Notes

ProductivityRx - Ask Four Questions to create Your Work Easier
We need a better way! An easier way to deal with everything; the stuff coming at us all day long; the stuff we have to do - today, tomorrow and the days that follow.

What read more need is a simple, clear way to process everything that's already in and coming into our day. A simple solution to identify what each thing is, where it needs to go, and, whether it's something that needs doing, who'll do it and when that's going to occur. Oops, it appears I've trained with away, but read on in order to find out how this four-corner approach could work for you.

These Amazing Times - The Miracle and Its Price We reside in amazing times, but so did the generations before us for quite a while back. So what's so amazing about these times? Affordable instantaneous global communication. That's my response. The wiring of the world over the last 20 years has created the ability for virtually every person on earth to reach out and engage with virtually every other person in an affordable and nearly instantaneous manner. This is our contribution to the myriad human accomplishments over the eons.

Of course, with the good comes the bad. Joining this new ability has been mobile technology in the form of laptops, smartphones and wireless networks. We can literally communicate to anywhere from anywhere. And we do, continuously! Consequently, the amount of inputs we each process daily - calls, emails, texts, etc. - is continuing to grow in orders of magnitude (which is a lot!).

Unfortunately, the price is an expensive two-fold whammy. First, we need to process all the new stuff. Second, the expected response times have shrunk to nanoseconds. The result is that we constantly feel behind the curve and can quickly become mired in the sheer volume of it all.

In short, we are able to do so a lot more but we feel so much worse about any of it!

The Rx - An Updated Solution to Process All That Stuff

I'm an ops guy, operations that's. Good or bad, it's what I do best - make things are better, faster, cheaper. I've always wanted to be better at more interesting things, like marketing or sales, but I'm stuck using this type of talent, so I've made the most of it.

Fortunately, this skill - referred to as Productivity in the professional development world - has timely application given this overwhelming number of inputs we each deal with daily. Might work with clients has focused primarily on how to quickly identify and process all of this stuff, then make contact with focused efforts on things that need doing today. The building blocks of this work centers on the productivity method I created and customizing it to each group's or individual's needs.

To spread the love a little further than merely to my clients, I'm going to lay out the basis for the method on this page and demonstrate how it solves the issue of feeling overwhelmed and uncontrollable with your workload.

Ask and You Shall Receive

Great email address details are often found when we ask simple questions. If you are attempting to power through the various things you need to process anytime during the day, try these questions and their corresponding answers to see if they help you better and effective:

1. What Is It?

In the world of Stuff, that is a multiple choice question with ONLY four answers - Trash, Archive, Reference or Work. Trash is self-explanatory - something you don't ever need again. Archive is something you may need again but not frequently, if ever - just like a contract or perhaps a letter that relates to a particular project. Reference is stuff you use (refer to) to do your work - just like a phone book. Work is whatever needs to be done.

In fact, if you are not sure just what a particular item is, ask yourself this yes/no question: Does anything further have to be done with this? If the answer is Yes, then it really is necessarily Work. If the answer is No, then it is necessarily one of the other three - Trash, Archive or Reference.

Phew, that is the hard part. If you're fighting this first question, create a sticky note listing all four types of stuff and put it some place you will see it regularly. Practice getting used to quickly assessing what each thing you touch is. After the list is ingrained in your psyche, you'll become adept at slicing and dicing the onslaught of stuff coming at you.

(Note, also, that I am doing this for six years and those will be the only four types of stuff I've ever had the opportunity to recognize. Everything easily fits into among those four. If you think of a fifth, email me and we can discuss why it's not among the four.)

2. Where Does It Go?

Now that we realize what each particular thing is, we have to put it in the proper place. Things get much easier now:

Trash = Throw it away (or delete it whether it's electronic)
Archive = File it away in your long term storage system (file cabinets, hard drives, etc.)
Reference = Put it away near your projects area such that it's easily accessed
Work = We can't move ahead with Work until we determine what Type of Work it really is:
Action Item: These are things you need to do or you must have another person do (delegate); the ball's in your court.
Awaiting Response: They are things you are looking forward to someone else to get back on; the ball's within their court.
Pending: These are items that aren't ripe yet, things that need another event to occur or perhaps a date to pass before they become "ready" for you to do or someone else to accomplish; the ball's in no one's court... yet.
Reading: That is professional reading, things you read to stay abreast in your field; ball's in your court.
3. Who Will Do It?

We've neatly and quickly dispensed with three of the four Types of stuff in our lives leaving only the Work items left open. This next question - Who Will Do It? - is really a sub-question of Work and the most clarity regarding anything you are going to delegate to others.

If you are coping with an Action Item, it's effective to ask whether it's something You should do of whether it's something you can Delegate to another. Needless to say, once delegated, the Action Item becomes an Awaiting Response, right? See how this works? Thus, this mini-question serves a focused, but highly useful, purpose in getting things into the right funnel for completion.

4. When Does It Next Need Attention?

Notice that I've totally side-stepped the deadline question. The reason is that I really believe "When could it be due?" is really a trap for the unwary. There are two known reasons for this. First, most Work gets handled out with payment dates like "ASAP" or "Urgent" or "Immediately." The first two are unclear - my ASAP may be unique of your ASAP and "Urgent" is also relative. Immediately rarely means immediately, except possibly within an emergency room. These types of deadlines are further outward indications of the issues we experience with our always-on world.

Off the diatribe and back again to the point, the actual deadline is less meaningful inside our analysis than the question of when do we need to think about it again to be sure it gets done "with time." A project which will take two days to perform is best considered several days from that beginning date to increase our flexibility in triaging all of the remaining inputs that constantly come at us, while also bringing the project in promptly. Using some form of flexible reminder or tickler system is the best way to manage these deadlines to enable you to adjust each day's puzzle pieces in such a way as to move through your stuff in the most efficient and effective way. This gets you back again to the producing efforts quickly sufficient reason for a sense of command and control over the work.

That is right Virginia, I Didn't Give It All Away

The framework organized above may be the fundamental workflow model I developed to greatly help my clients quickly move through the near-overwhelming inputs that come at them each day. It's a short process to move through several times each day or hour and leaves you feeling in command over your workflow.

Needless to say, I haven't given the complete baby away, but there's more than enough there for you to face every day with the tools you need to stay static in front of the curve and feel more lucrative in your career.

Paul enjoys a national reputation being an expert in solving the productivity challenges faced by people working in today's frenetic environment. As the creator of the QuietSpacing(tm) productivity method, he is a frequent speaker and recognized author on productivity-related topics. Paul works together with individuals, groups and organizations to generate more productive working environments and drive individual success via high-content keynote addresses, interactive training seminars, and one-on-one coaching sessions. You can learn more about Paul and his practice at
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