Get More Done

Task Management:

Get organized and be productive.

How might you improve your task management? Where have you seen mismanagement or lack of management negatively impact your productivity? What strategies and tactics do you believe you will have to apply in order to improve your ability to manage tasks? What tools can you put into place today to help you improve on your task management? (If you need some ideas, refer back to videos #1 and #2 for some helpful tips.) Write your answers below.

To become more effective at managing tasks, I will:

Communications:

Separate tasks and set expectations.

What practices might you put into place so you habitually adopt an “Inbox Zero” philosophy? Take a look at your inbox right now. What is the date of the oldest message, and is it an item that needs to be read or is it a task? Did you respond to the person who sent it, and what expectation did you set for them around this message? In what ways do you think you might improve on identifying those items which are tasks?

In order to reach Inbox Zero every working day, I will:

Mindfulness:

Increase productivity with a clear and focused mind.

How might you go about having a more clear and focused mind? What can you do to ensure that you get 7-9 hours of sleep every night? How can you ensure that you take at least one day off per week? Where will you vacation so you can get off the grid, and when will that take place? What standing dates/times will you hold to spend time with your family and friends?

So that I can achieve more clarity and balance of mind, I will:

TEAMS:

Delegate responsibility to boost productivity.

How might we create an environment of higher productivity for everyone on the team? What is on your plate that you could delegate to members of your team today? How can you use task delegation to aid your team’s individual and collective learning? What are some routine one-on-one meetings you can schedule out for the year? How might you best leverage your task management system to create and assign tasks to specific individuals or groups on your team?

So that everyone on my team can be productive, I will:

NEXT STEPS:

Identify other areas of concern.

What are some other areas in your life where you feel as though you’re not being as productive as you’d like to be? These are not necessarily chinks in your armor, but they could signal some kind of vulnerability. The important thing here is to identify and qualify these areas and to talk with a mentor about the level of seriousness with which we should address these items.

Instructions:

Using the space below, take ten minutes to think about and list 5-6 additional areas (beyond the ones in this exercise) in your business life where you would like to see some improved productivity. This could be centric to you personally, or to a team you are on, or your overall company as a whole. List them below and then rank them from most to least pressing.

Now, share these items and your perspective with a mentor and discuss why these are issues in the first place. Talk about what you think might happen if you don’t address the productivity levels of these items, and determine together what course of action you need to take and by when.

WHITEBOARD EXERCISES