Being and staying productive is not easy. The Internet and the different communication ways makes it sometimes hard to concentrate on the right things.
In this blog post I try to summarize different techniques to manage your life.
This post is based on the awesome Keynote Session: Information Overload and Managing the Flow by Scott Hanselman at Oredev Conference 2009 and the Getting Things Done method by David Allen.
1. Introduction
At first, what is effectiveness and efficiency ?
Effectiveness - Doing "right" things, i.e. setting right targets to achieve an overall goal (the effect)
Effectiveness is Process-oriented.
Efficiency - Doing things in the most economical way (good input to output ratio)
Efficiency is Goal-oriented.
Effectiveness is doing the right things.
Efficiency is doing things right.
But how to do this ? David Allen and Stephen Covey have developed some interesting techniques that really help to get things done.
1.1 David Allen: Three-Fold Nature of Work
David Allen is the author of the GTD (Getting Things Done) approach which goal is stress free productivity.
All work can categorized in three categories
- Pre-defined Work (work you have planned)
- Work as it Appears (interruption type work)
- Work of Defining Work
He also says there are 4 "D's" to handle the work.
- Do it
- Drop It
- Delegate It
- Defer It.
1.2 Stephen Covey: Covey Quadrants
Stephen Covey is the author of the book First Things First.
It says Something is either urgent and important, neither urgent nor important or one of those.
Here are the definition of the Quadrants. The samples depends on your goals, you have to define what lives in your Quadrants.
Quadrant 1
This is the Quadrant of Necessity, work that is important and urgent. For example: Crisis, Deadline-Driven Tasks or Medical Emergency's.
Quadrant 2
This is the Quadrant of Quality and Personal Leadership, work that is important but not urgent. For example: Preparation / Planning or Prevention.
Quadrant 3
This is the Quadrant of Deception, work that is urgent but not important. For example: Interruptions, Some Calls, E-Mails or Meetings.
Quadrant 4
This is the Quadrant of Waste, work that is neither important nor urgent. For example: Newsletters, Twitter or viewing mindless TV Shows.
The following picture shows the 4 quadrants with some examples for each of them.
Original Size
You can combine the 4 “D’s” with the Covey Quadrants.
We don't like to say NO, but every System that work need to have Flow Control, so drop packets.
Communication is Fault Tolerant.
Sample: a Email Inbox with 400 items. Copy all to a new Folder not inbox.
If you don't answer an email, they will email you again.
To many things to do is Psychic Weight. Use the 4 Ds!
1.3 Principles of Flow
- Time is a shared space
- Productivity is second to Connection: network productivity trumps personal productivity
- Everything important will find its way to you many, many times: dont worry if you miss it
- Remain in your flow: be wrapped up in the thing that has captured your attention
Its like running down the hill as a little child.. The moment you think about your feet's is the moment you fail.
There is no really Multi-Tasking There is only Task switching. There are some exceptions like Walk and Chew Gum or Workout and listen to Music.
Scott Hanselman
Be aware that you cant simultaneously be current on Technology, Current events , Pop culture, Professional practices or Health/fitness/diet trends.
Don't wait, for example the doctor, do something! Read a book for example.
2. Change it
But how to change something ? At first we need to Triage - (to separate, to sort) the things that provides values.
2.1 Identify Data Streams (figure out there everything comes from)
Collect all Inboxes (Phone, Work-Tasks, Twitter, Google Reader, Email, Phone, Voicemail) and sort by Signals vs. Noise. Decide which things provide value, and which things not.
Find the packets that can be dropped and sort the one that remains.
Sorted sample
- Phone
- Work Email
- Personal Email
- Wife, Parents, Family
- All Others
- Voice Mail
- Twitter
- Google Reader
2.2 E-Mail (David Allen)
Don't check email in the morning because it will destroy the day. Maybe you know this. You go to work and answer emails first. After you do all the work and bam! you think at 2pm "oh only 3 hours to 5pm, the day is basically over, because nothing is done today".
- If you respond, they will respond...
- The more you Email the more they will Email you.. If you stop, they will stop emailing you.
