A great way to make sure you don’t get distracted from the tasks that are most important is to keep a todo list. I used to keep three todo lists, one for today, one for this week and one for “someday.” My technique goes something like this:

The Technique
At the beginning of the week I outline all the accomplishments I want to make for the week then I prioritize them and put the most important (ranked by impact) at the top, and least important at the bottom.

At the beginning of each day I select the number of items off that list (and sometime break them up into subtasks) that I think I can accomplish during that day. As my day goes along I can refer back to this list to know the next thing I need to accomplish. I never have to question whether or not I’m working on the most important thing because I’ve already prioritized my tasks at the beginning of the day.

At the end of the day or at the beginning of the next day I look at my list and if I haven’t checked each task off I try to figure out why and what I could change to ensure I get better results the next day. Reasons may include: I under estimated the amount of work each task was going to require; I wasn’t feeling well and didn’t have the amount of energy I thought I would have; I got distracted by another task.

If the issue was that I under estimated the amount of work each task was going to take I try to learn from that mistake so my estimation can be better for tomorrow or next time.

I understand that some days I will be more focused or have more energy than others, and that’s OK. If it becomes a chronic issue though, there may be something else to blame. Am I lacking the inspiration I need to be excited about this task? Are there other external factors at play (sleep, stress, summer sunshine, winter powder)? If I lack the inspiration I try to find my “why.” If it’s an external distraction that’s keeping me from focusing I try to reset my focus by carving out time to dedicate to those things.

The last reason I don’t get everything done I want to is usually the most common. I got distracted by another task. If I see that I didn’t accomplish everything I wanted to accomplish that day because I was distracted by some other task I have to ask myself if that was the correct decision. Was that task more important than the thing that I didn’t get to? If I can honestly answer yes, then it was the right choice, and I did what I should have done. If it was less important than what was dropped I reassess my prioritization and make sure the task gets done the next day.

I use a similar technique to ensure that I’m staying on tasks at the beginning and end of each week. Assess what I accomplished (either on the list or not on the list) and analyze what I did not accomplish.

The Tools
In order to use this technique you must be absolutely diligent about keeping track of your tasks and results. This means that if you do something that’s not on your list make sure you write it down for later assessment.

I started this technique with a basic pen and paper approach. My office mates would often laugh at my notebooks that had lists and lists written all over them each item scribbled in and crossed out. I get great pleasure out of crossing items off my list, but keeping my list in order is very difficult, and usually requires rewriting the list or keeping the list double spaced so you can squeeze items between. Additionally I’m a nerd, by any measure, so I seek digital solutions that will give me the most efficiency, so this is clearly not the ideal solution.

I burned through many task list applications, web sites all met with greater or lesser success. I’ve tried Remember the Milk, Evernote, and Google Tasks Lists. I liked Google Tasks the best because of its blazing speed and ease of use. Remember, for a todo list to be useful it has to be nearly transparent to your daily work, or you won’t use it.

My wife turned me on to teuxdeux which I really like. It’s fast and easy to use, but it adds the ability to add tasks to different days of the week. This lets me plan a little better and lets me offload tasks that have specific deadlines early so I don’t have to think about them before they’re done.

No matter which tool you end up using the important part is to assess your progress through the tasks you outline for yourself and to write down every task you accomplish during the day. The great thing about writing down everything you do and crossing it off is that you have a beautiful list of accomplishments. Exactly what I need after a long day at work!

Labels: productivity

I think that it is important to properly define the terms that we use when talking about productivity. Since these words are somewhat subjective it matters more that you have a specific definition that you can refer to periodically than to agree with everybody else on the specific terms and definitions.

I use the words Goals, Results and Activities.

A quick definition might be that a Goal is a long-range target. A result helps you, your company or your team succeed. Activities are the smallest unit of work that helps accomplish a result or goal.

You can think of an activity as a single step in a journey. It always takes work to make a step, but the step does not always get you closer to your goal. Of course the lesson is to check your compass and map periodically to make sure you’re always going in the right direction.

Goals
Goals are long ranging strategic targets. They can be self created or defined by your manager or company. An example of a strategic company or team goal might be "Be profitable in Q3" or "Ship Version 3.5 of our Product." We define goals so that each individual to look up from their daily tasks and see how it fits in with the goal. This helps people know when they’re on track and helps them feel like their making a difference and not just a "cog in a wheel."

Personal Goals are a very important piece of my happiness. When I can accomplish a personal goal or can see myself making progress on a personal goal it gives me great satisfaction. Personal goals don’t have to be anything more than something you’d like to do. I can give examples of personal goals, but it is important for you to find your own passion. For me it is to Run a Marathon, Compete in an Olympic distance Triathlon and help my non-profit, Technically Learning, meet our donation goal this year.

