The impact of small productivity gains

Recently I’ve started travelling to Canberra every week or two to start talking to clients in my old hometown. It wasn’t long before I realised that the 3-hour trip in the car was a good opportunity to start listening to audiobooks (be it for a bit of professional development or lighter entertainment during the journey!) Prompted by an interview with a truckie about his voracious audio book appetite, I found my local library’s collection, and before I knew it was listening to the topic of this post: James O’Loghlin’s self-help book titled How To Balance Your Life.

Personally, my work-life balance veers from one extreme to the other, so I’m often looking for new ideas or ways to create a more even keel. To my surprise, the book is much less about work-life balance and more about different strategies to create personal productivity gains at work. (Not a problem, as I adore productivity hacks.) O’Loghlin argues that through delivering work more efficiently, we create gains for the organisation as well as little incremental pockets of time that enable people to have more flexible lives.

How could you become 10% more efficient? O’Loghlin has plenty of suggestions (so you'll have to read or listen to the book!), but I have a few anectodes below too:

·     In a role I had more than a few years ago, my manager agreed to a proposal to work from home four days a week, with one common day where the whole team was in the office. (Kudos to her!) It turned out to be an excellent arrangement that instantly removed 80% of my commute – but the biggest impact was that it freed me to focus more on work, and less on the grind of getting to the office and all the other interruptions that might go with it.

·     Just last week Tania Taylor (article below) was describing her office’s quiet time- a few hours in the morning where staff are meeting-free and able to focus on a significant task to genuinely progress the organisation’s strategy.

·     I have an incredibly efficient client who recently told me they do the ‘1% emails’ in between meetings – just knocking task, by task off their to-do list in the tiny gaps that present in their very busy day.

·     Over the past few months I’ve completely automated my businesses back end, thanks to the wonders of cloud-based apps with wonderful data integrations – and I’m a bit gobsmacked at how much extra time it has created to focus on strategy and engagement – the things that are most important to my work.

A lot of people in my network are in the health system, an area that is constantly looking for efficiency gains and improved productivity. Often, people like me are engaged to come in and help pinpoint approaches where things might be done differently for improved performance. But why not do this for yourself, at an individual level, and let the gains spread from there? Both the system, and you personally, stand to benefit.

What tricks and tips do you have to do your work more efficiently? I’m always on the look out for new ideas, please share your thoughts below!

https://jamesologhlin.com/books/how-to-balance-your-life/