Is it time for a productivity review?
We all spend much of each day striving to be effective and productive. But how many of us have a clue about our actual level of productivity?
If you could rate your productivity in the past 60 mins what score would you give out of ten? Go on, write your productivity score down now. No excuses, just go for straightforward honesty.
Now take out your phone and set an alarm for every hour you are awake and likely to be working.
Next, create in your diary or tablet a new file. Just a one pager. Write in the numbers 1-50. Each number representing one working hour.
Starting with the score you have just given yourself for the past hour, your task now is to assign at the end of every 60 minutes working when your alarm goes off, what your productivity score has been for the hour just finished.
You will keep a log of each hour worked for exactly one working week. Hopefully, not many of you will need all 50 lines!
Next to each productivity score write in one word or phrase that explains the score e.g. no phone disruptions, too much noise, distracted by email, made round of drinks, Wi-Fi slow, chaotic desk, took down wrong instruction, feeling awake and in the mood to focus etc.
At the end of your week take half an hour to review your scores and their reasons. What is working well? What needs to change?
If you decide to take no action, that nothing will change, that’s okay, but before leaving this activity, take the time and have the self-discipline to write down what both the short term and long-term consequences might be.