Work In Colour - Work. Think. Live. In Colour
Wednesday 24th March 2010 | 10 comments
I'm going through a project at the moment of finding ways to work smarter. Partly this is about matching my skills with profitable work and 'best fit' clients. But it's also about productivity, about organisation and time management. I've set out a few of my favourite tips here, but I'd love to collect some of yours, too.
This is one of my favourite time management tips - Julie Morgenstern's WADE formula. For more detail, check out Time Management from the Inside Out.
Do you struggle to get through your to-do list most days? Or do you struggle to actually create a realistic list in the first place? Well, Julie Morgenstern has a useful tool than can really help you to make a realistic plan for your day (or week) and actually accomplish what you need to in each day.
She calls it the WADE formula and it goes like this:
Write it down
Record everything in one place, in your planner or on a list. I mean everything - phone calls, collecting dry cleaning, paying bills, calling a client, everything...
Add it up
Estimate how long each task will take. Be realistic - I know I tend to underestimate time for things I enjoy, like researching articles or preparing handouts, and overestimate time for the chores I'd rather not do, like my accounts or contacting scary people. The success of WADE depends on you being accurate here, so practice recording the time you actually take for tasks for a while, if necessary, until you get pretty good at estimating.
Decide
Work out what you can actually do in a day, based on your time estimates and the hours available to you. Be realistic here too - I tend to base things on having at least 10 working hours in a day, whereas in fact most days if I can carve out 6-7 productive hours I am doing well. If you have too much on your list, apply the 4 Ds - delete, delay, delegate or diminish (break it into a series of smaller tasks).
Execute your plan
Put your plan into action, avoiding the traps of procrastination or perfectionism.
WADE is simple and it works - a great combination!
Simple ideas, but they can make a huge difference.
What are YOUR favourite productivity tips?
Tags: productivity, tips
My favourite productivity tip came from my dad. He always said to me to make a list and then put a priority number starting at one next to it. It works but I like your ones too!
Thanks Natalie (and Natalie's dad...). I do agree that simple is always best when it comes to productivity - and most things, really!
Hi Natalie,
An excellent post with great tips for improving one's productivity. I really like tip 3 in part 2.
An old post of mine, that you may not have seen, provided business owners with a list of tips which, if followed, will see an increase in their personal productivity. The article can be read at http://uniqueinsights.com.au/get-personally-organised-for-business-success
Some of the other articles at my blog include tips on improving one's personal effectiveness. These articles are especially relevant to business owners.
I would be interested in your thoughts if you have time to look at the relevant articles.
Cheers, Daniel.
Like your tips especially WADE and no interruptions...
When I read them I was warming up as I'm a midday starter and had just deleted an email written by a professional photographer showing how to fix up a photo using, wait for it, not one but 2 software suites. Why? Well in spite of her having a 3 times more expensive camera than me she claims she was lazy about how she took the photo. Now when I'm lazy I use the basic software suite that came with the camera and if that doesn't fix things well I take another.
Why because the time it takes to post process is immense and if you need 2 programs and lots of work in each the resulting good picture does also look as if its been processed...no one has sharp bright eyes only, and perfect skin tones, so it is only worth it if it was your only chance of rescuing a situation or you are being paid to get that specific look.
However far too many people rely on software in all fields to fix things - so get it right up front and leave the fixing to simple basics is my additional comment. (This way, if like me you take a snap or 2 as a hobby, you are not a software specialist but still a photographer!).
Check: David Geer Foto Sydney 2009 on Flickr
Cheers D
David, great points! Keep it simple - or at least ask yourself, will this complicated thing really improve my work? I see this a lot in presentations, so many fancy transitions, cluttered slides and whatevers that just distract from the core message. I remember someone once asking me 'How many cycles does your dishwasher have?' and then 'How many do you actually use?'. Now I spend my money on the best I can afford in a product that does exactly what I want, so I'm not paying for fancy functionality that I'll never need.
I used to think I wasn't a morning person however since I had children and am working around their schedules, I find that my best and most productive time is that early morning period. Using that time allows me to get my work done early as my brain seems to be working at its peak (after a coffee or two) and that way then I can focus on spending the rest of the day with my family.
I envy you, Michelle. I prayed that when I became a Mum I would morph into a morning person, but it never happened...I can and do rise early, but there is nothing natural about it, even after 15 years!
Hi Joanna,
I have been reading your blog for a few weeks now (thank you!) and have to say that I love this post especially! I like Daniel loved point 3... but all of your ideas are very fresh. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Tina, glad you are enjoying the blog!
More people ought to use this system.
Ben Koshkin