3 Ways to Be Less Busy and More Productive

Busy is one of the most overused words. We hear all the time, “I’m too busy,” or “I don’t have time.”

How often do you actually achieve results while you are busy? Not too often, I bet. Switch your focus from being busy to being productive, so that you can accomplish more, see tangible results, and have time for fun.

Here are three things you can start with:

Have a to-do list for things that MUST get done today.

MUST is the key word. This is where a lot of people go wrong. They sit down to make a list, and they keep adding and adding, all the things they should’ve done, all the things they want to do, and all the things they wish they could do. They end up with a mile long list, and find it so daunting that any motivation for tackling it disappears.

“MUST get done today” list should have no more than 3-8 items, depending on how big they are, and depending on your lifestyle. They should not be the things that everyone has to do. For example, grocery shopping, picking up kids etc. – they don’t belong on this list, because you have to do them, and you are going to do them. This list is for things that are taking you towards your goal. If you want to write a book, have a goal that says, “Write 500 words.” If you want to have your own business, have a goal that says, “Read couple of articles on setting up a new business”

These goals are about what you want to ACHIEVE.

Learn Single Tasking

We live in a society that views multi-tasking as a skill. People say with pride that they can multi-task. I used to be one of those people too. But when you really think about it, and analyse your results, multi-tasking does not achieve the same amount and same quality of result that you can get by focusing on a single task.

It doesn’t mean that you just work on one thing for weeks or months until you finish it. You can still have variety. It only means that while you are working on a particular task, for that duration of time, you work on that task and that task alone. If it’s important to you, if it adds value to your long-term goals, takes you closer to fulfilling that dream, then give it the attention it deserves.

Keep A Productivity Journal

A productivity journal might sound like a lot of hard work, and it will certainly feel like it until you get into the habit, but it could also become a valuable tool.

So what do you write in your productivity journal?

List your main goals. If you have life goals, list them, otherwise list your annual goals. Then, each day, write down you “MUST get done today” list. Journal about how it went. Did you finish everything? How did you feel while you were working on these tasks? Did you feel charged and enthusiastic or did it feel like a chore?

Look for the patterns. Are there particular times in the day when you feel more productive? Do some people’s company spur you towards your goals but others have a negative impact?

A productivity journal serves two purposes. At the time of writing, it gives you immediate awareness of what you should be focusing on, and what you achieved. It’s there in black and white, and you are writing it down, so there is no room for excuses and no avoiding it.

The second purpose it serves is an analysis tool. The data you gather today, facts and figures and your emotional state, is what you can use tomorrow to be aware of how productivity works for you.

3 Ways to Be Less Busy and More Productive

Dolly Garland

6 Ways to Enhance Your Problem Solving Skills

Have you ever thought of yourself as a problem solver? I’m guessing not. But in reality we are constantly solving problems. And the better we are at it, the easier our lives are.

Problems arise in many shapes and forms. They can be mundane, everyday problems:

• What to have for dinner tonight?
• Which route to take to work?
• or they can be larger more complex problems;
• How to fix a project that’s running behind schedule?
• How to change from an uninspiring job to a career you’re really passionate about?

Every day you’ll be faced with at least one problem to solve. But it gets easier when you realise that problems are simply choices. There’s nothing ‘scary’ about them other than having to make a decision.

No matter what job you’re in, where you live, who you’re partner is, how many friends you have; you will be judged on your ability to solve problems. Because problems equal hassles for everyone concerned. And people don’t like hassle. So the more problems you can solve, the less hassle all-round, the happier people are with you. Everyone wins.

So what can you do to enhance your problem solving skills?

1. Focus on the solution – not the problem

Neuroscientists have proven that your brain cannot find solutions if you focus on the problem. This is because when you focus on the problem you’re effectively feeding ‘negativity’ which in turn activates negative emotions in the brain. These emotions block potential solutions. I’m not saying you should ‘ignore the problem’ – instead try and remain calm. It helps to first acknowledge the problem and then move your focus to a solution-oriented mindset where you keep fixed on what the ‘answer’ could be instead of lingering on ‘what went wrong’ and ‘who’s fault it is’.

2. Have an open mind

Try and entertain ‘ALL POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS’ – even if they seem ridiculous at first. It’s important you keep an open mind to boost creative thinking, which can trigger potential solutions. Coming from 10 years in the corporate advertising industry it is drummed into you that ‘No idea is a bad idea’ and this aids creative thinking in brainstorms and other problem-solving techniques. Whatever you do – do not ridicule yourself for coming up with ‘stupid solutions’ as it’s often the crazy ideas that trigger other more viable solutions.

