Stepcase Lifehack: Do you ever feel overwhelmed or have too much to do? Have you been known to move around like a headless chicken? If so, maybe it’s time to do a Productivity Audit.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
How to Do a Simple Productivity Audit
Stepcase Lifehack: Do you ever feel overwhelmed or have too much to do? Have you been known to move around like a headless chicken? If so, maybe it’s time to do a Productivity Audit.
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14 comments:
I would do this audit but I do not have the time right now. (This does NOT count as one of my comments.)
I found this posting to be too general, a trend I often see with these productivity blogs. What new did we really learn here? I'd say, nothing. The author suggests we upgrade our hardware, use new software, not duplicate files, and stop goofing around. These are pretty generic suggestions to increase productivity. I'd like to see more of these authors come up with specific suggestions and plans more than just "come on, do better." Or maybe productivity is just like that... In the end of the day it's not about planning or strategies... It's about motivation.
This is too geared towards someone with a day job at a computer. I think is is obvious that I have a heavy workload, my inbox is rarely empty etc. however, this article doesn't provide ways to help combat these issues that are useful to be, really I just need more time in my dad but that is difficult to do. Hopefully my workload will start lightening up and I can make use of my new found free time during the week to be more productive so I won't fall so far behind on everything that I do, it has been a busy couple of weeks.
I agree with the posts above, and definitely feel that a large part of productivity, as Chris says, probably boils down to motivation. That said, it's those same motivated people who are going to do things like spend a little extra time being organized and strategizing so that they can continue to be productive. One question I always have when planning my workload is if perhaps the amount of planning is taking longer than it would to simply accomplish a specific task (I felt this way about the "time audit" suggested in the article), but also I know that personally I feel more at ease knowing that I have scheduled out my to-do list days in advance, and the level of calm that I reach in spending time organizing my tasks allows me to accomplish them easier than if I were stressed about them.
Like Charles, I think this article is a little too broad. Most of the situations are pretty general. Also, I would disagree on the part that recommended a dual screen, as I would just get more distracted by being able to see Pandora, Facebook, any other random windows, and my work all at the same time. The section about doing a "Time Audit" was probably the most helpful for me, as I find myself spending lots of time doing random stuff that isn't work-related at all, even when I have lots of work to do.
At the risk of repeating what's said above, yes, it's a very general list, but when you need to address people working in a lot of different industries it's hard to be much more specific. For example, the "reassess software programs" category doesn't go into anything specific beyond a spreadsheet, calendar, and mail program - people use a lot more than that, but few industries use the same set of programs that another industry would use so it's hard to talk about things like your CAD software and the like.
I agree with Dale. I don't have time to do a productivity audit... Of course most of the comments here are right on target. That said, I think that productivity doesn't just come from planning and strategies and taking the physical steps. If you keep taking those steps day after day, you may be productive for a while, but eventually stagnation will overtake you and productivity will grind to a halt. True productivity comes not from doing the "what" of a task, but from the "why" that inspired it. This is not just productivity but creativity and can't be easily measured, nor should it be. When we can totally quantify the true fuel of productivity, we will be able to control creativity. When we do that will it still be creativity?
I agree that this is the general article is something that I was expecting, maintain order in your emails, keep things tidy on your computer and eliminate only distractions like facebook and other time wasters. Of course I think this is the case, facebook does no good for being productive with a project! Nevertheless- I feel that articles like this don't hit on the major difficulty of being productive-- it just focuses on minor details of ways to "prepare" a being productive, classifying folders and deleting your inbox a way to just avoid a bigger task at hand. In fact, I think that when burdened with a large task, you should not worry about software updates on your computer, you should be attacking the more relevant problem at hand and tackling that first.
I oftentimes find it funny how much more intriguing other comments are about LifeHack than LifeHack articles themselves. LifeHack articles are one of my favorites because, although they oftentimes make very general statements, they are great for making someone reconsider a life habit and help in making a person more productive and organized. This article in particular is something I brushed over, thinking it was irrelevant to me, and then realized that I actually could really benefit from its suggestions. Although it may not give me as specific information as it could, it will definitely make me re-evaluate the state of my organization in my computer.
These tips were a little bit vague, but seemed useful. Some of them don't really apply to college students, though. I can't exactly make an ideal, distraction-free workplace for myself in the way that I could if I had my own cubicle or apartment. Nor can I afford to buy a second monitor to set up a dual-monitor thing, although that would actually be very useful in the way that I work. I noticed that the "Time Audit" section was something we covered in PTM, and I have heard that Peter Cook (Cooke?) has the faculty keep track of how many minutes and hours they spend on certain categories each day. I think this is a very useful exercise for anyone; chances are we're spending our time differently than we guessed, and could be much more productive by just tweaking our schedule a little bit.
I always like doing Producticity Audits. I try to reevaluate when I notice that I spent 5 hours with a blank word document in front of me but once it got late enough and the distractions start dying off, you notice that suddenly it isn't that hard to concentrate and the assignment only takes a fraction of the amount of time you had it open in front of you. Time wasters are so hard to eliminate. It's nice to go to places or work at times that distractions are limited. The problem is that distractions really come from yourself. You be in an empty white room with nothing to do and no clock, jsutyou and your assignment. And if you don't feel like it, you won't be able to focus. You'll distract yourself. Until you decide that you really want to get out of that room and the only way is to finish the work. Then, when you need to, when you want to, all of a sudden it's a lot easier to concentrate. It's a different issue than eliminating "time-wasters", it's a matter of being self-deciplined and focused.
I don't have time for a full audit, but I know that I am not using my time effectively for a good amount of time. I am trying to work better when I have time so I am not up all night, but it is very difficult. There are only so many hours in a day and smaller portion not already accounted for with classes, meetings, and productions. I shall just keep trying, that's all I can do.
One thing that I had never thought of when looking at productivity is how well your computer is running, but it makes perfect sense. One thing I often try to do is go through my files every two months or so and delete things I don't need, and put files I don't use that often on an external hard drive. I get really frustrated when I am trying to get something done and my computer is running really slowly. In the end, the blogger writes that you should just eliminate the issues that are slowing you down, but it is not that easy. Yes, we all know we spend too much time on Facebook and Twitter, but just knowing that you have that problem won't necessarily stop someone from having that issue.
This seems like an excellent idea but i don't know that it would be that helpful in the a college context. Like most people have said they are really general and seem to be geared towards someone who spends all day in a cubical. i feel like both college and theater tend to have a different set of priorities than most jobs. Because of that we tend to have different stresses or at least stresses that are not as constant.
CMU does a session similar to this about how to relieve stress in college and its a lot of the same really general ideas. i feel like this is just one of those things that you just need to figure out your self.
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