I wanted to talk about productivity. I’ve been asked about this by a few people recently, and there’s been some chatter on social media about how some of us are struggling with creativity, focus and productivity during the lockdown in the UK (and globally) so this is a little bonus episode all about a technique I’ve been using that I thought I would share with you. Hopefully, it helps!
The Productivity Planner combines Most Important Task First (The Ivy Lee method) with the Pomodoro Technique, which uses timed slots to complete tasks.
I got my planner from Intelligent Change. Head over to their website: (https://www.intelligentchange.com/products/the-productivity-planner)
And bag one for yourself with this discount code!: LetsDoThis5
In this episode, you will learn’
- How I use this technique to power through my to-do list each day and week
- How to prioritise what needs to be done (not what you think needs to be done)
- To feel more satisfied and accomplished at the end of the day
- How you can use this for your daily comms planning
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Full Transcript
Emma Drake:
Hello, and welcome to this episode of Communication Strategy That Works with me, Emma Drake. How is everybody? Hope you’re all doing okay.
I wanted to talk to you about productivity. I’ve been asked about this by a few people recently, and there’s some really interesting chatter on social media right now in my networks about how some of us are struggling, lots of us are struggling with creativity and focus and productivity during lockdown. So I thought I’d do this little bonus episode all about a technique I’ve been using that I thought I would share with you. Now, I cannot take credit for the technique. I picked it out from my coach.
The productivity planner is what I’m using and it combines the most important task first, which is an Ivy Lee method and the Pomodoro Technique, which uses time slots to complete tasks. Now, there’s a link in the show notes to the planner itself that I’m using from the people over at Intelligent Change who have produced lots and lots of really great time management type things. They’ve got the five minute journal, so you should go and check them out.
So in this episode you will learn how I you use this technique to power through my to-do list every day and every week, how to prioritize what needs to be done, not only what you think needs to be done and feel more satisfied and accomplished at the end of the day, as well as some tips on how you can use this in your communication planning and be more strategic. So let’s dive in.
Like most people, I have tried lots of prioritization and planning tools, journals, methods, apps, and to-do lists. I’ve even tried the three things, which is something someone suggested to me, which is an approach that … it doesn’t really work for me. I think the main reason why is that subconsciously the three things I want to get done are the ones that get listed, not the ones that are actually the most important.
It’s a really big difference actually, between that method and the one I’m going to talk to you about today. So sometimes we need to focus on having a purpose to our work and it’s really hard right now to do that when everything is in flux, but by having a simple routine or process, you know how I love a process or a strategy that supports a daily purpose. I think this can become achievable quite quickly, and certainly this is something I have personally found.
So the technique I’m using is based on quality, not quantity too. So it forces me to focus down on what the most important task of the day is. Yes, it’s just one. Just one task. So I have to prioritize that. I can list other tasks, but they only get done once that most important task is completed. So the other thing I think is really important is personally, I think I need to be really engaged in my work and it naturally increases my productivity.
So it reduces my stress levels, I think. It makes me a lot more happy in my work if I’m more engaged in it. It’s one of the critical factors, I think that helps me work through and get my flow in my work. So by getting into a flow, I can improve daily. So I know that I’m making progress on a daily basis and at the end of the week, I feel even better. So I can be inspired to accomplish certain tasks and even with everything else that’s going on at the moment, it just kind of works. By combining the Pomodoro timing element and I’m going to talk a bit more about what that is. This process actually allows me to take breaks every 25 minutes. Now, due to homeschool and all the various ridiculous interruptions in my house. We have a puppy as well.
It’s actually quite realistic that with kids at home and a six month old puppy, I’m pretty much going to get interrupted every 25 minutes, realistically. By having time to work slots as well and stopping and having a break, at the end of the day I can look back and say, actually, did that task take me 25 minutes or actually I thought it might take me two or three slots of 25 minutes. Actually it took me a lot longer or a lot shorter than that. So I get used to how long tasks are taking me as well, which also helps me forward plan. So here’s how it works. Every evening I write down three to five things I need to get done the next day and that are making me feel the most anxious and the most uncomfortable.
These can be work tasks or personal tasks. Now, I actually use it for both because I find that both are equally important in my life in order to have a balanced life. So I asked myself if I completed this task that I’ve put as my most important task, would it make all the other tasks easier to do on my list? Is that going to happen? Is it the most important task? Is it going to reduce all the stress and anxiety out the day? So I can focus on just powering through the rest of those things. So how do I prioritize that? So this process is really … actually it does explain how to do this in the productivity planner itself, but I find sometimes it’s really obvious. So it’s a deadline. Often though, it’s actually the most uncomfortable one or the one that I’ve been putting off.