3. View problems neutrally

Try not to view problems as ‘scary’ things! If you think about it what is a problem? It’s really just feedback on your current situation. All a problem is telling you is that something is not currently working and that you need to find a new way around it. So try and approach problems neutrally – without any judgment. If you get caught up in the label ‘problem’ this may trigger a bought of negative thoughts and block any potential solutions from popping up!

4. Think laterally

Change the ‘direction’ of your thoughts by thinking laterally. Pay attention to the saying, ‘You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging it deeper”. Try to change your approach and look at things in a new way. You can try flipping your objective around and looking for a solution that is the polar opposite!  Even if it feels silly, a fresh & unique approach usually stimulates a fresh solution.

5. Use language that creates possibility

Lead your thinking with phrases like ‘what if…’ and ‘imagine if…’ These terms open up our brains to think creatively and encourage solutions. Avoid closed, negative language such as ‘I don’t think…’ or ‘This is not right but…’.

6. Simplify things

As human beings we have a tendency to make things more complicated than they need to be! Try simplifying your problem by generalizing it. Remove all the detail and go back to the basics. Try looking for a really easy, obvious solution – you might be surprised at the results! And we all know that it’s often the simple things that are the most productive.

Stepcase Lifehack: Zoe B

Five Tips for Your First Job

 

Now that final exams and spring commencement celebrations have passed, thousands of college students and fresh graduates will head off for their first internships or full-time jobs. If you're one of them, you're lucky. Recent statistics indicate that one in two new college graduates are unemployed or underemployed. And while many of you will have had part-time jobs, this new position can be an incredible learning experience and a stepping stone for your long-term career.

But it's also a struggle. For some of you, it may be your first experience in a business environment. I remember feeling lost in my first few experiences after college (we all do). Surrounded by so much new information, I constantly felt like I was falling behind my more experienced colleagues. I didn't know who to look to for advice, and I never felt like I was doing my job well enough.

So as you prepare for your new role — and the challenges you'll face in that position — I'd offer five pointers I've seen work for people along the way.

1. Don't "fake it until you make it." Many new workers try to appear more knowledgeable than they really are. They don't ask questions. They think they need to have answers to be valuable to their organizations, and they can't admit to a lack of experience or understanding. They compensate for their lack of confidence with overconfidence. But here's the secret: They're not fooling anyone! No one expects you to know everything in your first job, and you learn and grow faster when you seek real understanding, ask questions, and petition for help. Rather than faking it, make it by acknowledging the skills and experience of your colleagues at work and using your first job or internship as a learning experience.

2. Never eat lunch alone. One of the best things about a new job is the incredible learning experience it provides. Every single person you'll work with in your new position — from the receptionist to the CEO — can teach you something valuable, and each of them can be a friend and mentor in your career. Many of the happiest and most successful people I know constantly ask questions and seek guidance from everyone around them, and research even shows that people with stronger social networks live longer. Your office is full of intelligent, thoughtful, and experienced people. Get to know them. Treat them with respect. Ask them questions. Learn from them. And have fun in the process.

3. Set boundaries to prevent burnout. Most jobs are never fully done. In school, your tests, homework assignments, and group projects have defined due dates. Parents and teachers will help you balance your life, and you have frequent, built-in breaks to help you recharge. But a job is different. It will be hard to do perfectly (or even well!). You'll be anxious to over-perform, and many bosses are all too happy to have their new employees work long hours if they want to. There's something to be said for putting in extra effort. But you also need to learn, early on, to set personal boundaries that allow you to maintain balance and avoid burnout. Burnout can make you less productive at work, and certainly makes you less happy. And in the absence of a caring community looking out for your well-being, you'll need to take ownership of your boundaries. Map out your lifestyle goals ahead of time. Build short breaks from work into your schedule, and learn early to seek balance in your work and life.

4. Serve your colleagues and customers. A common view of Millennials is that they are entitled and narcissistic. And a common mistake young people make is to competitively climb their career ladders rather than humbly seeking to serve their colleagues and customers. But if you want to earn the respect of those around you and defy your generation's stereotypes, the best thing you can do is bring an attitude of service to your job. Proactively seek out ways to help your colleagues. Think ahead for new ways to please customers. Jim Collins has written about how the greatest leaders often combine humility and fierce resolve. And humbly serving — staying focused on others — can be a great way to develop leadership and amass the support of your coworkers.

