Time management is crucial for managing all level of productivity. Without managing this nothing moves. There are some fundamental principles you need to understand when it comes to time/task management. One of the most important principle is PERETO PRINCIPLE.

Pareto’s Principle (also known as 80:20 Rule) :  -20% of our activity produces 80% of our results 

It is called the Pareto Principle after its founder, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. This principle is applicable almost all areas of life. 20% of your customers will give 80% of sales. 20% of your products will produce 80% growth. Similarly this is applicable for time management also. 20% of your tasks will produce 80% of the impact/results. This is what we call in our Neo Time Management ( more on this in later lessons) – “Strategic” tasks. Basically, you should not measure your TASK PRODUCTIVITY based on number of tasks you completed  instead you should focus more on your 20% (strategic) activities. This is what “smart work” means.

Take a week long of your activities and analyse where you are spending your time. What are your 20% activities that can give 80% of results”. Some of the examples of 20% activities –

• Upfront planning – planning resources, activities, etc..all of these will give huge results. We all know the importance of planning but very few realise the impact of not having plan on the productivity
• Process Standardisation – It is much easier to operate in ad hoc way. But if you invest time in establishing standard processes then the benefits are huge
• Use of Technology/Automation – This is definitely a 80% result kind of activity. Think of all areas of work that can be automated using technology

Lot of Apps and to-do lists won’t take care of this principle into consideration. Hence many are not effective with TASK PRODUCTIVITY. Use 80:20 principle and get maximum impact delivered !! And work smart and strategic !!

There are many Technology/Apps can be used for TASK PRODUCTIVITY. There are different category of Apps are available. Below list is not comprehensive but will give some idea. As we use more and more technology and devices we end up using more productivity apps and tools. It started with calendars then to-do lists and now lot of advanced and integrated/collaborative apps are popping up every day.

• Apps for Task management: 10 Apps for task management
  • Wunderlist.
  • Todoist.
  • Trello.
  • ToodleDo.
  • Any.DO.
  • Things.
  • TickTick.
  • Google Keep.
• Apps for Collaboration :  Apps for collaboration and communication with project teams
  • Asana
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Trello
  • Slack
  • Team work

There are lot of Apps/tools available to manage tasks and for collaboration and communication. You can pick the best tools that suits you. Apart from the Apps available from market you can look at broadly what tasks can be automated using technology also.

Some times people spend lot of time on selecting the “right” Apps as there are so many Apps available  and it can be very difficult to decide. But you should pick one tool quickly and start using it. Most often tool is not the issue but the adoption is the issue. Many people don’t stick to these Apps for longer time esp for personal use.

Also, more than the App, what is really important is you need to understand some of the “rules” of time management. Will discuss about these in the next lesson.

Following are some of the BLOCKERS & BOOSTERS of  TASK PRODUCTIVITY. These are straight forward and simple to understand.

BOOSTERS: 

1. Planning & Prioritisation: Fundamental to TASK PRODUCTIVITY is planning. This is the starting point. Once the basic plan is in place, prioritisation should take place. With right prioritisation, effectiveness and productivity can be achieved. Now lot of tools and technology can be used for planning & prioritisation
2. Batching:  This is an important concept. When we batch lot of similar nature tasks lot more productivity can be achieved. Whenever we switch between tasks there is a “switching cost”. Your brain takes some time to restart the previous task and results in switching cost. Hence it would be productive to schedule similar tasks for the longer periods like 2-3 hours time so that your attention and focus is in place and you can get lot more done. But most often people tend to switch between tasks and between distractions
3. Automation:  This the latest and going be an ongoing one. You can’t imagine how much can be automated. It would be endless. In fact entire IT revolution is all about this. Next wave is about AI level of automation. This will be the biggest BOOSTER of all. Ultimate end of this would be bare minimum manual tasks.
4. Technology/Apps:  Using latest technology and Apps can save lot of time in planning and execution. Will cover more on this in a separate lesson

BLOCKERS: 

1. De-focus:  Any and all kind of distractions and de-focus would be biggest BLOCKER. We had covered more on this under MIND PRODUCTIVITY. There would be good amount of overlap between MIND & TASK productivity wrt focus, attention and deep work
2. Indecisiveness: All said and done no amount of automation or planning can do any thing without right decisioning. Lack of decisioning on time would BLOCK entire task productivity.

If we take care of LIFE, MIND & STRENGTHS PRODUCTIVITY, TASK PRODUCTIVITY can be managed easily.

Imagine if the ROI on individual strengths is 10x then when we build STRENGTH based teams/organisations the return will be what level. Power of this can only be seen when we scientifically assemble STRENGTH based teams. Huge benefit will come when you build strength based teams itself. What is strength based team?. It is simply when we build teams based on the their top strengths which maps with the required strength/skill of a role.

Let me give an example. To build a business – typically you need three kinds of brains & strengths.

1. Innovative/Creative Mind- Coming up with new business ideas/innovation and expertise etc
2. Profitability/Money Focused – This person brings the talent of spotting the business opportunities, negotiations, expansion, deals and partnerships
3. Execution Focused – Getting things done, operations, people management, etc

When you build such teams 50% of battle is won !. Then if each of the above people focus on their top most strengths then the power of it would be unstoppable. This is how strength based teams would bring phenomenal productivity.

Then if you take this and expand the strength based organisations beyond one unit then it will become powerful enterprise. This is how some of world’s most powerful (in all dimensions) organisations are built..by science or intuitively.

