arturo in Personal, Profesional
04-24-09
Productive working
Many times I wonder how to be more productive in my work, enjoy it more and live a better life. This turns out to be a complex task if you want to attain all at the same time. Sometimes you think that the more you work, the more successful you will be, and on the other hand, if you didn’t work enough –and your project doesn’t succeed– you blame it on not having invested enough hours. I will not get into detail in this mater because y think it’s pretty well explained in the 37 signals blog post: The lifestyle business bullshit; but i will mention that there is in general a common misconception which makes us believe that the more hours we work the more productive we are. From my point of view this is a bold lie. The more hours you work, in the end, the less productive you become. It turns out into spending lots of hours in front of the computer but not really focused. This is not productive, not profitable and not a good investment for your clients.
The point of this post is about productive working and how focusing on what you do improves the result of your work, and in the end your of your life. It is well known today that we are used to being interrupted in many different ways while working. Some years ago, the only interruptions came through the phone or some team member entering your office, but today there are hundreds of “interruption methods” such as mobile phones, email, chats, blogs, etc. that keep you more worried about what is happening around than what you should be doing.
These interruptions are totally against productivity and turn out into longer working hours, longer working days, less free time and in the end less happiness. What happens when a worker is not happy or hasn’t rested enough? Well that’s a very simple answer: he is less productive. So from a personal point of view and form a professional point of view we all have to be aware that we have to focus on what we are doing and avoid interruptions.
Following some of my experiences I will suggest some ways on how to work productively and spend less time working and getting more things done.
1. Avoid interruptions
This doesn’t mean that you will not talk to your colleges, to your boss or to your client. It means that you have to define review sessions with them, you have to schedule email reading for yourself, you have to switch off your chat and make a good use of the internet while working. Then, when you get back to them in a couple of hours, days or weeks and dedicate completely to them they will be even more satisfied.
2. Notify and implement your thoughts
Tell your clients/boss that you will read emails 2 or 3 times a day and that you will not answer immediately. If there is anything really urgent they should be able to reach you on the phone.
3. Work focused
Once you have set your email reading hours and your chat availability times, you can now work focused. Make a plan for the for the day and keep the overview for the week and if you can for the month. Set the daily to do list, make the most important phone calls first thing and start working on the most important to dos.
Again avoid interruptions and if someone comes in to talk to you, ask them to post pone the chat for later or for a review meeting –as it is said, ask them to consider the context.
4. Have short productive review meetings
Once a day, once a week or once a month. Meet with whom ever you must, review your work with them, gather feedback and get back to work fast. More short meetings better than one long one. Don’t wait to the last day to mention your problems. Probably the people who you are working have already faced similar problems, and talking about it with them will help you solve your problems.
5. Take responsibilities
Know which are your limitations and take the responsibilities that correspond to you. It is also well known that we take more responsibilities than we should to please the people that surround us, and in the end it goes against your productivity and your results. Then nobody will remember that it wasn’t your task and that you just took it as a favor.
6. Learn to say no
Or not now, or maybe later, or maybe never, but don’t forget to give a reasonable explanation. If your reasonings are reasonable, after 2 weeks, your attitude will be respected and no one will interrupt you.
7. Make a plan, stick to it and improvise along the way
It’s good to have a plan with review sessions and delivery dates, but it’s also good to be flexible and agile to change. If you stick too much to a plan you loose flexibility and the capability of improvising. But if you don’t have a plan you could be drifting without noticing.
8. Report and inform
Keep your boss, team or client informed all the time. Don’t wait until they ask. This will give them an overview of what you are doing and it will help you re-direct your process if needed in the right time. It will also avoid interruptions and it will make everyone happier. But don’t do it all the time, invest the right time at the right moment.
9. Review the results
This will tell you if you are drifting or not. It will let you know if you are taking the right decisions and delivering your work in realistic deadlines. Also think what could be improved and how could you use your hours better.
10. Enjoy the rest of life
Ride your bike to the office, go to the park for lunch, don’t spend money in expensive meals that will make you tired and will last too long, go dancing, take your dog out for longer walks, learn a language, take different ways to the office, stop in that bookshop, and as Mike would say: “keep a smile in your face because life is good!”
