I want to talk about productivity in this edition. I’ve been trying to increase productivity in my work life and in general, so I thought it would be a good topic to write about. First, I’ll try to define productivity, at least based on my experience. If you look up a definition, you might find something like “the measure of how much someone can accomplish in a given amount of time.” I think there are two parts to it: the “how much” and the “amount of time” parts.
Quantifying Productiveness
I find that it is hard to quantify the “how much.” My job has a ticketing system, so I could count how many tickets I complete, but each ticket is different and requires varying amounts of effort. More importantly, some tickets provide more value to the company than others. So, prioritization needs to be considered as well, and even that can be hard to determine. What I have decided to do is apply a similar mentality to how I approach goal-setting, as I discussed in a previous edition. I choose a few projects to prioritize and try to work on things that will move those efforts along the most. While I have been struggling to measure productiveness, I have been able to recognize the feeling of having a productive working session. Maybe people also know that feeling of accomplishment after a good working session. So, I guess to be more productive, I have been trying to have that feeling more often. I have realized that when I have a productive session, it is often a couple of hours long, where I’m in the zone and not distracted or interrupted. An idea I had while writing this is to write down the things I did and the environment I was in during these productive sessions and try to reproduce that.
Creating More Uninterrupted Time
One thing I have noticed about my productive sessions is that they happen when I have a big chunk of uninterrupted time. To be most productive on a task, your mind and effort should be as focused as possible on that task. I know that’s a lot easier said than done, and I am still learning how to do that as best I can. One thing I have learned is that scheduling is important and can help maximize focus time. Every task has a “start-up” time where you have to remember the context, open the applications/files, etc., to complete it. It’s best to complete as much of the task as possible in one session to minimize the number of times you have to “start up” the task. To do this, you need big blocks of uninterrupted time. I have learned that there are two big blocks of time per work day: before and after lunch. At least at my job, meetings are usually the main interruption in my schedule. So, I try to use each block for either meetings or uninterrupted time, but not both. This helps me avoid having to go through the “start-up” time before and after meetings. Honestly, I try my hardest to cancel or decline as many meetings as I can because very few meetings are valuable, in my opinion. I guess a tip would be to cancel/decline meetings and if you can’t do that, dedicate big blocks of time just for meetings but don’t put them in the middle of your “uninterrupted” blocks.
After re-reading what I wrote above, I didn’t really do what I said I would do, which was define productivity. It was more about things I have learned about productivity in my work, but hopefully, that was interesting. I also wanted to write about how I am trying to be productive outside of work, but I will save that for a later edition. Oddly enough, this newsletter makes me feel more productive as it allows me to put my thoughts somewhere, so I will write about that. You may not know it, but this newsletter holds me accountable, so I want to thank you for reading and subscribing. It means a lot. I am still working on becoming more productive outside of work and honestly still trying to figure out what that even means. After I have thought about that more, I will write a newsletter about it. Thanks again, and feel free to respond ([email protected]) or leave anonymous feedback here. I read and respond to every reply and get excited when I see a message in the inbox for this email! So, thanks to those who send them.