Abstract: What’s in it for me? Level up your productivity game.
Learning points -
how to achieve the seemingly impossible and reach inbox zero;
why time management is a waste of time; and
why the CORD model is a productivity ninja’s secret weapon.
*self-referencing Post
Takeaways:
1. You can train yourself to become a productivity ninja.
- A ninja keeps her cool. Even when a ninja has a spiraling to-do list, she cultivates the calm mindset needed to tackle tricky decisions and balance competing priorities. She has processes in place to ensure that no task slips through the cracks. As a result, she’s never overwhelmed.
- A ninja is ruthless, too. She says no to tasks and obligations that don’t serve her ultimate purpose, and she doesn’t tolerate unnecessary interruptions and distractions.
- A ninja is weapons-savvy. Her weapons of choice are well-honed workflows and time-management tricks – a suite of organizational tools that she can skillfully apply as needed.
- She’s unconventional. She’s not afraid to take risks or challenge the status quo if it means getting things done quicker and better. She slashes through bureaucracy to take the shortest route between to-do and done.
- A ninja is also agile – she handles her workload efficiently and is a pro at knowing when to pivot between tasks. She’s always prepared to drop everything to respond to an opportunity or extinguish a threat.
- Finally, despite all those amazing qualities, here’s one thing a ninja is not: perfect. Sometimes, she’ll miss a deadline or forget a task or spend the morning scrolling through Instagram instead of tackling her to-do list. And that’s OK, because it isn’t perfection she’s aiming for – it’s consistency.
2. Your attention is a valuable currency, so spend it carefully.
- attention management, not time management, is the key to ultra-high productivity.
- Over the course of a day, people generally fluctuate between three levels of attention. There’s proactive attention, where you’re sharp, focused, and in the zone. Then there’s active attention – you’re working in a good rhythm, but your attention is flagging and you’re susceptible to distractions. Finally, there’s inactive attention: you might be sitting at your desk but, let’s be honest, you’d much rather be napping.
- Periods of proactive attention are optimal for achieving peak productivity, but no one can sustain proactive attention around the clock. A productivity ninja can, however, make sure his precious proactive attention is never wasted. That means he never attends pointless meetings when his attention is sharpest. On the flip side, he never schedules critical client negotiations when his attention is inactive.
- How does he manage this? First, he gets to know his own attention cycle. For a few days, he maps his attention levels, noting when he’s at his best and when he slumps. Perhaps he finds that he experiences proactive attention first thing in the morning and inactive attention straight after lunch. Then, he tweaks his schedule to fit his rhythm. Critical thinking and key decisions are made in the morning. He saves mindless tasks, like deleting emails, for after lunch.
- Of course, our productivity ninja knows it’s not as easy as simply managing his own attention windows; he has to be vigilant against outside interruptions, too. So he operates in stealth mode. He says no to unnecessary tasks and declines invites to meetings where he’s not a stakeholder. When he’s in the zone, his email notifications are off and his phone is in silent mode. Sometimes he even wears headphones to signal to his colleagues that he’s not to be disturbed.
- You don’t need to find extra hours in the day. Protect your attention, and your productivity will flow.
3. It really is possible to achieve and maintain inbox zero.
- You can’t make the most of proactive attention periods when you’re obsessing over unanswered emails. So you need to get your email under control.
- First, stop checking your emails, and start processing them instead. That means using your inbox as a landing pad – not a to-do list or a filing cabinet. You want to quickly get emails out of your inbox and into designated holding pens. To process email efficiently, remember the three d’s: if you can deal with it, delete it, or delegate it in less than two minutes, then do it!
- Emails that demand more than two minutes from you should flow into one of three other folders. The first, the action folder, is for emails that require an action that will take more than two minutes. Next, the read folder is for emails you’d like to read more carefully when you have time. And finally, the waiting folder is for emails that need someone else’s attention.
- Once you’ve created action, read, and waiting folders, avoid the temptation to create subfolders. You might feel disorganized having just three folders for all your emails. But think of your email as a balled up piece of paper. You want to throw it in the right container – somewhere it won’t get lost and will get dealt with. Are you more likely to land it if you have three large buckets to throw it into? Or dozens of tiny cups? - Inbox zero is really that easy: process rather than check emails, and then funnel them into an ultra-simple filing system. Maintain the magic number by going through emails in batches, say three times a day, and achieving inbox zero at the end of each session. - It may not look as impressive as a cinematic fight sequence, but defeating hundreds of emails with a few swift clicks of your mouse will certainly make you feel invincible.
4. Capture outstanding tasks, and collect them in one place.
- To get things done, you need to know what there is to do. It sounds simple enough, but when it comes to collating their tasks, many people go about it all wrong. They start to list what needs to be done – and then get distracted while strategizing about how they’ll do it all. Or worse, they get overwhelmed and abandon the list altogether.
- Combat half-written to-do lists with the CORD model: an approach to creating your to-do list that’s adapted to the realities of modern life. The first step, Capture and Collect, will ensure your to-do list is an accurate snapshot of outstanding tasks.
5. Hack your to-do list to boost your productivity.
- The humble to-do list is one of the most popular productivity tools around. In its most common form – a numbered list of tasks that might range from “prepare presentation” to “buy milk” – it’s also far from effective. But in the hands of a productivity ninja, a to-do list turns from a pointless piece of paper into a lethal weapon.
- First, sort your tasks into two categories: Projects and Master Actions.
- Projects are your most involved tasks. In fact, they’re not really tasks at all. Let’s say you’ve optimistically listed “change internet provider” as one of your to-dos. This involves canceling your old provider, researching new ones, and negotiating a contract. That’s not one to-do – it’s several, so file it under Projects. Noting down these big picture projects and referring back to them often will help keep you on target to complete them.
