Having a good productivity system in order, and an effective workflow you enjoy, is valuable not only for your work, but also your personal life. It starts by setting
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2Table of Contents What Is Productivity, Really? How To Establish (Actually Useful) Goals How To Prioritize The Right Tasks Best Techniques To Boost Your Productivity How To Manage Your Time (And Stay In Control) Best Tools To Use For Personal Productivity Be The Boss: Boost Your Productivity 347 91320 26
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3What Is Productivity, Really? Productivity isn™t just about checking boxes o˜ your to-do list; it™s about making sure you™re getting the right things done, in the right timef˚ame, in a successful and e˜ective way. Having a good productivity system in order, and an e˜ective work˛low you enjoy, is valuable not only for your work, but also your personal life. It sta˚ts by setting realistic goals, breaking those goals down into actionable tasks, and at the end of it all, asking yourself, fidid I accomplish something meaningful with a measu˚able impact from what I set out to do?fl In this ebook, we™ll take you through the steps of increasing your productivity by building a work˛low that works best for you. We™ll cover: Ł How to establish productivity goals; Ł How to prioritize tasks to use time more e˝ciently; Ł The best techniques to boost your productivity; Ł Tools you can use to increase your personal productivity Let™s dive right in
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4How To Establish (Actually Useful) Goals The ˙rst step towards being more productive is establishing the goals you want to achieve. How will you determine your own productivity if you don™t know the end result you™re working towards? Once you establish goals, you™ll be able to more e˜ectively prioritize tasks and set time management guidelines. Take a moment to explore the true point of your project. Ideally it™s one you™re truly passionate about. Organize your thoughts in a way that works for you. You may or may not want to write them down, but following the process (even in your head) helps just the same. Here™s an example: Write a monthly team repo˚t. PROJECT ASSIGNED: GOAL: Showcase my team™s accomplishments through a data-packed presentation and visually show the team what we™ve accomplished and how we can improve in the future.
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5Once you have a goal in mind, create a mission or purpose statement behind the goal you™ve set. Whether you™re passionate about a project or not, reminding yourself of the reason why you™re doing a project is a helpful way to stay focused. Once you have a goal and a mission statement in mind for your project, gene˚ate a to-do list of eve˚y taskŠsmall or largeŠthat will be necessa˚y to complete the project, including any fiidealfl tasks that could be a pa˚t of your project but aren™t critical. Here™s an example of a mission statement and task list based on the goal in our example: MISSION STATEMENT: TASKS NEEDED TO COMPLETE THE PROJECT I am proving my team™s value by creating a monthly repo˚t that showcases both our wins and areas where we can improve. Doing so will motivate me, my team members, and other stakeholders to suppo˚t my team™s positive pe˚formance. Research examples of team repo˚ts for inspi˚ation Delegate data analysis of our team™s metrics Create presentation with key insights and data P˚actice my presentation for the team. Present the repo˚t to my team.
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6When you set a goal and sta˚t working on the tasks without a mission behind the goal, it™s easy to lose perspective on what you™re t˚ying to achieve. Make sure you take the time to step back, re˛lect, and understand that even seemingly-tedious tasks are pa˚t of a larger project with a purpose, whether it™s professional or personal. It™s also impo˚tant to constantly improve. Not only does this mean improving the steps it takes to achieve your goal, it also means improving your personal productivity system, or even just yourself. Honing your process along the way will help you work more e˝ciently than you ˙rst expected, which means more goals accomplished! With your goal and mission statement established, it™s time to break down the steps needed to prioritize the tasks of your project. PROJECT GOAL MISSION STATEMENT
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8Task Di˜culty Level Help Needed?Priority #Research examples of team repo˚ts for inspi˚ation 3No1Delegate data analysis of our team™s metrics 1Yes 2Create a presentation with the information I™ve collected 5No3P˚actice my presentation for the team 6No4Present the repo˚t to my team 8No5Let™s go back to our project example to see how you might prioritize tasks for your goal path. Establishing your priority and thinking through the time and e˜o˚t each task will take is essential to being your most productive self. Di˜erent people prefer pe˚forming tasks in di˜erent orders. Whether you prefer to sta˚t easy or tackle di˝cult tasks ˙rst, prioritizing down to the details then organizing those tasks based on your own process is essential.
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9Best Techniques To Boost Your Productivity How you choose to prioritize is a personal process, but that doesn™t mean you need to sta˚t from sc˚atch. There are a few proven techniques that can help guide your process. By structuring how you prioritize, you™ll set boundaries that will better qualify the tasks that are going to have the most impact on your project.
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10WHAT IS IT? You ma y have heard of the 80/20 rule when it comes to sales in the business world. The idea is that 80% of pro˙ts will come from 20% of your customers. Therefore, you really want to spend the most time nu˚turing the smaller po˚tion of your customers that are going to provide bigger pro˙ts for your company. The same principle applies to your own productivity. 20% percent of your tasks are probably going to have 80% of the impact. By prioritizing the tasks that have the most impact ˙rst, you can let other tasks that may not be as impactful fall by the wayside or simply delegate them to someone else. EXAMPLE IN ACTION˚ One way to determine the impact of your tasks is to think about how many people one task or project will a˜ect. Let™s say you™re a marketer, and one of the tasks on your to-do list is to make a video that will maybe reach 100 people, but the other task is to build a well-constructed newsletter that will be sent to a million users. Which task will have the most impact? Because the newsletter will have an ove˚all greater marketing impact, prioritizing it over the video makes the most sense according to the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 Rule 20% of Your Tasks Have The Biggest Impact LEARN MORE
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11WHAT IS IT? Joel Spolsky, co-founder of Trello and CEO of Stack Ove˚˛low, developed the Rule of 5. The concept is that no person should ever have more than ˙ve tasks on their to-do list at any given time. According to this rule, two of your ˙ve tasks should be ones you are working on right now, two more should be the tasks you will be working on next, and one task should be something that people probably expect you to work on, but you™re not actually planning on doing.EXAMPLE IN ACTION˚ Let™s say your managing a team project and you™re typically in charge of planning and organizing your team meetings. With the team project unde˚way, you ˙rst four to-do list tasks are taken up already, and you know you™ll probably put the team meeting o˜ until the last minute. Because the team meeting is you™re finot actually going to do item,fl it™s easier to delegate that last task to a team member who is able to pick up the task that you just can™t prioritize right now. We™re all busy, but proc˚astination doesn™t need to be a roadblock! Prioritizing just two things at once helps you make better use of your limited mental resources and prevents you from overloading on anxiety about your to-do list. Additionally, if you have too many items on the table, then you end up constantly jumping back and fo˚th between tasks. Doing so makes you su˜er from context switching , which ultimately makes you a less e˜ective and less productive worker because you don™t have a focus. The Rule Of Five The Rule of Five Working on this task right now Working on this task next Working on this task right now Working on this task next Not actually going to work on this task LEARN MORE
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