Main point – Start focusing on your individual strengths then you can build any thing.

Strength Based Individual -> Strengths Based  Teams -> Strength Based Organisations -> Strength Based States -> Strength based Nations.. This is how powerful nations are built !!. This is the power of strengths. Start with yourself !!.

Unlike LIFE & MIND productivity there are not many BLOCKERS for STRENGTHS productivity. There is only one BLOCKER. That is focusing mainly on WEAKNESS areas. Now the question you might get is – shouldn’t we focus on our weakness areas so that we can do better in that area. Let me clarify. Whole of of this concept comes down to ROI. When you focus on your strengths you will get multifold return vs investing in weakness areas. But the strategy should be focusing on strengths majorly and managing the weakness areas with your strengths. And if any weakness area is really blocking your progress then you may need to spend more time to clear the path but not trying to master it. What is the problem if we master our weakness areas? No problem. Just that you will get low ROI and at the same time your STRENGTHS may not be in full action or leverage. There are some people who might try to prove that they can become good at any thing. They can be also. Same thing..you get low ROI.

Problem with focusing on weakness areas is not just with self. It goes to team and organisation level also. Hence more care to be taken and build strengths based teams and organisations. More on this in next lesson.

Overall one good thing here is solution is very simple. Simply focus on the STRENGTHS.

Before we go into PRODUCTIVITY, lets first understand how to know your STRENGTHS. There are some psychometric tests to find out natural traits/strengths. Gallup assessment is one of the most scientific and detailed assessment that is available. While most other assessments give some kinds of “traits”, Gallup assessment gives very detailed 34 different strengths spectrum. We will cover about STRENGTHS in detail in a separate course. To make it simple, let us assume you know your STRENGTHS scientifically or unconsciously. And pick some STRENGTHS names like Problem Solving, Ideation, Learning, Communication, etc. Assume that you have these STRENGTHS. Now how does PRODUCTIVITY works with respect to STRENGTHS?. When you invest consciously in your STRENGTHS the returns will come in multi folds..min 10x return. First of all, how many of us know really our STRENGTHS. Even if you know, do you really invest in your STRENGTHS? Most probably, no, almost certainly, you would focus on WEAKNESS areas to improve. So in this case what would be the STRENGTHS productivity when you are not investing and using your STRENGTHS. Very less, right?.

To improve STRENGTHS PRODUCTIVITY – 1) you need to first know your STRENGTHS scientifically 2) then invest and focus on your STRENGTHS systematically. BOOSTER for STRENGTHS PRODUCTIVITY is only one thing – continuously invest in strengths. Will discuss about BLOCKER in next lesson.

We have completed LIFE PRODUCTIVITY and MIND PRODUCTIVITY lessons so far. Lets move to our NEO concept of “STRENGTHS PRODUCTIVITY”. This is a very new concept and we are trying to develop it.  STRENGTHS itself is a relatively new concept. We will be creating a separate course on STRENGTHS and it is a vast subject.

From the context of this course – what are STRENGTHS? If you ask this question you would get an answer which would be mixed with role (delivery, management, operations, etc) and/or with skill (comes with repetition). These are not STRENGTHS. Actually STRENGTHS are natural feelings, thoughts and capabilities. What are the some of the symptoms of STRENGTHS – when you operating with STRENGTHS you are motivated, focused/in the zone and happy state. Where as when you operate with WEAKNESS you will be stressed out, distracted and unmotivated. But unfortunately in our culture we have been told and programmed to focus on WEAKNESS areas and improve them and ignore our natural STRENGTHS or take them for granted.  But times are changing. We need to be smart to focus on our STRENGTHS while managing WEAKNESS areas. What is STRENGTHS PRODUCTIVITY? It simply means how well you are using your natural STRENGTHS.

Even though you may have good LIFE & MIND productivity, you need to be able to leverage your nature given STRENGTHS otherwise your creation purpose will be lost/diluted. Hence the important of STRENGTHS PRODUCTIVITY.

Thats all for the introduction. More in the coming lessons.

We had started MIND PRODUCTIVITY with an introduction and then we discussed about the 4 BLOCKERS & 4 BOOSTERS. Just to refresh your memory and recap, below are those BLOCKERS & BOOSTERS.                                                                                      

Mind productivity is the most delicate and it needs more conscious effort to improve esp in the current distracted & hyper competitive world. My attempt here is to give you a framework and an idea on what can pull down your mind productivity and what can significantly enhance it. These BLOCKERS and BOOSTERS are not fixed. But these covers majority area. You can build your own BLOCKERS & BOOSTERS for your mind !!.

Now you know what is mind productivity, what blocks and what enhances the productivity. What to do next then?. First – go back and read all mind productivity lessons from the beginning. So that you can fully appreciate the power of it. Second – Do a simple math to understand where you stand with your current mind productivity. For this all you have to do is – put some approximate % numbers to your 4 BOOSTERS. Lets say each BOOSTER weightage is 25% and the total 4*25% comes to 100%. Against to those numbers put your current score (based on your current understanding). For e.g Mindfulness 15% against 25%. Like this..basically you need to come with a total % out total % of 100.  This simple math will given you an idea on how is your Mind Productivity and accordingly you can work your way up improve the %.  Lower the % means your BLOCKERS are more active. Watch out !!.

Mind productivity can be a huge competitive advantage for you while everyone else is getting distracted !!.

Next we will be moving to STRENGTHS PRODUCTIVITY. Very interesting concept – Neo Concept !!.