How to be Productive

RedViking

RedViking

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Share some practical tips on how you manage your day and stay productive and stay on top of things.

Specially input from company owners, directors, CEO's, project coordinators and other high pressure positions.

Do you make use of software and to do lists?

How do you stay focus?

How do you organise your day?

How many productive hours would you say you have every day?

How do you manage your time between work, family and "fun".

@Afrihost-Gian , @ScottulusMaximus @ElonMusk , and others running their own companies, any advice from your side?


Cheers!
 
RedViking said:
Share some practical tips on how you manage your day and stay productive and stay on top of things.

Specially input from company owners, directors, CEO's, project coordinators and other high pressure positions.

Do you make use of software and to do lists?

How do you stay focus?

How do you organise your day?

How many productive hours would you say you have every day?

How do you manage your time between work, family and "fun".

@Afrihost-Gian , @ScottulusMaximus @ElonMusk , and others running their own companies, any advice from your side?


Cheers!
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At one stage I was working 24/7, 5am to 0h00.

In my current job, I work normal hours, off on weekends.

Main difference: I hold people accountable, if it takes longer it takes longer, they fix their own ****, very rare though, previous job, they just wanted to hire graduates for cost savings, no time to train.
 
Moosedrool said:
Eat breakfast, go to bed at a decent time to ensure 8 hours of sleep, no alcohol in the week or on sundays and start things instead of looking at things.

Projects that look daunting is easier to push through when breaking them down into multiple components.
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How do you practically manage this or divide time up during the day.

I co-founded a company in 2019 and it just exploded in responsibility and growth (compared to when it started). Having around 12 full time employees, some part time employees and on top of that managing clients and projects.... it became hectic.
 
RedViking said:
How do you practically manage this or divide time up during the day.

I co-founded a company in 2019 and it just exploded in responsibility and growth (compared to when it started). Having around 12 full time employees, some part time employees and on top of that managing clients and projects.... it became hectic.
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Work & Product Breakdown Structure In Project Management | APM

Product Breakdown Structures and Work Breakdown Structures look very similar and both have important roles to play in the project planning and control process.
www.apm.org.uk www.apm.org.uk

I'm not sure how relevant this is to a person already delegating work. But a good WBS and PBS that is fine tuned for your company helps.

a Message for company owners as well is to remember your service and don't attempt to impress your customer by stepping way out of your line of duty since it's unpaid stress and responsibility you place on yourself and staff. And more often than not a burden your staff are most probably unskilled and unqualified for. Business is business but your actual function will get negatively affected by this. A good solutions architect will be able to manage a lot of customer requests within the scope of the organisation.
 
RedViking said:
How do you practically manage this or divide time up during the day.

I co-founded a company in 2019 and it just exploded in responsibility and growth (compared to when it started). Having around 12 full time employees, some part time employees and on top of that managing clients and projects.... it became hectic.
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I am sure we not in the same trade, but what worked for me is something like this:

Plot all the projects on a simple timeline. With the various due dates. Work back to today using a 60/70% productive time per person/resource. Identify your bottle necks, dont plan weekends public holidays as this means you never planned to have time off. Identify projects which can be shuffled. There might be a transition stage going forward as some projects cannot be shuffled.

But going forward, try using the planning board to forecast the timing of potential new projects (consider adding a two week buffer per project), this will allow you to give the client a date that is more reasonable to you.

Dont over complicate. keep it as simple as possible.
 
I stay productive through habit-forming and setting boundaries: (I work for a salary now, but have owned businesses)

I always get dressed for work, clean the room, have my morning protein shake and sort out the house for the days I'm WFH.

I plan my next day before bed, and replan when having my first-morning coffee. I make a checklist and start working on it.

I'm moving away from "crafting" code to engineering to be more productive. I found crafting would take me into the late hours of the evening to hit deliver but then be tired the next day. I find the engineering approach is more about delivering what you can in a time-box, not stretching the timebox. Some call this Agile, but I've never seen even an Agile company stick to it.

I also started walking out of meetings when I'm no longer needed. I'm being mentored by a retired advertising executive on chairing meetings as well. I'm quick to stop people from solving problems in meetings, including myself. You don't timebox finding a solution.

I write down the time I context switch - it helps me recap my day. I don't believe a number of tasks is an indication of productivity, hence the dislike for "crafting" culture.
 
Also cut meetings short. There's no reason to utilise a full hour of chit chat for something that is resolved in 15 minutes. I personally get anxious enough when this happens that others in the meeting can pick it up and they stop ****ing about.
 
Tip one: you need a to-do list, and rank it by priority. This is essential and the first law of productivity.

You can get very nerdy setting up a system to perfect your list-making. Learn to use a bullet journal.
 
There’s this guy who live streams his 12-hour daily study marathons , it’s so cool. Doing that much without suffering burnout is the ultimate to me. :love:

But that isn’t about running a company , just productivity in general so not sure if spam…
 
Tip 2: mediate for 15 minutes a day. One of the many benefits this bestows on you is being able to snuff unproductive thoughts the second they pop up, before they take root.
 
Moosedrool said:
Also cut meetings short. There's no reason to utilise a full hour of chit chat for something that is resolved in 15 minutes. I personally get anxious enough when this happens that others in the meeting can pick it up and they stop ****ing about.
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The Japanese have this word - Muda (waste).

When it comes to meetings, the philosophy is a lot simpler than the traditional western ideas. They say, if you have a meeting and didn't get an outcome on any of these points, you have wasted the time :-

You meet, but fail to discuss
You discuss, but fail to decide
You decide, but fail to do
You do, but fail to measure

In essence 4 things that a meeting should target, otherwise its a tea party.
 
Nike7 said:
Tip 2: mediate for 15 minutes a day. One of the many benefits this bestows on you is being able to snuff unproductive thoughts the second they pop up, before they take root.
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On the point of meditation, one of our execs (a seriously high-functioning guy), always jokes about the four-o-clock bonk. And he leaves meetings at four o clock too.
 
3WA said:
On the point of meditation, one of our execs (a seriously high-functioning guy), always jokes about the four-o-clock bonk. And he leaves meetings at four o clock too.
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Even in November?
 
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