Two secrets to dramatically increasing your productivity
There are two things that you can do to increase your productivity:
First, work in three dimensions, not linearly.
Second, use hand written lists to keep close track of what you are doing.
Recently someone mentioned that they had been sitting around for days waiting for a designer and programmer. They could not proceed with their project until these jobs were complete.
This is an example of what I call a stopping point. Stopping points are very bad. A few of these a week and you are in trouble. As an employee you may get away with looking for reasons to not work, as an owner you need to be looking for reasons to keep working.
Instead of waiting around watching TV this person should be writing the content that is going to go on the site. Not only will this be a better use of his time, but the site will also be fully usuable on launch.
Starting around a week and a half ago I began making use of hand written lists to schedule tasks I needed to do.
By placing steps in pencil, on paper, right in front of you, you always can see what you have done, what you need to do, and update that list accordingly.
I used to make these lists in Window’s Notepad application. For some strange reason hand writing it works so much better.
Interesting. I used to do objectives, tasks, and goals by hand a few years back but ended up using Notepad as well. I guess I’ll take your advice and go back to the good ol’ notebook and a pen as I have noticed a decrease in my productivity and you may have just given me the reason why!
Comment by CK — July 31, 2006 @ 5:01 pm
Your comments about productivity are so timely…we’re in the midst of developing our music website and I hit a stopping point yesterday…so I decided I would take the initiative and pre-register and open an account with some of the affiliate advertisers..little did I know, that my site got reviewed immediately and every single affiliate rejected my application today…Not surprised, because I only had a one-page promotional teaser set up with no content. So the lesson learned from my experience is, when you do hit a stop point, make sure the tasks you do don’t turn to be counter-productive turning a stop point into a go-back point of day! : )
Comment by johnny i — August 1, 2006 @ 11:15 am
I agree 100%
I have a huge WhiteBoard I use to write on all my to do’s..
I used to use MicroSoft onenote but never got round to doing everything and work/ideas eventually piled up.
Writing something down makes a big difference.
I always feel good after I have got some goals or To Dos down on the board.. even if i still have get to them.
Comment by Charl Norman — August 3, 2006 @ 5:25 pm
I just bought a dry-erase project board for high priority stuff I’m working on.
besides that, i have my TODO lists under subversion.
Comment by chovy — August 6, 2006 @ 8:58 pm
Could you please let me know what is “working in 3D instead of linear fashion”. I know this is kind of late for asking question about this article and I apologize for it.
Comment by Somu — September 10, 2006 @ 5:08 pm
What I talk about in the 4th, 5th, and 6th paragraphs is what I mean by working in 3D. It may not be the best analogy here.
Comment by Andrew — September 11, 2006 @ 12:23 am
[…] Last July I wrote a post about how to maximize your work productivity. I have made various comments and additions to this both here on Web Publishing Blog and on various forums. A year later, I think it is time for an update. […]
Pingback by » Increase productivity by at least 25%, today - Web Publishing Blog — July 17, 2007 @ 3:23 pm