View
707
Download
0
Category
Tags:
Preview:
DESCRIPTION
Maximize your Productivity by getting clear on where you spend your time, getting focused on what you want and creating the time and space to make it happen.
Citation preview
Maximizing Productivity: Creating more time and space for what’s really important
July 20, 2010
Today we will explore• Understand the impact of the fast-paced/multi-tasking work
environment
• Identify the key priorities in your role and uncover what’s really important to you
• Learn how your brain and energy works as it relates to your current environment
• Learn best practices and your unique style for creating the time & space to focus on what’s important
Information overload
Technology that enabled us to do more and be more productive can also undermine our ability to focus
New options competing for our timeNielsen
Where’s our focus during the day?
• 11 minutes: average time employees devote to a project before being distracted
• 25 minutes: average time it takes to return to serious mental tasks after disruption
• 28%: time wasted by interruptions that aren’t urgent or important like unnecessary email messages
• 3 days: number of productive days in a work week
Resource: Basex, research firm, 2008
Impact of multi-tasking
• It takes your brain 4x longer to recognize and process each thing you’re working on when you switch back and forth among tasks
• Your IQ falls 10 points when you're fielding constant emails, text messages, and calls
• The same loss you'd experience if you missed an entire night's sleep
• More than double the loss you'd have after smoking marijuana
Resource: Basex, research firm, 2008
We work 24/7
20% of people work 80+ hours per week
50% of people work at dinner, while driving and on vacation
18% admit to working in the bathroom
Resource: Basex, research firm, 2008
What’s the impact?
We’re sick
80% of our medical expenditures are now stress related
U.S. companies lose between $200-$300 billion a year due to work-related stress
We’re unhappy
<15% are extremely satisfied
84% are unhappy
65% of people are looking for work
< 20% are engaged
Resources: Salary.com 2009, Career Builder 2008, Fast Company 2003, National Safety Council, Priority Magazine, 2007
Where are you spending your time?
Samples of time segments:Email PhoneStrategyClients/StakeholdersInternal communication/relationshipsCreativity/Ideation/ BrainstormingTrends & InnovationBreaks (and lunch)Managing teamsResearch & Trends…..or add personal too!
We’re often managing information instead of being focused and connected to what matters
People
Strategy Ideation
Meaning
Perspective
You can choose to prioritize!
While you can’t change time, you can change your:
Mind
HabitsEnergy
The myth of time managementWe really do get to choose
You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.
What is the priority here?
What happens?
What if you shift your focus?
And there’s even room for water
Where do you want to spend time?
Behavioral change is required to close the gap
Realize that change is hard because it causes pain Feels dangerous because it requires moving from known to
unknown
Recognize that people in different functions process in different ways
Leave "problem behaviors in the past; focus on identifying and creating new behaviors”
There has to be a good enough reason to change External vs internal motivation
And more importantly….. to sustain it
Identify a few key priorities
What are some of the parts of your job you would like more time for?
How would it impact you if you achieved this and how would you feel if you got it?
Ask: What’s important about _______?
It seems simple. Why is this hard?
Information has changed, but the brain hasn’t Problem solving, planning, communicating, prioritizing etc tasks
rely on the Prefrontal Cortex It’s the biological seat of your conscious interactions – thinking
through vs autopilot
We tend to focus in the PFC– only 4-5% of
volume of brain
The brain needs fuel
Processing information uses and depletes energy resources Brain shuts down when hungry or tired Average person can focus in this part of the
brain for 1-2 hours per day
• Prioritizing takes a lot of brain energy• Requires imagining future and moving
around concepts that you have no direct experience with yet
Three levels of thinking Level 1: Deleting emails
Level 2: Scheduling a meeting Takes more time and energy to hold the information
in mind
Level 3: Writing a pitch or creating materials Hold info for much longer Take lots of energy and space.
Bottom line: Do creative work first, urgent and important second, and everything else third.
Ask yourself: If you truly respected attention as a limited resource, what might you do differently?
Resource: David Rock “Your Brain at Work”
The “Always-on” mindset
Has created an artificial sense of constant crisis
In mammals, this state creates a fight or flight mechanism to kick in
It’s great when tigers are chasing us
How many of your 200 emails per day is a tiger?
New York Time “Lost in Email”
You are being paid to think More than 50% of workers today do creative
work
Definition of creativity according to Webster: To create means to “make or bring into existence
something new”
Creativity includes inventing, designing, painting, writing….
