Another Way of Working Smarter

The challenge is this: How can you do twice as much in half the time.

Ask most people, and they'll say something like, "Well, I'd just have to buckle down and really get things done." But while that may be able to provide a 15%-20% improvement in productivity (I'm estimating here), I seriously doubt that simply working harder could ever yield twice as much in half the time.

There must  be a better way. I'm thinking there is at least, and a number of clients are using a new approach that's giving promising results. The process is this - start with the assumption that you must  do twice as much in half the time - not just that you'd like to, or that you hope to, but that you MUST. Now, given that, make a list of what's preventing you from doing that. Your list will probably include some, if not all, of the following usual suspects , but feel free to add additional items as you see fit:

• interruptions
• needing additional information
• needing someone's buy-in
• having to wait for something to happen first
• not having someone you can rely on as you'd like
• meetings, meetings, meetings
• uncertainty about what it is that actually needs to be done
• cumbersome processes/procedural issues
• Monday exhaustion, hump day blues, Friday euphoria (This reminds me of a fun little piece I wrote back in December 2003, "What else TV marathons have to offer", that offered a whole new way to organize your work week. Check it out. It's pretty clever if i don't say so myself!)

Okay, now that you have this list, work it first.

What?! Yes, that's right - work this list first because for every one of these 'time sinks' that you can meaningfully address, you get that much additional time back to work on your most pressing projects and assignments. So, if interruptions slow you down, set something up to carve some privacy into your day - even if it's only for a period of time. Too many meetings affecting your time? Send a surrogate, talk to the meeting leader in advance and give him/her your ideas on the subject so you don't have to attend. Procedural processes got you down? Create a better way, or learn how to step through the existing process more fluidly.

There's an old saying that goes something like this: "It isn't the mountains ahead that wear you out, it's the grain of sand in your shoe." Time sinks are like grains of sand. Take care of them first, and see if you can't climb twice as many mountains in half the time.