Results
Results are all about impact. The best results have the highest impact. Impact can be defined by how much closer completing that result will get you to the goal. I’d like to dedicate an entire blog entry to getting results, but for now let’s move on to tasks.

Tasks
We define our tasks by splitting up larger blocks of work. We can then prioritize those tasks by what will give us the best results and the greatest impact. It is important to reflect daily on your task list to make sure the tasks you are completing still align with getting the best results and align with the overall goal. Don’t get so focused on the individual tasks that you lose site of the goal. Tasks are meaningless if they don’t get the results.

Have you ever known anybody that seems to be constantly busy or overwhelmed but never seems to accomplish anything? They may be simply choosing the wrong tasks and by the time they’ve completed their task list, the goal has changed and their work is lost.

Remember: high activity does not necessarily imply high impact.

Labels: goals, productivity, results, tasks

About 6 months ago it seemed like the internet was infatuated with a new time management technique called "Pomodoro." Developed by Francesco Cirillo, The Pomodoro Technique is a good way to increase focus, manage time and improve time estimations. If you're curious, the term "Pomodoro" comes from the Italian word for tomato, which is the type of kitchen timer the author of the technique used to time his sessions, more on this later.

The Pomodoro technique taps into a few important principles to help increase focus and results:

1. We can attain a laser-like focus for a short period of time, after that time focus deteriorates and results diminish
2. Minimizing distractions is paramount for finding a flow state
3. Taking short breaks can help increase focus
4. Using a prioritized task list helps minimize downtime due to task selection between tasks

The author did some experimentation to find out how long a person can focus on a single task and discovered that it's generally about 25 minutes. After which point the person becomes increasingly distracted by other things.

The cycle of the pomodoro technique goes like this.

1. Create a Priority weighted task list.
2. Select the first task, set a timer for 25 minutes, and begin working on it.
1. Turn off all distractions. No phone, e-mail, IM. Close your door and focus.
3. At the end of 25 minutes stop working completely. Pencils down; like at the end of a gradeschool test
1. Walk away from the task and do something else unrelated and calming for 5 minutes
2. This means no checking e-mail, phones, etc. Go play with the dog, or get a glass of water.
4. At the end of the 5 minutes,
1. Return to your desk
2. Place a checkmark next to the task you were working on, on your task list
3. Set your timer for 25 minutes
5. Return to your task and continue working with laser like focus for 25 minutes
6. If you complete a task draw a line through the entire task on your sheet

If you complete a task before the 25 minutes are up, use the last few minutes of the "pomodoro" to review your work and improve it, or learn from your experience so you can do it better next time. If you complete a task, but you've used fewer than 10 minutes of your pomodoro, consider that part of the previous pomodoro and move on to your next task immediately.

Does this really work? I've found that this works well for me when working on certain types of tasks, but like almost any time management technique I've had to modify it for my own uses.

It works when I am writing, testing or reviewing. I think it works with these classes of problems because I don't need to hold enormous amounts of information in my memory, and taking short breaks periodically allows me to step back and reframe the issue I'm working on for added clarity.

When I have a task that I estimate should take an hour I will sometimes use a single pomodoro to complete the task in half the time. I've found when all distractions are removed that this 50% estimation is fairly accurate.

I've found this can be very distracting when I find myself solving large problems, while programming complex systems, or need to keep a large amount of information in my head. All this thrashing every 25 minutes only serves to defocus me. Stopping every 25 minutes makes it nearly impossible to enter into a "flow state" which can increase productivity significantly. If I find myself in that kind of a state, and I'm feeling good I won't take a Pomodoro break. I'll pop my head up four or five hours later to discover I've made significant headway on all my tasks.

Just think how well you work when right at the end of a major deadline. The Pomodoro Technique attempts to tap into that focus (or frenzy) and allow you to harness it all day. Give it a shot for a few days, maybe you'll find a source of energy and focus you never knew you had.

Labels: productivity, time management

Recently I was forced to work only 6 hours per day. On the surface this seems great, I immediately started filling my time with other things that I've wanted to get around to, but never felt I had the time for because of my busy 10-12 hour per day work schedule. That excitement quickly moved way to fear, fear not getting as much done, fear of losing clients or projects due simply to not having enough hours to work in a day.

Nevertheless as I mentioned earlier, this wasn't necessarily my choice, so the experiment began.

Week one went by, no apparent loss of productivity.

Week two, again, no apparent loss of productivity.

What's going on?
After a few weeks I decided to look into what was really happening. I found myself focusing much more acutely on my tasks at hand. I pushed out any non-work related distractions from my mind and more importantly inbox and really focused on what I needed to complete by the end of the day.

