Maximizing Productivity: Creating more time and space for what’s really important

July 20, 2010

Today we will explore• Understand the impact of the fast-paced/multi-tasking work

environment

• Identify the key priorities in your role and uncover what’s really important to you

• Learn how your brain and energy works as it relates to your current environment

• Learn best practices and your unique style for creating the time & space to focus on what’s important

Information overload

Technology that enabled us to do more and be more productive can also undermine our ability to focus

New options competing for our timeNielsen

Where’s our focus during the day?

• 11 minutes: average time employees devote to a project before being distracted

• 25 minutes: average time it takes to return to serious mental tasks after disruption

• 28%: time wasted by interruptions that aren’t urgent or important like unnecessary email messages

• 3 days: number of productive days in a work week

Resource: Basex, research firm, 2008

Impact of multi-tasking

• It takes your brain 4x longer to recognize and process each thing you’re working on when you switch back and forth among tasks

• Your IQ falls 10 points when you're fielding constant emails, text messages, and calls

• The same loss you'd experience if you missed an entire night's sleep

• More than double the loss you'd have after smoking marijuana

Resource: Basex, research firm, 2008

We work 24/7

20% of people work 80+ hours per week

50% of people work at dinner, while driving and on vacation

18% admit to working in the bathroom

Resource: Basex, research firm, 2008

What’s the impact?

We’re sick

80% of our medical expenditures are now stress related

U.S. companies lose between $200-$300 billion a year due to work-related stress

We’re unhappy

<15% are extremely satisfied

84% are unhappy

65% of people are looking for work

< 20% are engaged

Resources: Salary.com 2009, Career Builder 2008, Fast Company 2003, National Safety Council, Priority Magazine, 2007

Where are you spending your time?

Samples of time segments:Email PhoneStrategyClients/StakeholdersInternal communication/relationshipsCreativity/Ideation/ BrainstormingTrends & InnovationBreaks (and lunch)Managing teamsResearch & Trends…..or add personal too!

We’re often managing information instead of being focused and connected to what matters

People

Strategy Ideation

Meaning

Perspective

You can choose to prioritize!

While you can’t change time, you can change your:

Mind

HabitsEnergy

The myth of time managementWe really do get to choose

You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.

What is the priority here?

What happens?

What if you shift your focus?

And there’s even room for water

Where do you want to spend time?

Behavioral change is required to close the gap

Realize that change is hard because it causes pain Feels dangerous because it requires moving from known to

unknown

Recognize that people in different functions process in different ways

Leave "problem behaviors in the past; focus on identifying and creating new behaviors”

There has to be a good enough reason to change External vs internal motivation

And more importantly….. to sustain it

Identify a few key priorities

What are some of the parts of your job you would like more time for?

How would it impact you if you achieved this and how would you feel if you got it?

Ask: What’s important about _______?

It seems simple. Why is this hard?

Information has changed, but the brain hasn’t Problem solving, planning, communicating, prioritizing etc tasks

rely on the Prefrontal Cortex It’s the biological seat of your conscious interactions – thinking

through vs autopilot

We tend to focus in the PFC– only 4-5% of

volume of brain

The brain needs fuel

Processing information uses and depletes energy resources Brain shuts down when hungry or tired Average person can focus in this part of the

brain for 1-2 hours per day

• Prioritizing takes a lot of brain energy• Requires imagining future and moving

around concepts that you have no direct experience with yet

Three levels of thinking Level 1: Deleting emails

Level 2: Scheduling a meeting Takes more time and energy to hold the information

in mind

Level 3: Writing a pitch or creating materials Hold info for much longer Take lots of energy and space.  

Bottom line: Do creative work first, urgent and important second, and everything else third.

Ask yourself: If you truly respected attention as a limited resource, what might you do differently?

Resource: David Rock “Your Brain at Work”

The “Always-on” mindset

Has created an artificial sense of constant crisis

In mammals, this state creates a fight or flight mechanism to kick in

It’s great when tigers are chasing us

How many of your 200 emails per day is a tiger?

New York Time “Lost in Email”

You are being paid to think More than 50% of workers today do creative

work

Definition of creativity according to Webster: To create means to “make or bring into existence

something new”

Creativity includes inventing, designing, painting, writing….

But also… Putting together information in a novel way Creating new services Problem solving

Ideas make money

What’s important about this to this industry?

