Practical Productivity

Good morning all and I hope you had a great weekend! As you read, please reply with any comments or feedback.

If you could, please be praying for my wife and I as we have the anatomy scan later today for our fourth kiddo. Now to the article…

I am a nerd about productivity.

My system of productivity has grown and improved through both research and experience. What drives my interest is to crush it at work but make it home for dinner. If I accomplish a lot, then I am less stressed when I’m home.

The system incorporates time blocking, prioritization, must-dos, nice-to-dos, and both personal and professional daily tasks.

All you need is a pen, printer, 3-ring binder, and the attached Excel file. Carry your binder with you everywhere to capture to-do’s.

Here’s the system:

Practical Productivity

Monday Morning

1. Weekly Tasks & Daily Tasks - Pre-filled out on the applicable day

2. Print out 5 sheets.

3. Capture all to-dos and identify your must-dos.

4. Fill out your time-block on the right side with all meetings you will attend.

5. In your first non-meeting time, block out time for your must-dos.

6. Fill in remaining time with other tasks (but build in slack for the inevitable)

Monday Workday

7. As you execute work, mark off to-dos.

8. There will be days where your time block plan needs edited, so change as you go

9. Check off your daily activities as completed

Monday Shutdown

10. Before leaving work, capture and transfer all to-dos to a future sheet.

Tuesday thru Friday

Repeat items 3-10.

Reoccurring Meetings

Use a page divider in your 3-ring binder for each reoccurring meeting

Take notes and record action items.

Date and store your notes in that binder section.

The next meeting, do the same, but then follow up on the previous action items.

Doing this simple follow-up will make you more organized than a large majority of people.

Email

Some people get a lot of emails each day. Figure out where this falls as a priority for you. Most emails feel urgent because of the notification but are not truly important that you respond. Especially the emails you are cc’d on.

Figure out how much your engagement in email moves the needle, then prioritize appropriately.

Use rules in Outlook. Once you figure out how you want to treat email, set rules accordingly. If you want to check emails you are cc’d on less frequently, then make a rule to move them to a separate folder.

Unsubscribe from spam emails.

You can use email to capture to-dos if you don’t have your binder with you. Otherwise, capture to-dos in your binder and transfer them from email to your binder as needed.

Prioritization

Most people prioritize urgent over important. If you constantly fight fires, you severely limit your ability to move the needle. If your goal is to get a better return on investment of your time, then ruthlessly avoiding fire fighting is a good approach.

Be sure to include non-urgent important (strategic) items in your must-dos each day. This will not only separate you from the pack but also make you feel less stressed.

Meetings

I recently posted about the number of meetings I had and got the idea to shorten them and see what happens. The standard meeting is in a 30- or 60-minute time block. When you schedule a meeting, try a shorter time block. This focuses the conversation and removes the fluff.

Say no to meetings you don’t need to be at. If you do not add value or get value from being there, then don’t go.

This is my system of productivity. It has greatly helped me stay organized and get things done that move the needle. It will need modification to suit your situation, but hopefully there are practical takeaways that will help you crush it at work and make it home for dinner.

Have a great week! I appreciate you reading and I hope you have found value!

God Bless,
Matt Virgin