Take a look at your working week. What are you working on, how efficient you are and what do plan on achieving tomorrow, depends largely on your productivity. A lack of it or distraction from your productive routine can affect the end results in a way larger than you can envisage.
1. What is your normal? – All the errands you run in a typical week, the way in which you run them,the order and priority all shape your ‘normal’ routine. What are the first things you do in the morning –clearing your mail box, checking mails? Which part of the day do you spend working on product development? When do you connect with your customers? Where do you go when you want to think with clarity? You know you are ‘normalized’ if any of these change either in order or go amiss, and you sense that something is wrong with your routine.
Action – This week as you begin your day, try and become more aware of the order in which you run your errands. Is there a better way to do it? Can you keep your mail checking to a later part of the day and utilize the first 2 most productive hours with your product development team? Can you schedule your most important tasks for the first half of the day? Can you plan your day the night before and get straight into action the next morning?
2. Set the context right – Does your work place support the context in which you work? Do you spend too much time looking for things and tools to get the job done? Do the devices you are working with support your need? Are there better ways to do what you are doing now? Do your surroundings inspire you enough to get things done? The place where you work in influences the work you do, how well you do it and how best you use your time.
Action – This week become more aware of the context you work in. Use contexts that will support the work you do – whether it is thinking, creating, developing or doing.
3. People – What kind of people are you surrounded by in your week? Are they energy sappers or do they inspire you to stretch yourself to a new you? Are they supportive in attitude? Can you rate them on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is negative influence and 5 is positive? People you end up spending most of your time with, influence your thinking and actions in a large way. They have a direct and deep impact on your productivity. Surrounding yourself with achievers and doers, will have an equally positive effect on your life and achievements.
Action – Become aware of the effect people have on your productivity. Can you work on filtering out the negative influences and spending more time around the positive folks to impact your productivity positively?
Spend 20 minutes right now and schedule these actions in your forth coming week, become aware of yourself and your surroundings, decide which way you’d like to travel on the contextual scale and watch your productivity graph show a new curve! A positive one!
