SET A TIMER? EAT THAT FROG?
Compare five ways of getting more done to discover which one (or what combination) work best for you
Many of us who've been working from home have been trying to improve our productivity or, at least, have been thinking about it.
There are so many different systems it can be overwhelming for the average non-productive person.
But Garland Coulson, a.k.a. Captain Time, will tell you: It's not so simple. The time-management coach based in Alberta has tested many productivity methods, such as the Pomodoro Technique and Eat That Frog. He said that although most are helpful, there's no universal “best.” He recommends trying each for a couple of weeks, then modifying them to suit your needs.
Anna Dearmon Kornick, a time-management coach who hosts the podcast It's About Time, agrees. She blends her favourite aspects of various productivity systems into one personalized framework.
“Mixing and matching is going to be your best bet most of the time,” she said. “These strategies are fantastic and a great starting point, but there's not going to be a one-size-fits-all solution.”
Here's a primer on five of the most widely used productivity systems, including experts' opinions.
1.
Pomodoro Technique
One of the most popular time-management methods employs a timer to break tasks into short intervals. Pomodoro means tomato in Italian, and the original timer was shaped like a tomato.
The technique, invented by Francesco Cirillo when he was a student in Rome in the 1980s, is a great way to stay focused and stamp out distractions, Dearmon Kornick said.
Choose a task, then set a timer for 25 minutes. There are many apps and websites that supply a timer, such as Pomodoro and Marinara Timer, or use one on your phone or watch.
Work on your task and only that, no interruptions allowed, until your timer beeps. You cannot extend your session and must take a five-minute break before starting again. You should also take a longer break (about 20 to 30 minutes) after every four.
Frank Buck, a productivity expert, appreciates that the Pomodoro Technique helps train your brain to focus on one task at a time and that it improves your estimation of how long tasks take. (“We're generally poor at estimating this,” he notes.)
But it “imposes artificial time pressure,” he said, especially given that some tasks require more than 25 minutes.
You can return to it after a break, of course, but is it really necessary to ruin your flow? Plus, it doesn't account for the interruptions many of us face, both at home and in the office. It's a better choice for those who work in isolation, he said.
2.
Getting Things Done Dearmon Kornick recalls spending an entire beach vacation absorbed in David Allen's Getting Things Done (Penguin Books), first published in 2001.
It's “a method for getting everything out of your head and held somewhere,” she said, adding that Allen's belief is “that our minds are for having ideas, not storing them.”
To cut back on overwhelm, Allen prescribes five steps: capture, clarify, organize, reflect and engage.
Capture means to collect whatever has your attention; for example, writing down all your appointments and ideas in one central notebook.
Then, clarify or process each one. If you wrote “plan birthday party,” you'll now break that into actionable steps — make guest list, buy invitations, send invitations — and indicate which one you can delegate.
Next, you'll organize those actionable items based on category and priority, with due dates and reminders. Allen suggests implementing regular reviews to decide which action items you should tackle, while also logging your progress.
Finally, engage means to act on your tasks and, well, get them done. (This is a simplified description; each step has many components as Allen outlines in his book.)
This system is complicated, as Dearmon Kornick acknowledges; even Allen has said he doesn't follow it precisely 100 per cent of the time. But “it really helps you create a methodical system for capturing things, organizing them and then staying on top of them,” Dearmon Kornick said.
Coulson, author of Stop Wasting Time: End Procrastination in 5 Weeks with Proven Productivity Techniques (Althea Press), likes the “all-encompassing” system, but thinks it won't work for everyone, especially because implementing it requires a great deal of time and effort.
3.
Eat That Frog
A popular saying, often attributed to Mark Twain, goes: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
That philosophy inspired Brian Tracy's 2001 book Eat That Frog! (Berrett-koehler), which stipulates that you should tackle your most challenging (read: unpleasant) task first every morning.
“A lot of times, the things that really move the needle in our life and our business are things that we want to put off because they're complicated or complex,” Dearmon Kornick said. “We have a little bit of fear around them, whether it's fear of failure or fear of success, or perfectionism.”
Identifying which tasks are most crucial — and blocking out time to get them out of the way — is often helpful. Plus, she adds, many of us are at our sharpest first thing in the morning, with the most focus and energy we'll have all day.
As Buck puts it: “If you're a teacher and there's that phone call with a parent and you know the parent is mad, go ahead and make the phone call.
It probably won't be as bad as you thought it was going to be, and you'll feel so much better after it's over. You won't be dreading it for the rest of the day and procrastinate on everything.”
However, he points out that, although the Eat That Frog technique provides a method for starting the day, it doesn't guide productivity beyond that; it's “not as well-developed as other systems.” That's why it often makes the most sense to implement it in addition to a broader approach.
4.
Eisenhower Matrix
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower is credited with creating this system, popularized in Stephen Covey's book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Free Press), which experts say is a helpful way to prioritize tasks by urgency and importance.
Those who use the method separate their tasks into four quadrants: urgent and important tasks that must be done immediately; important but not urgent tasks, which can be scheduled for later; urgent but not important tasks, which can be delegated; and tasks that are neither urgent nor important and can therefore be eliminated. (You can draw these on a piece paper or use an online template.)
For example, one might add changing air filters to the “important but not urgent” quadrant. “It's preventive maintenance kinds of things,” Buck said. “All those things that are going to give us a payoff sometime in the future or cause a problem if we neglect them. But we really don't have to act on them today.”
One of the benefits to the Eisenhower Matrix, Buck said, is that it promotes delegation and longterm planning. But rather than relying on it as your only productivity system, he suggests using it as a framework as you're adding tasks to your to-do list.
5.
Ivy Lee Method
More than 100 years ago, Charles Schwab, the president of Bethlehem Steel, hired productivity expert Ivy Lee to improve his company's efficiency. The story commonly told is that Schwab was so impressed with the results, he paid Lee US$25,000, which would be more than $400,000 today.
Under the Ivy Lee Method, as it's now known, you write down your six most urgent tasks to accomplish the next day, in order of importance.
That day, you work through them in order, not starting a new task until you've completed the one before it.
Buck uses a similar method, which he calls “the fab five.” He likes that this method emphasizes planning for the following day and prioritizes critical tasks. Coulson agrees.
“It helps you define your visions, goals and objectives,” he said, and focusing on one task at a time is a smart idea, because “multitasking is a myth.” Our brains can only truly focus on one thing at a time, he said.
But there's one big drawback to the Ivy Lee Method, Coulson said: “What do you do with all those other tasks?” Most people need to work on more than six tasks a day and this method doesn't account for or provide any direction on them.
This is another reminder that the best approach to productivity often involves borrowing the components of several different plans to create one that is most effective for you.
“Different systems work for different people,” said Laura Vanderkam, a productivity expert whose books include I Know How She Does It (Portfolio).
“If a system generally works, people are going to need to modify it in some way, shape or form. If you go into the productivity literature with that in mind, rather than attempting to find the one gospel truth, you will be a lot happier and a lot less frustrated when something doesn't work for you. Because nothing will work perfectly for everyone.”