- Next, break your projects down into action items. This list of project-related actions forms part of your Master Action List. Non-project related tasks – things like “renew driver’s license” or “book meeting room for Tuesday” – live here, too. Basically, if it’s actionable, it goes on the Master Action List.
- Be as specific as possible when writing action items; that means using verbs and details to paint a clear picture of the task.
- Group tasks into categories like “Office,” “Home,” or “Out and About.” Then you can simply flow through all your office-related tasks when you sit down at your desk,
6.Thinking about what you do is as important as doing it.
- All that mental energy you’ve saved by not agonizing over which task to tackle next can be put to good use in the third phase of the CORD model: Review.
- Ruthlessly reviewing your to-do lists and workflows will help you achieve an elite level of productivity.
- How does this review work? Well, get ready to add two more lists to your productivity arsenal: the weekly checklist and the daily checklist.
- Your weekly checklist is your thorough review of your tasks, targets, and performance. You’ll want to set aside about two hours a week to go through it.
- Begin with a round of capture and collect, where you record all your tasks. First, capture on a micro level. Collect all the captures you made in the week, and sweep collection points like your inbox to spot any further tasks. Then, capture on a macro level. Look at big-picture items like projects and goals: Do you need to generate new action items here?
Now you can think ahead to the next week of work. What new actions do you need to prioritize? What can you take off your agenda?
- Finally, to help you refine your to-do list, ask some key questions. After a few weekly checklists, you should be able to tailor your own questions, but here are some to get you started: Are there any tasks here that are unclear or need redefining? Any actions that can be broken down into more achievable tasks? Is there anything I am resisting doing? If so, why?
- Your daily review is simpler – but equally crucial. Before you dive into your to-do list, check your calendar for the day’s agenda and any looming deadlines. Then, identify your big rocks – that is, the tasks that are going to require some mental heavy lifting. Finally, decide which ones you’re going to tackle today, and allot some proactive attention time for them.
- Put simply, the key to staying on top of your to-do list is, yes, more lists. But more lists don’t mean more work. The time you spend working through your weekly and daily checklists will allow you to approach your actual work with a sense of momentum and flow.
7. The best way to get things done is to do them.
- At last, you’ve reached the final stage of the CORD model. You’ve collated, you’ve organized, and you’ve reviewed. What’s next? What’s the mysterious final step that will unlock the secret to ninja-level productivity?
- The secret is . . . there is no secret. Once you’ve established what needs doing, organized how you’re going to do it, and refined your approach to doing it, all that’s left to do is, well, to do it! That’s why the final component of the CORD model is the Do stage.
- Here’s how a productivity ninja tackles his to-dos.
- To supercharge his productivity, a ninja aligns his to-dos with his attention level by checking in with himself as he works. Is he feeling focused? Time to do deep thinking, not data entry. Is his energy flagging as he works on a big pitch? He recognizes he’s in inactive attention mode, so he switches to paperwork instead.
- If there’s one thing a ninja hates, it’s spending too much time in setup mode. He’s aware that there’s a time cost to setting up tasks. Online banking and email, for example, require setup in the form of signing in and loading a web page. Working on a report requires setup in the form of reading through a draft and getting reacquainted with key concepts. So once a ninja sets up a task, he spends as long on it as possible. Switching from one task to another can incur serious costs in setup time. Working on a single task, or tasks that require the same setup, can be a real productivity booster.
- Boredom is the ninja’s enemy. When he’s bored, he’s prone to procrastination – so he’s careful to keep things interesting. After a few days in the office, he’ll work from home. If he spends Monday working alone on a presentation, on Tuesday he’ll prioritize collaborative work. In short, he’ll mix things up to keep himself as focused as possible. - So make sure you manage your attention, stay flexible, minimize your setup costs, and defend against boredom. That way, you won’t just get things done – you’ll do them well! 8. Use smart strategies to boost your productivity.
- if you want to finish a task in an efficient, frictionless manner, you’re far better off giving it your full attention from start to finish. So instead of multitasking, try monotasking.
- attention management is far more important than time management.
- But there is one time-management technique that can really boost your attention levels. It’s called the pomodoro technique, and the premise is actually pretty simple: It’s easier to sustain proactive attention for short bursts rather than long periods of time. And taking small, scheduled breaks boosts your level of focus even further.
- To use the pomodoro technique, set a timer for 25 minutes – that’s a single “pomodoro.” At the end of the pomodoro, take a five-minute break before tackling another 25 minutes of work. It’s easy to keep your focus sharp and guard against procrastination when you know you have five minutes to scroll social media at the end of each pomodoro.
- A final technique that every productivity ninja needs to have in her toolkit is the power hour. This trick is especially useful for tackling the tasks you’ve been dreading. Maybe you’re nervous about starting your taxes for the year. Maybe you loathe writing performance reviews. Whatever it is, putting it off will only make you dread it more. So deal with it head-on – but only for an hour – by scheduling a power hour in your calendar. An hour isn’t very long to spend on something, even if it’s a task you actively hate. And at the end of the hour, you’ll probably have made enough progress that your bugbear task doesn’t seem so daunting after all.
Bibliography:
Graham Allcott. (2022, June 06). Book Source. Personal. How to Be a Productivity Ninja.
Note:
These are all personal notes and reviews for self-referencing; The self interpretations are not meant for any profit or marketing.
Suggestion to readers
Please read the entire book. Suggested.
--------------------------------------Thank you, Gratitude, Love and Light-----------------------------------
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