Productivity is a topic I usually get asked about. I have written a series of posts in my blog about this and I would like to summarize the most important points here. I originally wrote a very similar post back in December 2012, but since then some things have changed. So even if you read the original post, this one is worth your time.
1. Have goals for everything
Before trying any productivity-increasing or time-management method, be mindful of what you want to accomplish. Good methods applied without direction are a very efficient way to get nowhere faster.
In order to help me set my goals, I use mind maps. I create one mind map every week on my , usually on Sunday evening, to help me guide what I want to accomplish in that week for both work and personal life. All I write on that notebook is scanned via the Evernote app for future reference, if needed.
Then I start working on my task management method, which is GTD. For that, I useOmniFocus, a great task-management app for Mac and iOS.
But first, we need to fulfill a prerequisite: get overhead out of the way.
2. Filter the noise
About 90% of the people I know have cluttered inboxes. Since most of our tasks are e-mail-driven these days, having a lot of useless crap in our inboxes is very bad.
The first thing you must do is to create an efficient filtering method that will allow only important messages to reach the inbox. Part of productivity is about not doing things that aren’t supposed to be done.
I use Gmail for most of my accounts. It is the best e-mail service in the market for both personal and professional use: fast, reliable, has great search and great apps. Plus, since it is web-based, it means everything I do with my mail happens on the server side.
I create filters on Gmail using these rules as guidelines:
- Whitelist your most important contacts: even a great spam filter like Gmail’s may make mistakes sometimes, so make sure all your really important contacts never get filtered.
- Blacklist spammers: self-explanatory.
- Filter mailing lists: if you participate in any mailing list, filter them into their own tag and make them skip the inbox. If you don’t need to actually follow the mailing list every day, opt for a weekly digest to reduce the amount of messages you get.
- Filter notification messages: automatic messages (reset password requests, maintenance notices, company broadcasts, etc) should be filtered to a tag and skip the inbox. Some notifications are so useless that they are actually spam, so block them altogether.
- Spam-filter annoying people: if someone sends you more garbage than useful messages, block him/her. If it is really important, they will find a way to reach you.
Some messages should go straight to the Trash. I have three criteria to trash messages instantly:
- Someone who doesn’t know how to properly use e-mail keeps bombarding me with garbage. Sending me useless PowerPoint slides with photos, hoaxes or quotes grants you a one-way ticket to the pits of oblivion;
- Huge attachments. People who send 50MB attachments have serious mental issues. Please store those files somewhere where people can download them and send the links via e-mail. Or, if you use Google Apps, insert files from Google Drive. This is 2014, something called “the cloud” exists and you should use it.
- Messages without a subject. If you don’t know what you want to discuss, how should I?
If something really important comes up, there are more immediate ways of contacting you available, like the phone or instant messaging, so don’t be afraid of doing all this.
Needless to say, calendar events should never be filtered. Missing meetings and appointments due to a badly designed mail filter is not a good excuse.
In my particular case, there was a time I used to get about 150 e-mails per day in my work e-mail accounts, plus about 5-10 in my personal accounts. Filtering efficiently caused the number to drop to about 10-15 per day at work, and 1 or 2 in my personal inbox, and I am pretty sure that 15 e-mails a day are much more manageable than 150.
Aside from making real actionable items easier to find, proper filtering also reduces interruptions a lot, since I set up the Mail app on the Mac and in iOS to notify me only when a message hits the inbox.
Also, avoid e-mail whenever you can: long e-mail threads can be tedious and take too long. If something is not solved in half a dozen e-mails at most, schedule a meeting, call the person, do whatever is more effective than e-mail. Productivity is also about doing things the right way.
3. Take appropriate action
When analyzing your inbox, think carefully about what you are going to do about each item. Sometimes you don’t need to do anything at all.
I use GTD, so the first step is to verify if an item is actionable or not. The e-mail filtering I just described does this for me, so I have in my inbox only actionable items. Cool, huh? The next step is to decide what action to take, and there are 3 options:
- If it takes less than 2 minutes to finish, then I do it immediately and get it out of the way. If not, then I either:
- Add it to my To Do list in OmniFocus and archive the message. If the action is to reply the message, I flag it. In Mail, I have a Smart Mailbox that shows me all the flagged messages for easy access later. If the action is to read something, I add that to GoodReader (PDFs) or Pocket (links).
- Delegate it and archive the message.
All items that go to OmniFocus also have 3 mandatory parameters:
- Due date: always set a deadline. Not doing that is a sure way to never get something done.
- Estimated time: knowing how long a task takes helps you to prioritize and save appropriate time in your calendar to work on it.
- Completion: in case you get interrupted, you need to know how much more work is needed to complete the task.
I also set geofences in some contexts, so I get proper notifications when I am arriving or leaving a place associated with my actionable items.
4. Learn when to delegate
Delegating is key to productivity. If a task doesn’t require you specifically to be done, then delegate it to the appropriate person and focus on the really important stuff you need to get done.
By delegating, you also demonstrate that you trust your team and give them a chance to go beyond the scope of their jobs, which is good for their careers. In time, you may start empowering the team to make decisions on their own, reducing the burden on yourself, and giving you more focus on strategic decisions.
One thing that you should never do is to delegate just for the sake of getting rid of something you don’t want to do yourself — this is not productivity, it is just selfishness. It is very bad for your image and may sour your relationship with the team. Delegating only mundane tasks is a good sign that you may be doing it wrong.
Delegating also works for calendar items, not only tasks. Think about that if you have too many meetings to attend.
Remember: productivity is about making the best of your time.
5. Constantly review your task manager
If you did everything right so far, then your To Do list should be fairly reasonable. That list should be the base of your weekly goals and should be reviewed every day.
If something cannot be done, mark it as deferred and set a new deadline. Be realistic and do not overwhelm yourself, but keep in mind that more tasks will come up with every passing week. The caveat here is to find that sweet spot where you have a controlled backlog.
Once you mastered this workflow, you will spend a lot less time on overhead and do a lot more useful work. This is the sweet spot for productivity.
And don’t forget to include your personal life tasks as well, otherwise you will move stress from work to your home, and that is a bad thing.
Summarizing: productivity 101
So, in short, the productivity workflow should be something along these lines:
- Set goals for the week and use mind maps to help organize your thoughts. This is done usually on Sunday evening or Monday morning.
- Take action over items on your inbox: do, delegate or defer. Delegating correctly is crucial.
- Use the new To Do list to set weekly goals. And repeat.
Prerequisite: filter useless information out of the way. Automation of this eliminates a lot of time otherwise wasted reading e-mails.
Important: don’t forget to organize your personal life as well. Productivity only matters if it is part of your whole life.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn. Edited on 2014-11-09: small corrections.