everything is going within like 2 seconds and it’s stressful. I don’t know where my family is going to be living a month from now. The thing that is so frustrating is that I can’t control it. I can’t control when a house is going to go on the market and if I’m going to be able to grab it. So, I put that worry on my worry list and try to stop worrying about it. At a designated time each day I pull out that worry list and search if there are any new homes that have come on the market.
A waiting for list is a really helpful one, too. If you’re waiting for information or documents or whatever, anything you’re waiting on put that on a waiting list that you follow up on just once a day. “Hey, how’s that coming?” or, “When am going to be able to get that?” But otherwise you don’t worry about it. You free up all that mental space.
- Focus 80% of your time on your Highest-Leverage Activities in Your Work
In other words, what are those things that are key to your success that you should be focusing most of your time on. Because here’s the thing, we tend to get caught up thinking we are being productive because we busy, busy, busy. However, are those things you are busy doing really your top priorities and highest and best use of your time? Do these things really need to be done now? Are you really the best person to be doing these tasks? We lose track of what our priorities are, what is the highest and best use of our time, what are we spending our time on.
80% of our time should be focused on our highest leverage activities. Really get clear on what those are and make sure and check yourself throughout the day…” Am I working on those things that are the highest and best use of my time?”
It looks like we need to take a break. Let me take a pause there and I’m going to finish out my list. Again, you are listening to the Meisha Rouser Show, here on KKNW 1150 and we will be right back after this break.
Meisha: Hello and welcome back to the Meisha Rouser Show. We are talking about productivity today. I’m going through my top 10 list and I am on number four. And I’m going to kind of quickly go through these because then I want to make sure I have time to share with you one of my favorite productivity tools.
- The Rule of Three.
The rule of three is really pretty basic. First, write down three things you want to accomplish today. Second, write three things you want to accomplish this week. And third, write three things you want to accomplish this month or year. Quick and easy, you can do this within 5 minutes. It’s a great way to not only get focused on “What do I need to focus on today?” but you keep in perspective as to what are your goals for this year…what’s important to you. Again, simple but a really good productivity tool
- Schedule Less Time for Important Tasks.
This goes back to what’s called Parkinson’s Law where work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Isn’t it amazing how much work you can get done when you know you have to go on vacation the next day or the next week? It’s amazing how productive you are when your under a timeline like that.
The idea here is to shrink a task down in size. Don’t give it so much time because, you know what, more than likely you’re going to be able to get it done in a shorter amount of time than you may think. Again, work expands into the time you give it. What you should do is shrink down tasks into a time that feels good for you. What’s comfortable and say, “Okay, I bet I can get that done in 30 minutes if I focus instead of the hour I was originally thinking it would take.” Then strive to get it done in that half hour. Or better yet, just give yourself the half hour to do it. It’s amazing, you’ll get it done.
- Two Minute Rule.
Most of you know this popular one, and I love this rule. Basically, the two-minute rule applies to a variety of different situations. For example, emails. When you are going through your emails…which by the way, another productivity tip is to only check your email once or twice a day, then close it out and don’t let it distract you. Going back then to the two-minute rule, when you’re checking your emails, look at them quickly to determine if there are emails that you can respond to within two minutes. Ones that you can get done really quickly? If so, great get those done and then save the other ones for maybe another time for when you have more time devote to them.
When you are moving from one segment into another, for example, you just got off the phone with somebody and next you’re going into a meeting, try to schedule yourself 5 minutes in between transitions so you can take 2 minutes or so just to capture what needs to be captured out of that last segment. Utilize this time to capture what is fresh on your mind. Is there an action item you are taking from that last segment that you can quickly act on while it is fresh on your mind? Like, is there a quick email you can send out to ensure the conference room is available for the next meeting? Whatever you need to do while it’s fresh and on your mind, capture that as quickly as you can. That’s taking advantage of the two-minute rule.
- Visualize Having to Leave Tomorrow.
This goes back to Parkinson’s Law that the amount of time you give something to be completed, it will typically be completed in that amount of time. So leverage this. Visualize you are leaving tomorrow, what things do you need to get done today and how quickly can you get them done. Put a sense of urgency in it.
It actually has been proven that this little sense of urgency, a little bit of that stress level, produces the chemicals that actually help you to be more productive, you get more energized and you actually become more focused.
Now on the opposite side of the spectrum – number 8.
- Going Slow To Go Fast.
In other words, just don’t be running around with your head cut off thinking that you’re being productive. Be intentional about your productivity which means taking some time throughout your day, even if it’s just in the beginning of the day, to stop and think about what are my priorities? What do I need to get done today? Get your head up out of the weeds occasionally, throughout the day and think get grounded again. “Hey, wait a second what am I getting all spun up on? Do I really need to do this right now? Is this really a high priority?” Stopping and reconnecting with your values, your priorities, your goals, your passions, and just thinking about, “Okay, am I being productive, am I really using my time smartly” can really help to ensure you are focusing on the right tasks.