We’ve all got those. The way I write them down also affects whether or not they get done. I’ll explain what I mean by that. For example, if my most important task of the day is to prepare a presentation for Monday, let’s say a client presentation. It’s not until I get down to doing it that I realize that actually the task isn’t doing the presentation, the task is researching the facts that need to go into the presentation. It’s searching through my files to find the right images that need to go into that presentation. It is collating costs for the work that’s going into that presentation. So I need a number of component parts before I can actually do the presentation. So what it forces me to do is break down what my big task is into more manageable chunks and that I think is what’s helping me get through the day.
The other thing you need to do for this to actually work is get really prepared. And when I first started doing this, I was absolutely rubbish at it. I don’t mind telling you. Absolutely rubbish. I think the reason was, I wasn’t really prepared. I didn’t really have a clue how it was going to work. So I didn’t have a drink like I’ve got today. I didn’t have my phone off. I didn’t have my social media switched off on my computer, I needed a pen and I was wandering around the room, collecting things and that didn’t work. So you do have to prepare a bit and you do have to be tough with yourself and make sure that you prepare for this.
So this next bit is all about tomatoes and timing. And you might think, what the hell is that all about? So the Pomodoro Technique gets its name from the Pomodoro tomato and an Italian called Francesco Cirillo invented it. And the tomato bit comes from the shape of the timer that he used. So here’s how it works. You decide on a task you want to focus on that’s going to take you at least 25 minutes, and this is a broken down manageable task because we’ve already done the first bit. So we know what our most important task is and we know what exactly it is that we’ve got to get done. So a minimum of 25 minutes, it can take you two or three slots of 25, but it has to be a minimum of 25. So you start a timer and this is a Pomodoro. The section of time is known as a Pomodoro. It’s an indivisible unit of time.
So once the timer ends, have a party, get your chocolate biscuits, get your drink, take a break, don’t use your phone, this is about taking relaxing breaks, have a stretch, move away from your desk for a bit, and then once you’ve taken your break, you start the timer again. So if you want to stick to this rigorously, there are a few rules. So firstly, you can never do half a Pomodoro. That does not exist. You have to do a whole one. So someone like me who doesn’t like to always follow the rules and likes to find their own rules, no, it has to be a minimum of 25 minutes. So 25 minutes equals one Pomodoro, and consistency is what makes this technique work. So you have to stick to it and give it five days. Now, I said if I do it for five days, I’m going to buy myself a treat. And I did.
I also said if I didn’t do it for five days, I would iron my husband’s pants, which no one wants to do. Set yourself some goals with that. And secondly, once you’re used to it, you can start to work with longer periods of time if you want to. As long as that one period of time is the same and it’s a Pomodoro each time. Thirdly, the breaks are really important. So they are your time to recover. I get some fresh air. I make a drink, I stretch my legs. I’ve actually got a stand up desk so I move around quite a lot. I might sit down for a bit actually and take the break that way. Maybe you’ll be dealing with the children at that point. I might be answering questions or taking the puppy out so she can go out in the garden.
So you need to use your breaks effectively. That’s really super important. Finally, there’s a review part to the planner and I’ve put a link in the show notes to the planner that I use. As I said, there are lots of different formats of this. I use this combined MIT and Pomodoro Technique. And in the planner that I’m using, there are sections for reviewing your week and your day. I mentioned this a bit at the beginning, but this bit really helps you to understand or helps me to understand certainly how long something has actually taken me. And are you being realistic, Emma, about how long these tasks are taking you? And it’s the flow of this process that makes it work. Once you get into the groove, it is the flow of the process of sitting down, writing out your most important task, your secondary tasks if you finish your tasks, the ones you can get onto and reviewing your progress and working in 25 minutes slots.
Now I don’t always follow those to the letter. Yeah, I’m a human, human bean, and that’s from The BFG. I know it’s human being by the way, not bean. There’s BFG reference for you there, but it’s an excellent framework to keep me on track. So I hope you find it useful too. And I hope you have found this episode useful. I think in communications planning, we’re quite often asked to do things at the last minute, at the drop of a hat. There’s lots of deadlines. I think one of the biggest issues that I get told about by people is that it’s difficult to prioritize. And I mentioned at the beginning that I use this for personal and for work because actually if we don’t get around to doing the things that are most important, our anxiety builds, our stress levels build and actually, most of us can’t deal with that.
So making sure that we’ve got, what is the most important task of that day nailed, is the key to this process. And I think in communication planning, you can look at that massive long list you’ve got to do and actually go, do you know what? I can move on. If this gets done today, I can move on. I can move on to tomorrow. It’s that simple, breaking it down day by day, rather than having a huge long, never ending rolling to-do list. Start ticking stuff off by going most important tasks today is: done. The next two things I highlighted as important are these. I will try and get through those. You will start to feel better. You will start to feel more productive and you will probably increase your overall productivity in your work as well.
Finally, thank you for listening to this episode of Communication Strategy That Works. Don’t forget to check my show notes for those links that I mentioned, and I’d really love it if you would subscribe to my podcast and leave me a review. And also, if you think there’s someone that could benefit from listening to this podcast, please share this within your networks. So I’ll just say bye for now and see you next time.