The Creative process is a big engine of wealth creation

Get beyond linear thinking 60% of problems are solved by insight moments

Ideas are often created by insight moments

When/where do you have your best idea?

Our best ideas often occur when we seem not to be consciously seeking solutions

Stop thinking in order to solve problems Learn to stop automatic action and reflect

Quick test example

cracker - fly - fighter

safety - cushion - point

fish - mine - rush

Making it happen

• Write down priorities and align choices

• Create a better environment

• Do what works for you

“Awareness without action is hallucination”

Create the space and rigorous process

• Set aside time chunks in your day

• Categorize by “energy” of task vs subject

• “No email hours/time periods” – think of email as a job/task

• 1 hour per week minimum for creative, strategic idea generation – put it in your calendar

• 10-15 minutes per day on calendar for planning/reflection time

• Take breaks

• Implement 90 minutes of focused time followed by a break

• Schedule creative tasks in the morning

• Make agreements with those around you

• Get it out of your brain and onto paper

• Put everything in your calendar

• Create a to-do list that is action-oriented

Create the space and rigorous process

• Explore what others can do

• Delegate to others what they can do better than you

• De-cluttering your office space de-clutters your brain

• If you work from home, develop a work day routine

• Get ready for work

• Leave the house and come back

Create the space and rigorous process

• Some specifics about email

• Touch each email only once

• Categorize folders by subject and/or priority/action

• Remember that sending email creates more emails

• Be conscious about using it vs other means of communication. Ask yourself, can a phone call or in person meeting work?

• Use email for one of a few tasks

• Scheduling a meeting

• Providing information with a specific request for action

• Documentation

Listing Tasks: Approach 1

reading email

responding to email

fielding phone calls

making phone calls to generate new clients

following up on prospects

inputting client data into database

meetings with clients

dealing with home projects

Transporting kids (if necessary)

scheduling sales calls/appointments

creating marketing materials/presentations etc

invoicing

Categorizing Tasks: Approach 2

Prospecting (email, phone calls, scheduling) – includes clients, prospects, home – requires sales skills, interpersonal, persistence, routine dialing/emailing

Client Follow up (email, phone calls, scheduling) – requires follow-through, remembering/reacting to key details

Automated tasks– includes clients, prospects, home, invoicing – requires attention to detail, automation, limited thinking

Creating materials/business development – requires creativity, innovation

Exercise

1) List all tasks

2) Define skill required to complete

3) Bucket into categories

4) Arrange calendar based on new buckets/time chunks

Discover what works for you

• Learn to watch yourself

• Experiment

• Implement what works for your style and energy

• Leverage your strengths

Be a leader of your own time• One core priority (big rock)• ___________________________

• Commitment needed to make the change:• Yes: No:• _________________ _________________ • _________________ _________________• _________________ _________________

• What is your time commitment/structure?

• What is the proof that’s you’ve accomplished it?

• What’s your accountability with your partner?

Remember:

• It really is your choice

• Don’t lose sight of what’s really important

• Focus on the big rocks first

• Create the space and process that works for you

Be a leader of your own time

And enjoy the journey

Thank You!Heidi Kraft, Kraft Your Success

www.kraftyoursuccess.com/blog

@heidikraft

Appendix

Underlying any change we need to understand… Professional: What do I bring to my activities:

Motivation – you want to do a great job Knowledge – you understand what to do and how to do it Ability - you have the skills Confidence – you are sure of yourself when performing this Authenticity – you are genuine in your level of enthusiasm for engaging in

this

Personal: What the activity brings to me: Happiness – having engaged in it makes you happy Reward – provides material or emotional rewards that are important to you Meaning – the results of the activity are meaningful for you Learning – the activity helps you learn and grow Gratitude – you fell grateful for being able to do this and believe it’s a

great use of your timeMarshall Goldsmith, “Measuring Your Mojo”

Resources:• Bureau of Labor statistics

• Salary.com 2009

• Career Builder 2008

• Fast Company 2003

• Microsoft Survey, March 15, 2005

• Basex, research firm, 2008

• Herman Miller Inc., "The Siren Song of Multitasking," 2007 Journal of Experimental Psychology

• Jonathan B. Spira, "The Cost of Not Paying Attention," Basex Research, 2005

• David Rock, “Your Brain at Work”

• Daniel Pink, “Drive”

• Seth Godin, “Linchpin”