Thanks … for the opportunities to share. This week, I have been invited to three webinars AND have scheduled eleven 1:1 conversations with clients in the www.AchieveYourNext.com professional development coaching program.
A theme over the past several days – ok, for me, over the past 2 decades! – has been:
PRODUCTIVITY
Now that a couple of weeks have gone by (are YOU making things BETTER in 2013?), seems like people are looking around and realizing, “The time is going by!” So, to be the most we can be, we’re thinking up ways to get you ONLY the information you can use. Yesterday’s Google Hangout (recorded and stored on the joinTBF YouTube channel) was dedicated to high school and college-age students thinking of starting businesses.
Any advice/ideas I gave came through the filter of:
+ Having taught high school for 5 years
+ Having taught the GTD seminars globally for 6 years
+ Having started a second company with my wife
+ Having built a coaching practice, working with clients world-wide
+ Having published a book on professional development and performance
So, let me end this post in a way that can begin a conversation. In the comment area below, what would you say productivity is NOT?
Productivity is NOT seeing how little I can do to get by.
When I taught high school, I implemented something called “300 more seconds.” My intention was to ALWAYS get me and the kids to go 5 more minutes on something.
Now, I use that same philosophy/mindset when I’m writing, reading, out to dinner with my wife, even working out preparing for a triathlon. Give it a try, when you’re done with something important, right before you walk away, click send, or drop it in the mailbox, take 300 more seconds to see if you’re really finished!
Making an action plan for change that doesn’t start immediately. If you need to wait until next Monday to start looking for a better job, to start eating right, or to start showing your partner more appreciation, you should reevaluate your goals. Behavior change is nearly impossible if it doesn’t correlate with your core beliefs.
Productivity is not..(just) having a to do list!
Being organised, knowing the choices of things you could do, and having someway of prioritising those things can be very effective behaviours.
However, in themselves they do NOT make you productive. In fact, from personal experience, they are very dangerous because the very act of making lists and continuously maintaining them can make you THINK you are being productive. I have found that trying to implement complex systems such as GTD bring out OCD type behaviours that are counter-productive.
How to break out of this cycle? Well, for me, I find writing down my daily schedule to include scheduled meetings and my 3-5 MITs and some time for “maintenance” such as e-mail processing is the way. And even though I work in a global corporate environment where Exchange/Outlook is ubiquitous, somehow the act of writing it out the evening before ensures the next day if more focused and productive. And yes Jason – this is one of my “At my best when…I PLAN THE NEXT DAY IN WRITING THE EVENING BEFORE”.
Thank-you so much Jason for your book, articles, videos – they continue to encourage me to discover what works for me rather than just copying someone else’s system…
Andy,
Thanks SO much for sharing this with us! It’s early here in California (5:30am) and I’m looking at last night’s list – for today – that says, “Clean up, Confirm presentation, Draft Leadership article, Run” as my BIG ITEMS for today.
Everything else is “over and beyond!
Have a great week out there…
7 Ways to Get More of the Right Things Done
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