How to be Productive

Busy people are hell-bent on fitting in more things into their day. Productive people cut their to-do list thoughtfully by 50 percent.

Do you want to be a busy person, or a productive one? The latter just takes a little bit of planning - and why is planning important? Let's ask the General...

The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose. - Sun Tzu

Start with Asking Why?

Why does this need to be a 10-person meeting? can a couple of us work on this and report back a draft for review? Since we've grown should we split this meeting into more focused groups?

Why does our 30-minute meeting constantly take an hour? Is all the content important or are we missing a strategy or agenda?

Why can't I record this update and send it out to everyone to watch at their own time or do they all need to be live at the same time?

Teach Others How to Treat You

Outlook has this handy feature called the Scheduling Assistant. It shows others in your company if you're free so they can book a meeting at a time when you are.

Use it! here's how.

If someone at your company books you without a prior DM asking if you can move things around to free up the time, it's safe to assume, you're optional to attend.

Plan your time in advance and teach others to plan around your well thought out and productive schedule.

Be Prepared & Expect the Same from Others

I'm not here to tell you I'm 110% prepared for every meeting, but I try to show up prepared to most meetings, not only so that I am prepared but so others feel like I respect their time.

Invitations with no agenda, clear meeting topics and lack of structure should not be excusable.

If the meeting is 15 minutes and starts at 11:00am I'm leaving at 11:16am.

Meetings without plans and agendas are not productive - parking lot things that aren't on the agenda that come up and book another time to brainstorm them.

Plan Ahead & Expect Change

What's the best way to make sure you never get to the gym at lunch? try to book it on Monday morning of the same week.... guess what? your calendar is already full.

It's good to have some free time blocked in your calendar in case you need to be flexible - things come up and doing this will make sure you're not stuck on a video call 10 hours of the day.

Time Block

Blocking free time is always nice and helps the day seem less hectic, but if you actually put your tasks in your calendar and then do them at those times you can be pretty darn efficient.

It also helps you see how much you get done in a day and also how you can prioritize tasks both around urgency but also your energy levels.

Microsoft has this great too called Focus time - it'll automagically book blocks of focus time each day for you...to do exactly that - focus.

Take a Break

Don't forget to schedule these in too!

Prioritize: The Eisenhower Matrix

Prioritizing what you do at any moment is the key to efficiency and sanity.

I often use this neat little matrix to help me figure out what I need to do and in what order.

If you're finding your days a bit too hectic, the solution is often a quick review and prioritization of your task list away.

How are you going be more productive? I would love to hear your ideas in the comments.