What I’ve Learned about Productivity

One thing that any of my clients will tell you is that I’m fast. In fact, during a meeting recently, I made a comment about being fast at getting things done, and the client said, “Yeah, we know, that’s why we don’t mind your rate!” Send me stuff, and I tend to do it, I do it quickly, and I take less time than a lot of people. That’s my super power.

But I’m not always as productive as I could be. I make “to do” lists, and then I try to work through the lists based on level of importance, but I am easily distracted by Facebook and Twitter and Email. Now that summer is upon us and the kids are home from school, I need to make productivity an important part of my life, because I work from home. I don’t have six hours of uninterrupted work time every day when school is out. I’ll have to shuttle kids to activities and camps as well as manage time to get all my work done.

This is something that is going to be a challenge. I’ve been talking to other developers, reading up on productivity, and I’ve started to implement a more regimented work calendar.

Here are some of the things I’m doing to be more productive:

1. I turned off the “auto check” on my email. No more pings to distract me from my work.
2. I am checking and responding to emails on designated times during the day. No more flipping over to see what’s coming in, and responding right away. It’s okay if I don’t respond for an hour!
3. No more Twitter and Facebook while I’m working. Too many distractions. My Twitter friends will have to understand.
4. Put all incoming work on the calendar in time slots, and do the work when it’s time.

I set up a work Google calendar, and instead of just working through  my list and checking things off, I’m assigning all tasks to a time slot. So at any given time, I know exactly what I’m working on during any given day. This has been a game changer for me.

It’s no longer “I’ll try to get to that tomorrow” but instead, “I can schedule this update for Friday” because I can instantly see that time slots are available during that day.

This is also important when it comes to vacations. I like to travel. And I don’t want to be stuck having to work or answering work emails while I’m on vacation. Implementing a schedule means that I can plan ahead for vacations and leave home with an empty work calendar.

Having a regimented schedule also allows me to schedule in other activities I want to be sure to fit in. I’m a runner, and going running keeps me active and healthy, but I often lose track of time when I’m working and then the day is over and I’ve missed my opportunity. Now I work my runs into my schedule so that I don’t have to miss them.

I set up my calendar with alerts, so ten minutes before a new task, I am alerted so I know I need to be winding down. If I’m not finished with a task, then I look at my schedule and plan the time I’m going to pick up where I left off.

And if I’m faster than normal, which is often the case for me, then I can start finishing up projects for later in the day and knock off early!

It turns out, there is plenty of time in the day when you plan for it!