What good shall you do today? Top productivity system and techniques for busy executives and entrepreneurs

“Man’s story is not solely told by a list of his grand accomplishments but by rather by smaller, daily goods.

What good shall I do today? ”

– Benjamin Franklin

He was founding father of the United States, leading writer, printer, philosopher, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat.

Benjamin Franklin’s daily schedule, which is also widely published, used to be as follows.

You will note how simple this is with all the essential elements of productivity system – planning, review, batching, focus, essentialism/minimalism, balance and so much more.

Similar schedules are followed by other accomplished people of our times like Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, Tata Group Chairman and many others.

If you would like to know, where you stand in terms of your own productivity and effectiveness, please do take this quiz developed by Nishant Kapoor.

Quiz - Find out your productivity score

Once there is clarity on your purpose and priorities, then what is important is to align your day-to-day life around the same.

Hopefully then, you can tap dance at work most of the time (not always though). It always helps to have a structured approach towards how you get things done.

While we all can take different approaches that suit our individual styles and preferences, the “Getting Things Done (GTD)” methodology developed by David Allen has been quite popular and widely used around the world.

This methodology consists of the following 5 steps in order to ensure stress-free productivity while getting tons of stuff done with good quality of life.

Step 1

Capture – Write down everything that is on your mind. Write, record, or gather any and everything that has your attention into a collection tool. This can be done in a structured way in way in the form of important areas in life.

“Your mind is for having ideas and not for holding them ” – David Allen

Step 2

Clarify – Process what you have captured for its meaning and implications. What you have captured is it actionable? If so, decide the next action and project (if more than one action is required). Also, clarify what are the expected outcomes?

If it is not actionable, decide if it is trash, reference, or to put on hold.

Some of the following techniques help in the clarification process.

• 4 D rule: Delete or Delegate or Delay or Do (in that order).
• 2 Minute rule – If you can do it in less than 2 minutes, do it now.
• Use various prioritization techniques including “Boat in the storm”, Rock pebble and sand in the jar, etc.

Step 3

Organize – Put stuff where it belongs such as trash (most important, trash as much as you can), Tasks and errands (with batching of similar tasks), to-do list and not to-do list, projects and calendar

Few important guidelines for getting things organized properly are as follows.

• Less is more

“If I make, like, three good decisions a day, that’s enough. And they shall be as high quality as I can make them.” – Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder

• Stay within your circle of competence

Even Warren Buffet only invests in businesses he understands. Find your sweet spot and strength area and play well there. It is dangerous to try to do anything and everything without proper understanding.

• Pareto principle 

20% (customers, activities, projects) generate 80% impact. While the percentages may vary, this is largely true. And hence try to focus on those few high gain, high impact activities/customers/tasks/projects.

• Batch processing

Jack Dorsey on how to manage 2 large Companies (Twitter and Square) at once with proper planning/organizing. He once mentioned,

“The way I found that works for me is I theme my days.

On Monday, at both companies, I focus on management and running the company…

Tuesday is focused on the product.

Wednesday is focused on marketing & communications & growth.

Thursday is focused on developers and partnerships.

Friday is focused on the company and the culture and recruiting.

Saturday I take off, I hike. 

Sunday is for reflection, feedback, strategy, and getting ready for the week.”

Step 4

Review – Review what has your mind. Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual review is a must for your both short term as well as long-term goals.

“What gets reviewed is what gets done.”

One big thing repeatedly done over and over again is what creates the magic.

You are someone who is responsible for your own success (personal as well as professional) and daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly/annual reviews and feedback from peers/experts is an important part to ensure that success.

At the same time, don’t be too hard on yourself. Mistakes and diversions are okay but the overall trend has to remain in right direction.

“Don’t break the chain rule” by Jerry Seinfeld is a very good reference here.

His one big thing life was – comedy (no other distractions)

How he became world-class at it – He used to write comedy/jokes almost every day for a couple of hours and then put an “X” (cross) on the calendar. As he kept on putting more and more “X”s (crosses) on the calendar, a nice chain would get formed across days, weeks, months, and years like “XXXXXXXXXXXX….”.

Then his rule was not to break this chain (of course with planned breaks such as weekends).

No wonder Jerry Seinfeld is one of the best creators of our times.

Automation is also an important part of doing more in less amount of time and if you would like to learn more about automation especially in the area of marketing, communication, and sales.

Step 5

Engage – Take appropriate actions with confidence. Just do what you want to do after applying all the above-mentioned steps. This is not just “doing” but “engaging” with life. Your chance at a great life. What you give to life instead of asking favors from it.

Some of the techniques that help in being good at “doing/engaging” are as follows.

• 1-3-5 daily rule – 1 big task/project, 3 medium imp tasks, and 5 little things.
• Batching of like tasks (emailing, calls, outdoor errands, social media) helps save a lot of time.
• Automation is the key.
• Email and social media twice a day only and measure the time spent and utilization.
• POMODORO method to get a better outcome in much less time

1. Prep and times and everything that is required
2. Do the first stretch – 30 min
3. Take a 10 min break
4. Repeat until the work is complete
5. Aim for 20 POMODOROs per week at least

Using this method, some of us have been able to complete work in 10 hours which otherwise would have taken 40 to 60 hours per week.

• Multitasking is bad and can cause delays of up to 500 % and lots of brainpower.
• What is your one big thing – swimming, investing, marketing, teaching, coaching, startups?  Focus on it as much as you can.

“Write down the 3-5 things — and no more — that are making you most anxious or uncomfortable.

For each item, ask yourself: “If this were the only thing I accomplished today, would I be satisfied with my day?”

 Block out at 2-3 hours to focus on ONE of them for today. Let the rest of the urgent but less important stuff slide.”

– Tim Ferris (Author of “4 hour work week” and “Tools of the Titan”)

“Plan for 4-5 hours of focused work every day” – DHH from Basecamp

• Focus on opportunities vs. problems and important as well as high gain high impact activities. Ignore the rest.
• Ignore as much as you can.
• Be selective about the people, institutions, skills, and projects you are dealing with. Will that count and matter over 10 years?

What is taking me closer to my 1/3/5 year goals on a daily basis?

To summarize and emphasize again, please do think carefully about the following.

“Don’t be on your deathbed someday, having squandered your one chance at life, full of regrets because you pursued little distractions instead of big dreams.” 

- Derek Sivers  

About the author: Mahesh Dumbre enjoys working with entrepreneurs, investors and executives around the world, helping them achieve true growth potential. He is an ex-Tata Group executive who enjoyed building businesses globally (over 17 years in 8 countries across 11 industries, 80+ million USD value addition) as well as teaching and writing. He can be reached at [email protected].