eCentral Business Show^©

How do be more productive is a daily challenge for all levels of business. Here are some simple tips

Thu 7:00am 02 Nov 2017
Podcast Audio


We talk to Steuart Snooks about productivity as it's one of the key components of getting on with business.

Video transcript:
how do I become more productive is the subject of today's e central business show I'm John Nayla joined again by Steuart Snooks thank you very much for talking continue to talk to me this morning first job ok great now productivity another major thing that you're into and working with organizations and individuals around what do you got like a six step process for I guess there's only four steps I'll tell you boy I remember odd numbers more readily the leaders who can identify know where do you get that from Oh books I've read okay oh it's actually something odd about odd numbers isn't though mmm anyway on with the show now so you know five-step process around productivity now is it really just as simple as the 4-hour workweek is this where we're headed are there elements of the five steps in the 4-hour workweek for sure I'll I mean I started the productivity 20 years ago and specialized an email because more and more people were saying to me hey Stuart our biggest time management problem is email so I specialized in that but email just needs to sit in the context of broader workplace productivity hmm and so I find the five steps are quite counterintuitive when you whenever you go to a Productivity or a time management program you start talking bigger picture you need to have your mission in your vision in your cars and your drill down to then the day by day here comes but that's not where people are at people are overloaded yeah at technology particularly by our email makes so much coming at us the first thing that I try and help people to do as many said overload which is where the email specific work that I do comes in because a lot of the principles that apply to manage an email also apply to social media or for smile or all sorts of incoming data hmm the ability to well the three steps just quickly out decrease frequency with which we are taking all these sources reduce the volume that we're trying to be across and then increase the speed of processing that the reading speed processing speed filing speed so what are you saying so something going dumbing that down so at the outset you're saying for a start only check your email periodically as opposed to having a tab open not having it like there so things if don't allow it is a constant stream that's right have it at specific times of the day as often as you need in your role and except for four different roles and it's even different for the same person on different days of the week or different times of the month mm-hmm but may be of control mostly around attention span it really is a mental thing that where does our attention with our boss go instead of not being able to focus on anything focus on email and then move on to other things okay tremendous and then you also touched on and they're trying to remember just quickly the around that there's also that thing of like the channels as well so if you've got too many chow like you know so for instance I'd an organization are involved with where they're saying oh we really want you to use slack yes you know is it another channel for and I've got no I'm on my channel overload I've got like messages on LinkedIn a big email text messages that's enough I draw the line at that Stewart is that is that a smart thing to do yes depending on your personality or in your organisation you'll choose the channels that are most appropriate you know trying to be across everything means we maybe just get spread too thin mm-hm so choose the channels that are most appropriate yeah and then change channel to suit the message or the input that we're trying to get hmm I mean how many different sources of news do we need to have really I mean you could get used from so many different sources but you probably have a preference mm there's probably a toilet the day that you prefer to hear the news oh yeah they dare to reduce the frequency of reports or decrease a previously produced the volume okay yeah yeah so what else do we got in this five-step process well that's the first thing is to is to stop some other time that they're hemorrhaging to this overload and again the distraction a lot of timers also lost to interruptions and distractions mmm interruptions are what I call from outside sources a lot of information a lot of email a lot of phone calls a lot of visitors distractions are mental distractions now so much is going on in their world we've absorbed so much and it pops back up and distracts us so the ability to control those sorts of things and give attention to them full attention to them when it's appropriate and be able to switch off and give full attention to something else that's more worthy at the time so that would be the second step the third one is to manage commitments because so much is there possible we take on too much okay David Ellen in his book getting things done talks about most people's time management prophecy in appropriately managed commitments that we make to others and also to ourselves mmm-hmm we say we think we can do more than we can we overestimate how much we can do in a day and underestimate how much we can do in a year yeah or so in the workshops and coaching talk to them about how to make decisions around managing commitments do some of the thinking and