But also… Putting together information in a novel way Creating new services Problem solving
Ideas make money
What’s important about this to this industry?
The Creative process is a big engine of wealth creation
Get beyond linear thinking 60% of problems are solved by insight moments
Ideas are often created by insight moments
When/where do you have your best idea?
Our best ideas often occur when we seem not to be consciously seeking solutions
Stop thinking in order to solve problems Learn to stop automatic action and reflect
Quick test example
cracker - fly - fighter
safety - cushion - point
fish - mine - rush
Making it happen
• Write down priorities and align choices
• Create a better environment
• Do what works for you
“Awareness without action is hallucination”
Create the space and rigorous process
• Set aside time chunks in your day
• Categorize by “energy” of task vs subject
• “No email hours/time periods” – think of email as a job/task
• 1 hour per week minimum for creative, strategic idea generation – put it in your calendar
• 10-15 minutes per day on calendar for planning/reflection time
• Take breaks
• Implement 90 minutes of focused time followed by a break
• Schedule creative tasks in the morning
• Make agreements with those around you
• Get it out of your brain and onto paper
• Put everything in your calendar
• Create a to-do list that is action-oriented
Create the space and rigorous process
• Explore what others can do
• Delegate to others what they can do better than you
• De-cluttering your office space de-clutters your brain
• If you work from home, develop a work day routine
• Get ready for work
• Leave the house and come back
Create the space and rigorous process
• Some specifics about email
• Touch each email only once
• Categorize folders by subject and/or priority/action
• Remember that sending email creates more emails
• Be conscious about using it vs other means of communication. Ask yourself, can a phone call or in person meeting work?
• Use email for one of a few tasks
• Scheduling a meeting
• Providing information with a specific request for action
• Documentation
Listing Tasks: Approach 1
reading email
responding to email
fielding phone calls
making phone calls to generate new clients
following up on prospects
inputting client data into database
meetings with clients
dealing with home projects
Transporting kids (if necessary)
scheduling sales calls/appointments
creating marketing materials/presentations etc
invoicing
Categorizing Tasks: Approach 2
Prospecting (email, phone calls, scheduling) – includes clients, prospects, home – requires sales skills, interpersonal, persistence, routine dialing/emailing
Client Follow up (email, phone calls, scheduling) – requires follow-through, remembering/reacting to key details
Automated tasks– includes clients, prospects, home, invoicing – requires attention to detail, automation, limited thinking
Creating materials/business development – requires creativity, innovation
Exercise
1) List all tasks
2) Define skill required to complete
3) Bucket into categories
4) Arrange calendar based on new buckets/time chunks
Discover what works for you
• Learn to watch yourself
• Experiment
• Implement what works for your style and energy
• Leverage your strengths
Be a leader of your own time• One core priority (big rock)• ___________________________
• Commitment needed to make the change:• Yes: No:• _________________ _________________ • _________________ _________________• _________________ _________________
• What is your time commitment/structure?
• What is the proof that’s you’ve accomplished it?
• What’s your accountability with your partner?
Remember:
• It really is your choice
• Don’t lose sight of what’s really important
• Focus on the big rocks first
• Create the space and process that works for you
Be a leader of your own time
And enjoy the journey
Thank You!Heidi Kraft, Kraft Your Success
www.kraftyoursuccess.com/blog
@heidikraft
Appendix
Underlying any change we need to understand… Professional: What do I bring to my activities:
Motivation – you want to do a great job Knowledge – you understand what to do and how to do it Ability - you have the skills Confidence – you are sure of yourself when performing this Authenticity – you are genuine in your level of enthusiasm for engaging in
this
Personal: What the activity brings to me: Happiness – having engaged in it makes you happy Reward – provides material or emotional rewards that are important to you Meaning – the results of the activity are meaningful for you Learning – the activity helps you learn and grow Gratitude – you fell grateful for being able to do this and believe it’s a
great use of your timeMarshall Goldsmith, “Measuring Your Mojo”
Resources:• Bureau of Labor statistics
• Salary.com 2009
• Career Builder 2008
• Fast Company 2003
• Microsoft Survey, March 15, 2005
• Basex, research firm, 2008
• Herman Miller Inc., "The Siren Song of Multitasking," 2007 Journal of Experimental Psychology
• Jonathan B. Spira, "The Cost of Not Paying Attention," Basex Research, 2005
• David Rock, “Your Brain at Work”
• Daniel Pink, “Drive”
• Seth Godin, “Linchpin”
Recommended