- If you are the fastest responder to a problem, you will get all the problems. Don't put energy into things you don't want more of. This don't mean to do bad work or cheat. It means be aware of flow control.
- Check Mail at 10 or better at lunch time.
2.3 Conserve your keystrokes (Jon Udell)
Be aware that there is a count of keystrokes you can do till you die. Don't write a Email with 5 paragraphs and send the to 2 people. Maybe no one will read it and it goes into the ether.
Maybe it belongs in a Blog, Wiki or SharePoint.
Don't waste your time!
Scott Hanselman (Program Manager at Microsoft) works 7 Years in Banking. Maybe you think it is not possible to blog about banking. He says “No, you can blog”.
I wrote 7 years about large system scale. Change the Names, change facts.
No one ever complain. Now i have a huge archive of things
Scott Hanselman
2.4 Aggregate Information if possible
If you read more than one news site, you read to much. Find the right sites that aggregate things you interested in or do it yourself using Google Reader or any other feed reader.
For every kind of information is a blog which acts as the central information source of the particular thing you are interested in. Don't have multiple sites to watch for the same interest. Search the right place!
Sample: Engadged for technology news. It is there full time job to aggregate tech news.
I believe that every feed i follow ... is like a lead weight, slowing down my brain .. Basically, if it's not helping me to secure or complete projects for my company, if it's not helping me to make money, if it's not improving my life in some way, it's mental clutter and it's out
Christopher Hawkins
2.5 The Trusted Source
People think they loosing information. Pick one location for each medium you use that is available all the time (any time, 24 hours a day). Keep it open all the time and update all the time.
Later in this post I show some tools and sources.
2.6 Schedule Works sprints
One technique you can use is the Pomodoro Technique. (Pomodoro is Italian for Tomato.)
It is a way to get the most out of the time management.
- Work totally focused for 25 minutes
- Take a break of 5 minutes
- Do this 4 times and take a longer break
The first objective to achieve in cutting down on interruptions is to be aware of the number and type of internal interruptions. Observer them, accept them, and schedule them or delete them.
The second objective to achieve in order to cut down on interruptions is to be aware of the numbers and type of external interruptions. Negotiate them and reschedule them depending on the real degree of urgency.
Every time something comes in your mind “I need to do…” . Don't break your current task. Write it down, keep working. If you get interrupted every day at the same time with the same type of "work"... reschedule the time you do the work.
Sample: An E-Mail comes in, keep working, answer later.
Analyze your work and improve your day! Stay focused!
2.7 E-Mail Rules / Filters
Separate your inbox using filters. For example. Bosses, To, CC, Podcasts / Newsletter / all types of interest, Inbox Calendar Invites, Waiting/Follow Up.
You can create a folder Actions and move emails to it, for later.
Create your own approach and analyze from time to time
2.8 Sync to paper
Because you don't have every time a computer or the time to put it in your smartphone. It is not worth typing 2 minutes to the smartphone if you can do it in 30 seconds on paper. Especially if the thing you notice live only a short moment.
But don't write things down you'll never read again
2.9 Lets someone else guide
For almost everything you are interested in, find a person who can tell you what you need to know, what should know, what's nice to know and what's Useless.
2.10 Train the people
If you don’t like voice mail put a text on it instead of not provide one. "This is not the way to reach me, send me an email at...". It is Ok to do that. It will save much time and physic weight and other people understand that.
3. Tools
There are different tools, analog and digital, that help to organize your life. This list is just a start and will grow.
3.1 Analog
D*I*Y Planner Hipster PDA Edition
A Do-It-Yourself planner.
PocketMod
A Do-It-Yourself planner and organizer. Very easy to create.
Tickler file
A tickler file is a collection of date-labeled file folders organized in a way that allows time-sensitive documents to be filed according to the future date on which each document needs action.
Wikipedia
For example, the 43 Folders technique. Uses 12 Folders for the months and 31 Folders for the days
3.2 Digital
A very powerful digital notepad that works on every device. You can use it to take a picture and find text you have photographed by search.
A electronic to-do list that works on most devices.
A personal-analytics service that shows you how you spend your time & provides tools to help you be more productive.
Thank you very much for reading.
Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.
This post is not a “final version” and will change.
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