- Energetically Manage Your Day.
This one goes focuses in on your ability to manage your energy. If you’re not feeling energetic, it’s hard to be productive. Learn how to manage your energy throughout the day. So, you want to take more breaks, you don’t want to fatigue yourself by working straight through. I would try not to go more than 90 minutes without taking a break. Get up, stretch, and get the oxygen flowing again. Eat smaller portions throughout the day as well to maintain that energy level instead of just 2 or 3 big meals. Smaller portions of healthy snacks can be really beneficial. I also take naps, that’s one of my favorites, little cat naps. I love them. Also, drink lots of water. Your brain is a water hog. It needs so much water. That will also help you to keep going.
- Create a Catch All Day Time.
I love this one. Instead of trying to do all of those itty bitty little things throughout the day that need to get done each day/week, see if you can find just one time during the day for like maybe a half hour, or designate one whole day, to get all of those things done in one big swoop. This takes the pressure off of those pesky tasks nipping away in your mind by knowing they will all get done during their allocated time. This will free up your mind knowing that right now you can focus on just the task at hand. All of those other little things you’ll know when you’re going to be focused on those and you can tell yourself “I’ll focus on those later, right now I am focused on this.”
Awesome. I’ve got a few more minutes. I’m going to share my last tool. This is one of my more popular ones. I get a lot with people asking, “Okay, how can I manage my time more effectively?” So very quickly, I’m going to give you my solution. Take this one if you don’t have one, customize and make it your own. But, I’ll tell you, this one is fabulous. I’ve been using it for years, majority of my clients have used it and are using it.
It’s the A-B-C, 1-2- 3 Time Management Technique. It starts with creating your master to do list (we talked about this earlier). Now that you have your long master to do list, then what you do is each week, at the beginning of the week or at the end of your last week, looking forward, you’re going to look at that master list and you’re going to take the items off of it and create a weekly to-do list.
Once you have your weekly list you’re then going to A-B-C it. You’re going to look at all those things and think:
- Does this item have to absolutely get done this week?” If it does, it’s an A.
- Is it something that you would love to get done this week but if it goes on to next week it’s not a big deal, that’s a B.
- C, are things you would love to do this week but they’re not a high priority. For example, I do a lot of reading. So, if there is a book I wanted to order, that’s not a high priority but I would like to order it this week, that’s a C.
- Then D, you even might want to think about A-B-C-D in your list. D means, can you delegate this and get it off your list. That’s A, B, C, D’ing your list.
Then what you want to do is take each category, all the A’s, all the B’s, all the C’s and you’re going to number those in priority. You’re going to look all your A’s and number them in priority as to what is the number one thing you have to get done, then number 2, and then number 3 and so on for all the A’s. Then do the same thing for all your B’s and do it again for all your C’s.
This system allows you to not only clarify what your priorities are for the week, but it also allows you to be able to quickly scan your list and know what you should be working on.
The next thing you are going to do is time block. You’re going to put your priorities in your calendar. So those three big things you want to get done (See #4 The Rule of Three above), the highest priorities, time block those items on your calendar so you know when you are going to be working on them and so that you ensure you get them done. Remember to refer to tip #7 above when time blocking.
This A-B-C, 1-2-3 weekly list is something you will also refer to at the start of each day. Look at the list and your calendar to see how you’re doing and what might need to be adjusted. What other priorities might have come in, what needs to shift in your calendar. Each day you’re going to look at your list and your calendar, reprioritize, see what’s going on, and get focused on what they day is going to look like and your intentions for the day.
What this system does for you then is when you’re moving through the day and a fire comes up you now have something to compare it to. You now know exactly what your priorities are that day and now you can take this new fire and say, “Okay, is this something I really need to act on now or does it need to wait until I finish this other priority?”
This is a great technique, the A-B-C, 1-2-3, on how to prioritize your time and to make sure you’re working on your highest priorities. If you had a meeting that gets cancelled, instead of just wasting that time because you’re trying to figure out what to do with that free time, where you usually end up just organizing your desk or going on to Facebook, now instead you go back to your list and you’ll take another item off that list. You can refocus your attention immediately, “I have bonus free time free up… I might order my book,” or you take on an B item or just keep working towards completing the A’s.
Again this is a great way for you to be able to manage your day – the A-B-C, 1-2-3 system.
That was another very full show. Lots of good information.
Everybody, thank you so much for listening. You’ve been listening to the Meisha Rouser Show, coaching you to success. Have a fabulous day and thank you!
Additional Sources:
Productivity Project, Chris Bailey
Steven Covey: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Getting Things Done: David Allen