I also tapped into the natural ebb and flow of my daily energy cycles. I realize that sounds like some kind of new age crystal energy management technique, but it's really not. I discovered that I found myself most productive in the mornings, between 8:30 AM and lunch, generally right after I have my coffee. I feel like I can accomplish anything during those hours. I could review the most boring document, find and fix pedantic bugs, deploy to a server, or slog through hundreds of XML log files looking for a potential vulnerability. I can do all of this and stay focused, and stay sharp because this is the time when my mind is most active.

After lunch however I've found that I have a far harder time focusing on a task, especially if it is one that I don't find particularly interesting. After lunch it's much harder to find my "flow" and get things done. (side note: my wife has recently started a partial raw foods diet. I've found eating raw for lunch significantly increases my ability to focus after lunch. More on that in a later blog post.)

What was really happening when I was working 10 hours per day was that I tapped into my early morning ultra-productivity cycle, but then as the day went on I increased hours while drastically decreasing results. We've all heard of the Law of Diminishing Returns.

Of course these times and energy levels will be different for everybody, so I recommend spending a few days or weeks keeping an hourly journal to track how you feel. Get a notebook and on each line write each hour of the day, then in the next columns rate yourself on metrics you are interested in. In this case I would rate myself on: productivity, alertness, focus, and flow.

What to do?
Now that we know when we're most productive we can apply this to our daily work habits.

Choose to accomplish tasks that you find less fun, exciting or interesting when you have the most energy. I've found that doing something a little boring is doable if I do it first thing, when I'm focused and am excited to be productive for the day. You'll fly through your boring tasks quickly especially if you leave some fun and exciting tasks that you can only start on after you're done, just like your mom used to make you eat your peas before you could have ice cream.

In the times when you are less productive choose to do your fun and exciting projects. In my experience the excitement of the task helps me quickly find my "flow" state and get lots of stuff done.

If I do these two things and minimize distractions I can get the results of 10 hours worth of work done in 6 hours, which of course is an amazing increase.

Another principle I'd like to talk about soon is finding your pace. I'll leave that for a future blog entry too (yikes, I'm already adding to the future pile blogs to write!), but I'll mention a couple of quick principles. Just like running a race it's important to know and stick to your pace. Perhaps you can work 10 hours per day for 5 days straight, but if you push beyond that you'll run the risk of burning out, getting sick, or losing productivity. If you find your pace you can do as much work as you can, predictably, which in the long run will help increase productivity, results and make you happier.

Labels: productivity, time management

I'm not sure why I stopped blogging, but recently I've felt increasingly like I have something to share, perhaps this is solely narcissistic thinking but on these pages you will likely find me rambling about whatever strikes my fancy. Additionally I'm going to try to keep any sort of "audience" out of my mind and post commentary that I enjoy and know about.

That said, enough about me, on to the first blog post in more than two years.

One of the things that I find really interesting is personal productivity. I'm constantly trying new things out and assessing whether or not that's making me better at what I do, whatever that is.

Of course this is a big topic, entire blogs, books, and speakers are dedicated to this. I'm going to write about it as I find time, and about small topics that will give big impact and great results.

Impact and results, there's a great place to start.

When I think about getting things done I try to frame my activities and goals in Impact and Results. I ask myself "does this particular activity provide the greatest impact? Will it provide the greatest results?" If yes, then I know it's the most important thing to do at that time. If not, I have to assess if there's something better to do right now, if this is the right thing to focus on, but the activity needs to be revised to give better impact and results, or if the activity in question isn't worth doing at all.

I just gave a one hour presentation to my company about personal productivity and I framed this in an analogy. I like to climb mountains. In mountaineering the goal is very clear, summit the mountain and return safely. It's the route that causes problems and discussions along the way. North slope, or south? Attempt to cross a crevasse, or hike around? With each decision we either get closer to our goal or farther away, a good leader can predict the outcome of the decision and will choose wisely.

A good leader will also be able to course correct when it makes sense. The path that looked so clear and perfect may be completely incorrect as we get nearer. Many times we will layout a set of activities to complete a goal and blindly complete those activities throughout the day or week. When the activities are completed and the goal has moved we feel as though we've been spinning our wheels without getting anywhere, and indeed we have. It's important to look up and make sure that the goals and activities still make sense and that they are the best we can do. Constantly assess the activities and goals you're working on to ensure they are ideal.

Completing activities is meaningless if they aren't the right activities.

When deciding which activity to do ask yourself, will this activity get me closer to reaching my goal? Does this activity have the most impact? Will it provide the best results? With each decision and each activity make sure you're always getting closer to the goal.

That's enough for now. In my next blog I hope to talk about a couple of techniques I use to stay on task and complete the activities I've chosen for the day and week.

Labels: productivity