Optimized Productivity: How To Become Laser Focused On What Matters The Most
People waste 21.8 hours a week on activities that don't matter.
Half of the average work week is spoiled by activities that extract time, your time being the ultimate investment. David Finkel polled his business owner clients, and the amount of time wasted is scary:
6.8 hours per week on low value-tasks that someone else could perform.
3.9 hours each week in escaping reality, like scrolling social media.
3.4 hours a week handling low-value emails.
3.2 hours a week dealing with low-value interruptions
1.8 hours a week handling low-value requests from co-workers
1.8 hours a week putting out preventable fires
1 hour each week sitting in completely non-productive or wasteful meetings.
The things you say yes to prove what's most important to you.
I've been there.
Some days, I'm still reacting to the whirlwind of the day. Early in my career, I felt everything was vital to my success. Every idea. Every email. Every interruption. I'd constantly be reacting to the whims of the day, only to discover that I only kept the ship floating, but it wasn't moving.
The same goes for my life.
I let things, materials, and desires distract me from what was truly important.
My goals and who I wanted to be didn't align with my behaviors. I was wasting my future potential on the current reality that didn't align with my vision.
In the poll, business owners' priorities are not about building a business that can survive without them, thus also giving them a ton of "time" freedom.
They're mistakingly building their prison, and distractions are laying the foundation.
The Value of Your Time
You first have to accept the reality that you can't and won't be able to do everything.
Life is finite, your time is ticking, and you're one step closer to death's door every day. The reality is we're not mortal, and we have to make hard choices.
We have to say no, so we can say HELL YES to the things that matter the most.
When you organize your days with "the understanding that you definitely won't have time for everything you want to do, or that other people want you to do—and so, at the very least, you can stop beating yourself up for failing" writes Oliver Burkemaman wrote in Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.
You accept that making hard choices is unavoidable and you're going to have to get clear on what's most important.
You learn to make conscious decisions on what to focus on and what to neglect, "rather than letting them get made by default—or deceiving yourself that, with enough hard work and the right time management tricks, you might not have to make them at all."
You learn to accept that the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) is a part of life—missing out on something, damn near everything, is guaranteed.
Missing out makes the choices we have to make more meaningful.
We get to decide.
"Every decision to use a portion of time on anything represents the sacrifice of all the other ways in which you could have spent that time but didn't—and to willingly make that sacrifice is to take a stand, without reservation, on what matters most to you."
Meaningful productivity often doesn't come from hurrying things up but from trusting the process and letting them take the time they take—surrendering yourself to Eigenzeit, "the time inherent to a process itself."
The 6 Ds to Massively Improve Productivity
Before you invest time into a task, you need to know what action is required, as most tasks don't need to be done by you.
This is the only way to improve productivity. It's about focusing on the right priorities.
Follow these six Ds to classify and take action on all your tasks:
1/ Delete: What can I delete?
Are you working on things that add immense value to your priorities?
We often get stuck doing things just to do them, but that's wasteful. Dare I say even sinful?
If it adds no value, delete it.
Ask: "Will this help me achieve my goals?"
No: Defer
Yes: Move to the next question
2/ Defer: Should I defer this action?
Does a specific task need to be done right now?
Asynchronous communication is a great example. We think we must reply to a message, an email, or a comment, right-this-instant. Don't make things more urgent than they are. If it's not time-critical, schedule it for a future date.
But don't make this a habit, or you'll schedule a bunch of junk.
When in doubt, refer back to number one.
Ask: "Does this need to be done right now? "
No: Defer
Yes: Move to the next question
3/ Document: What can I simplify?
Reoccurring tasks are trouble when the task is done differently every time.
Find ways to document the process. Procedures help build consistency, avoid mental confusion, and streamline multiple activities. What took you an hour to do can now take less than thirty minutes if you create a good procedure.
Then, you look to improve the process as time progresses.
Ask: "Can this be simplified or improved with a Standard Operation Procedure?"
Yes: Document and simplify
No: Move to the next question
4/ Design out: What can I automate?
Create a system where you design out a reoccurring task or step.
Automation is a great ally. Look for ways where technology can perform the actions for you.
For example, I have a repairs team in my business that needs to follow up on repair orders for commercial aircraft parts being repaired by our vendors. At any given time, we have hundreds of open repair orders. Initially, they would have to manually call and email to get the status of the repairs.
Now, an automated email is sent to the vendor to request the status of the repair order at specific time intervals.
Be creative.
Ask: "Can this be automated?"
Yes: Automate
No: Move to the next question
5/ Delegate: What can I hand off to someone else?
If you're a $500/hr CEO or founder doing a $25/hr task, you need to look for ways to delegate.
Jeff Seibert says, "As the founder, CEO, you have one job. Look at where you're spending your time and fire yourself from that position. Perform the role, then hire someone better."
Don't get caught in the cycle of "only I can do it."
Delegate any leftover work that is less valuable than the time it would take you to do it.
Delegate to an assistant, employee, or co-worker, or outsource it completely.
You can only be productive with good delegation habits.
If you can't delegate it internally, outsource it.
Jason Calacanis recommends outsourcing all the non-essentials.