5. Work hard and show up on time. It's been well-documented by Malcolm Gladwell and others that hard work can be at least as important as talent to professional success. The 10,000 hour rule, for example, maintains that to truly master a skill, a person must put in 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. And nothing signals seriousness to your employer like promptness, perseverance, and dedication. Over the long run, diligence will earn you the respect of your colleagues, and hard work will give you the mastery and self-discipline to succeed in the future. The basics are simple, but easy to forget: Work hard and show up on time.

Following these suggestions will make for a more worthwhile experience for you, while balancing some of the stress and struggles of a brand-new work environment. What are you worried about heading into your first job or internship? What advice would you give to new workers?

HBR: John Coleman

Customers Don’t Want More Features

There is a common myth about product development: the more features we put into a product, the more customers will like it. Product-development teams seem to believe that adding features creates value for customers and subtracting them destroys it.

This attitude explains why products are so complicated: Remote controls seem impossible to use, computers take hours to set up, cars have so many switches and knobs that they resemble airplane cockpits, and even the humble toaster now comes with a manual and LCD displays.

Companies that challenge the belief that more is better create products that are elegant in their simplicity. Bang & Olufsen, the Danish manufacturer of audio products, televisions, and telephones, understands that customers don't necessarily want to fiddle with the equalizer, balance, and other controls to find the optimum combination of settings for listening to music. Its high-end speakers automatically make the adjustments needed to reproduce a song with as much fidelity to the original as possible. All that's left for users to select is the volume.

Getting companies to buy into and implement the principle that less can be more is hard because it requires extra effort in two areas of product development:

1. Defining the problem. Articulating the problem that developers will try to solve is the most underrated part of the innovation process. Too many companies devote far too little time to it. But this phase is important because it's where teams develop a clear understanding of what their goals are and generate hypotheses that can be tested and refined through experiments. The quality of a problem statement makes all the difference in a team's ability to focus on the few features that really matter.

When Walt Disney was planning Disneyland, he didn't rush to add more features (rides, kinds of food, amount of parking) than other amusement parks had. Rather, he began by asking a much larger question: How could Disneyland provide visitors with a magical customer experience? Surely, the answer didn't come overnight; it required painstakingly detailed research, constant experimentation, and deep insights into what "magical" meant to Disney and its customers. IDEO and other companies have dedicated phases in which they completely immerse themselves in the context in which the envisioned product or service will be used. Their developers read everything of interest about the markets, observe and interview future users, research offerings that will compete with the new product, and synthesize everything that they have learned into pictures, models, and diagrams. The result is deep insights into customers that are tested, improved, or abandoned throughout the iterative development process.

2. Determining what to hide or omit. Teams are often tempted to show off by producing brilliant technical solutions that amaze their peers and management. But often customers would prefer a product that just works effortlessly. From a customer's point of view, the best solutions solve a problem in the simplest way and hide the work that developers are so proud of.

One company that has understood this is Apple. It is known for many things—innovative products, stylish designs, and savvy marketing—but perhaps its greatest strength is its ability to get to the heart of a problem. (See "The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs," by Walter Isaacson, in our April issue.) As the late Steve Jobs once explained, "When you start looking at a problem and it seems really simple, you don't really understand the complexity of the problem. And your solutions are way too oversimplified. Then you get into the problem, and you see it's really complicated. And you come up with all these convoluted solutions....That's where most people stop." Not Apple. It keeps on plugging away. "The really great person will keep on going," said Jobs, "and find...the key underlying principle of the problem and come up with a beautiful, elegant solution that works."

Determining which features to omit is just as important as—and perhaps more important than—figuring out which ones to include. Unfortunately, many companies, in an effort to be innovative, throw in every possible bell and whistle without fully considering important factors such as the value to customers and ease of use. When such companies do omit some planned functionality, it's typically because they need to cut costs or have fallen behind schedule or because the team has failed in some other way.

Instead, managers should focus on figuring out whether the deletion of any proposed feature might improve a particular product and allow the team to concentrate on things that truly heighten the overall customer experience. This can be determined by treating each alleged requirement as a hypothesis and testing it in small, quick experiments with prospective customers.

Development teams often assume that their products are done when no more features can be added. Perhaps their logic should be the reverse: Products get closer to perfection when no more features can be eliminated. As Leonardo da Vinci once said, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

Donald Reinertsen and Stefan Thomke