it's only a little bit of thinking upfront before you jump in and get fully committed mmm because of FOMO which we talked about early fear of missing it because of the fact that we like to be available to help to know what's going on we sort of say yes first and then work it here we're going to deliver later yeah okay so there's like so pull back just like oh that's great can I make sure I've got a friend that does that to me says what what are you doing John I don't need your help I think you think you do but I want to know it's not going to so many good things to choose from it in many days gone by by maybe it was a good thing versus a bad thing but now it's a it's a choice of goods and we have limited time resource energy we can't give it to everything we need to have a decision-making criteria about what we say is - because everything we're saying is - it's also something we're saying no - mmm what we're often unaware was is by saying yes I've actually said no to that without realizing it it's thinking that through yeah right okay so what else they're on this list of in the the five sensible so now that we're managing commitments appropriately we've got a plate full of priorities how do I choose what the priorities are anyone make decisions about the order of the sequence the urgency the importance of the priorities that I've got what's the decision-making criteria that we use for most of us I'll do what it was quick easy that cheap convenient I like that that's not necessarily the best way to prioritize particular I'll talk about triage which is a really robust system because it takes the tasks taking of the emotional tagging out of that decision making you think about when you go to a casualty or emergency in hospital you what's the first thing that happens you don't see their eye and all in this reality area so if I was cold hearted impersonal because but they have to be they have to make an unemotional judgment of where your issue comes up in the biggest things mm-hmm with triage ABC and that's a very good model to use for making those sorts of decisions and then I get in the workshops get everyone to put ABC into Kobey's in fact you've got the seven Habits of Highly Effective People their importance urgency matrix and get people to put ABC and D one letter per box you know high urgency high importance this is and so people get the a and the D correct every time but there's there's always a disagreement of that we're paying some Bernard you buddy yeah okay all right what else do we got thing and so then the last thing is is how do I now manage my time energy and focus now that I've been able to claw back some time I'm giving it to the things that are appropriate for the commitments that I've got I'm making good decisions about the priorities how can i leverage the time how can I spend one hour mmm and get three hours with the value mm-hmm because I'm in the zone physically mentally and I can get a lot done in a short period of time and there are different times of the day what we call peak energy times there are damn times calculating what sort of activities are appropriate for each and making sure that I'm only doing peak time activities during my peak times mm-hmm and only doing downtime activities there's instead of mixing them up which is what people often do we get so busy doing the quick the cheap easy to conveniently I like we run out of time for the stuff that matters until about 3:00 3:30 4 o'clock in the afternoon or late in the week when yeah really yeah yeah that's right yeah you tend to pull off the things that you think oh that's gonna actually requires a brain thought you know yeah I'll just clear the decks here and then I can really focus on this is the problem is by the time you do that you're at a gas yeah and there's more stuff coming there's new things on the table yeah no I get it said it's interesting you know but part of my year this years has certainly become more regimented around process and and setting aside time and and even just using things in a diary in culinary thinks that no we'll do that tomorrow at that time just has become invaluable in terms of productivity so you're saying that more additional regimentation is going free up more your time yeah yes what purpose you know would you do what matters I guess yes so I mean really must look on their family are going to have time to do things outside of work but works taken over and as I am wider than are you working nine to five more to lots of far tonight doing all your real work at five in the morning till nine then you're in meetings in females I mean then you're doing the stuff that really matters to catch on it's a refresher in corporate world to operate like that yeah anyway there's so much to be done and the key is to get it done more productively during working here so that after hours are spent for our productivity yeah okay we've got a wrap-up for that and even there's anecdotally there was a summer saw the other day where the guy got up and did a talk about his productivity model said look by 7:00 a.m. in the morning what days already done I've got that thing said all but I was putting away ran at times do it how do they find you again Stewart looks calm they Becca spill Stewart any which way they like it'll all points to the same switch to another train lavatory calmed are you we looked at as well Google Reese Pelton correctly when we try to look for you it's Joe thank you very much for coming on the central business show that's all for this episode I'm John Nayler.