These are often administrative or repeatable activities. Keep everything strategic in-house. Here are some examples he gives:
Outsourcing product development/engineering (BAD)
Outsourcing sales (BAD)
Outsourcing HR (GOOD)
Outsourcing other administrative work (GOOD)
6/ Do: What deserves my investment of time and has exponential returns?
Only invest your time in the things you're passionate about, which creates the biggest impact on your goals.
But this doesn't mean you ride the passion train. Sometimes, especially early on, you must do things you hate. For example, if you hate sales, you'll still have to sell until you create enough momentum to hire someone to take over the activity (i.e., delegate).
Once you've applied the other five filters, you now have time and mental capacity to work on what matters the most.
Do things that help you make giant leaps in achieving your vision, mission, goals, projects, or priorities. Get in the habit of applying these filters to all of your tasks.
Slowly you'll begin to spend 90% of your time doing what matters the most.
How To Massively Improve Work Performance And Your Return On Time
Todo lists are often a distraction.
You dump a whole bunch of crap you think you should do into a list and then get anxious trying to figure out where you want to start (unless you're an expert at the six Ds).
But there's an even more evil side to your tasks:
They focus on actions to complete, but once it's done, it's done. Yah me! Sure, task lists are crucial for projects, priorities, and goals, but the tasks often create no long-term, repeat value.
They're a time liability.
So, invest in leverage lists.
George Mack says these are "actions that work for you after completion." It's even better when the compound over time.
Leverage lists are "time assets."
Some examples are:
To-do: Train someone on your team.
Leverage: Record the training to be reused indefinitely.
Leverage: Create a Standard Operating Procedure on how to train effectively.
Instead of simply creating an endless to-do list, look for critical areas where you can convert your to-do into leverage.
In my businesses, I teach my leadership teams to focus relentlessly on building SWAT teams to not only improve work performance but to build leverage into every team:
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
Who's The Who?
Automation
Templates
The 5-Step Return On Time Priority Framework
Time is the ultimate investment.
Things slowly begin to ROT when you're not focused on the right priorities or areas of your life. Nothing dramatic happens at first. A distraction today, an excuse tomorrow, but when you compound your decisions over months, years, and decades, your small daily actions turn into big problems.
Instead of constantly reacting or pushing off what's important, you must ruthlessly prioritize.
You do that by following these six steps:
Step 1: Identify
For one week, write down all your daily tasks and activities.
If you're blind to the reality of how you spend your time, it's impossible to fix it.
So, for everything you do, write the activity and the time you spent on it:
Emails - 60min
Meeting with X - 45min
Resolving issues with Y - 30min
Drafted 1, for Z project - 120min
Step 2: Reveal
At the end of every day, you're going to self-reflect and expose the areas you've become rotten.
Go back through your activity list every day, and ask yourself, was this activity rotten? An activity that doesn't positively add to your Return On Time (ROT) is a rotten one.
Don't try to change your behavior; be aware of it for now.
Write "ROT" next to the activity.
"Emails - 60min - ROT"
Step 3: Classify
Then, at the end of the week, you'll further label your activities with ABCDF.
Write one of these letters next to each activity based on the overall value it created.
Here's how they're defined:
A Tasks: The Leveraged
These are the tasks that fascinate, motivate, and inspire you. They contribute to a higher purpose and create immense value.
1% in, 50% Out: 1% of the work will give you 50% of the value.
These are the $25,000 / hr activities in your career or business.
B Tasks: The Optimized
These activities contribute to your vision, mission, and values.
4% in, 64% Out: 4% of the work will give you 64% of the value.
They are the $8,000 / hr activities in your career or business.
C Tasks: The Bedrock
These tasks are essential, but they require a lot more work.
20% in, 80% Out: 20% of the work will give you 80% of the value.
They're the $2,000 / hr activities.
Action:
Look for ways to create leverage here. Start with your SWAT team.
D Tasks: The Dreadful
These tasks are a terrible time investment. They don't inspire, motivate, or contribute significant value to anything you do.
80% in, 20% Out: 80% of the work will give you 20% of the value.
These are the $100 / hr activities in your career or business.
Action:
6D these tasks and avoid "Do it" at all costs.
F Tasks: The Wasteful
These activities extract value and are a massive distraction and waste of time. They add no value anywhere.
100% in, 0% Out: 100% of the work will give you 0% of the value.
These are the $8 / hr activities.
Action:
Delete!
To further the example, this is what it will look like at this stage:
"Emails - 60min - ROT - F"
Step 4: Weed
You have to accept hard choices must be made.
You have to be willing to say no, so you can say yes to what matters. Most things don't deserve our attention. Most things don't add value to your business, your life, or the people that matter to you.
Go back through your list and run every activity through the six Ds, investing your time into what matters most.
You only do A, B, and some C activities.
Everything else is Deleted, Deferred, Documented, Designed Out, or Delegated—weed them out.
Step 5: Prioritize & Do using the 5-3-1 method
Finally, this leaves you with roughly 20% of your original list.
You'll ensure these activities are aligned with your goals and schedule them weekly using 5-3-1:
5 weekly priorities that push forward your quarter goals.
3 daily priorities.
1 focus block for each daily priority scheduled on your calendar.
When you focus on what's essential and say no to everything else, with patience and becoming a disciple of daily discipline, you'll see a transformation beyond your wildest dreams.
