Notes on Productivity: How To Get More Things Done - Do Fewer Things

My good friend Patrick has be writing a lot about productivity lately, including a very nice article over at To Done!. Productivity has always been a favorite topic of mine and for the past few years, a career as well. My day job is doing the marketing for a calendar and contact management company, Now Software.

Over they years I've used many tools including Franklin Planners (before the Covey years and I still have the beautiful and extremely large black leather zippered binder that held many years of schedules, to-do lists, and address books). I've been using software calendars for almost as long, including Meeting Maker, Lotus Notes, and of course, Now Up-to-Date & Contact. I was an early adopter of the Palm (yes, an actual U.S. Robotics Palm Pilot, thank you) and stay on the technical edge of computer/web/portable device calendaring. And with all of the high tech, I still fall back on 3x5 note cards, which I keep in a Pocket Briefcase from Levenger.

So, what have I learned?

Just this, really. Multi-tasking is a crock.

If I want to get something big done, I have to clear the decks and do just that thing. For example, if I need to write up a new marketing plan, I need to carve out big blocks of time to do the research, the thinking, the writing and re-writing. I can't get it done if I'm trying to do it in-between phone calls, meetings, and emails. And I certainly won't do a good and thorough job if forced to crank it out while dealing with many other distractions.

The same goes for my personal interests and hobbies. Sure, I'm interested in an amazing number of things. But to do anything well or to enjoy something properly, I can't do them all at once. I'm a compulsive, obsessive, completely gluttonous reader. But I also love movies - so much so that I spent a year building a movie theater in my home. And I love to cook.

But I am also a writer. I can't read everything I want, watch all of the movies and TV that I want, and research and cook and have any time to spend time with my family or make it into work. So I have to make choices. Family comes first. And we've got to eat, so I make plans for cooking that are less time consuming, but fun. And to get my writing done, even posts like this one, I have to focus my desires for entertainment and education into paths that will be useful. I have to cut down on my omnivorous reading and read what I need for my current project. For the past several months, with only a few deviations, I've been reading everything I can find on James Thurber, John McNulty, and the early part of the 20th century that may have touched on these two men. Now that I'm starting the writing (stage play and screen play), I'm tempering it with a bit of Mark Twain to I don't become lost in the powerful language and rhythms of Thurber and McNulty.

And I save the movies and TV for when I'm too exhausted to work any more. Probably around an hour or so at the end of the day.

Here are a few productivity tips from Captain Randy:

• First thing, every day, before you check your email or look for phone messages, review what stands before you, what you really want to get done.
  
• Next, review your email and respond to what you can quickly and efficiently. For things that require thought or other work, schedule time for them on your calendar and respond to the email indicating that you received the message and when you plan to have a response.
  
• Do the same with your voice mail.
  
• Now, if you can, quit from your mail, put your phone on Do Not Disturb, and do your work.

If you can actually follow these instruction, you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

Most days I get started this way, but before long the sirens are wailing and I step into my boots and put on my helmet and grab my trusty axe. I've come to accept that I won't get nearly as much as I wanted or needed to do on any particular. But as each fire is dealt with, I can repeat my little mantra, "review the email, check the phones, back to work".

And I'll be damned if things don't get done.

Bush: 'I fake responsibility'

I, however, fake headlines.

CNN.com - Bush: 'I take responsibility' for U.S. failures - Sep 13, 2005

So what, exactly, does taking responsibility mean? So, "Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government . . ." And why was that, exactly? I'm betting we won't see him tell us, "You see, I put a political supporter and crony in charge of FEMA because I thought it didn't matter. From now on, FEMA will only be staffed by emergency disaster professionals and we'll put it back to the cabinet level."

"Oh, and this whole 'homeland security' thing. That ain't work'n out neither. Sorry about that, too."

Someone is having too much fun as a writer

This quote, although true, sounds like someone is just this side of giddy about the new iPod nano.

TIME.com: Stevie's Little Wonder -- Sep. 19, 2005 -- Page 2: "For a device ostensibly created to be listened to, it is suspiciously good-looking. It's so teensy and glossy and perfect, you want to put it in your mouth like a hard candy. For that, blame Jonathan Ive, 38, the affable Brit who heads Apple's industrial-design department. Ive is about as obsessive-compulsive as you can be without being hospitalized, and his wild enthusiasm for detail is what gives iPods the aura of sleek, otherworldly perfection that has helped make them the quintessential 21st century accessory."