MAJID DABBOUS
7 'Work Smart'
Productivity Principles
Working Too Hard? No Work-Life Balance?
Here Are 7 'Work Smart' Productivity Principles to
Gain Back Your Time.
1) Time Boxing
The classic one. Simple and super effective.
Parkinson's law says that 'Work expands to fill the time it's given'.
That means that a slide on the latest industry trends can be done in 30 mins, 2 hours, or a full day - depending on how much time you give it.
Quality will not be the same, but still, a slide can be done in each of these timeframes.
The same goes for writing an email, doing research, and so on.
2) Merging 2 Tasks Into 1
Think of taking a call from the taxi on the way back home.
Or listening to a podcast or a video while on the treadmill.
3) Focused Single-Tasking
It's about the concept of 'Deep Work'.
This is great for complex tasks that need our full brain power, like developing a framework, crafting a storyline, or building a financial model.
Lock yourself in a room for 2 hours with no phones, no notifications, no email.
Just 2 hours per day of deep, focused, uninterrupted work.
You'll get into 'Flow' state and come up with super high-quality work, in a short timeframe.
4) Task Batching
Just like doing expenses once a month, grouping similar tasks saves time and mental energy.
Another example is going through email only twice a day, instead of every time a mail pops-up.
5) Reframing your Perspective
Some tasks are just boring, we don't want to do them, we procrastinate, and so on.
Here, we can 'see' the task in a different light.
So instead of being in the perspective of 'I need to send a bunch of emails', I can see it as 'an opportunity to expand my network'.
6) Leveraging Resources
Think of systems, tools, and people that you can use.
Some examples here are using AI for research and writing, or outsourcing graphics, translation, and so on.
7) Feel-Good Productivity
My personal favorite.
If your work feels like play, then productivity is not something that you force, it just comes naturally because you enjoy what you're doing.
Think of tasks that energize you and find a way to do more of them.
For example, my most energizing tasks when I was back in consulting were developing frameworks, storylines and presenting stuff.
What are your most energizing tasks, so you can bring more of them into your daily work?
And from these 7 principles, which one are you willing to give a shot this week?
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