Why Productive Efficiency should be the goal

Being productive has always been a bit of a sore point for me. Not that I’m not productive or struggle with it, but rather, how do you measure productivity when the opportunity cost is taken into consideration. I often spend the whole day behind my computer doing and creating various things. However, if I can’t pull it all together at some point during the day, it just doesn’t seem like an essentially productive time. Once you take that final step in your various tasks it always does come together. That is why productive efficiency is so important.

Productivity refers to how much work you or your team can get done. Efficiency, on the other hand, refers to the number of resources used within this process. Therefore, the more resources used, in your time, effort or materials, the less efficient you are within this process.

Productive Efficiency should be the goal

Sometimes you just have so many things going at the same time, you might not realise how important it is to take time out. I must admit writing this blog has in fact been such a journey for me. I found myself procrastinating so much on finishing this. Yes, the irony of procrastinating on a productivity blog wasn’t lost on me at all. However, it did get me to look at time in a little bit of a different perspective. Something that the past few months have definitely highlighted.

The fact that rushing around in a flurry to get as much as possible done is really not necessary. Creating a space filled with pause moments really is important.

The meaning of a productive day has changed a bit over the last few months. Suddenly a normal day involves a lot more than just making sure you get to do your bit. Especially for parents. Home learning, exercise and social skills are suddenly your responsibility, while the workload might still be the same.

If there is one thing I hope this lockdown has taught us though is that a productive day is more than just ticking off the things on your ‘to-do list’. It is finding the time for those around you. Most importantly looking after ourselves.

Self-care as Part of a Productive Day

I think we have realised that the kids don’t actually need 6 hours of tuition. We don’t need to fulfil a 9–5 time-frame in our workday. Of course, there is a huge difference between working for yourself and being employed. However, this is one of the things I think we as a society should have a bit of a chat about.

Part of integrating home and work as we are doing now means that maybe routines would be set more around connection and getting projects completed around the other roles we fulfil.

Personally, I think we should really be looking at productivity. How many hours a day are you, in fact, being productive? Now that we’ve seen that we can adapt our businesses, how about adapting our approach to a work-life balance? I read about a very interesting phenomenon last week. It’s called Parkinson’s Law.

Parkinson’s Law

Parkinson’s law might be more geared towards the rote worker or employee, but I can definitely see the relevance in many aspects of life. C. Northcote Parkinson came up with the adage that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

This, in effect, is based on the principle of self-interest and found to generally be true amongst non-creative rote workers. Although I think most of us can identify with it at some point.

Just carrying on with life as normal is not going to help us transition through change. Well, hopefully, we as a collective can realise that we need change. Whatever theory you find viable or not, there needs to be a consensus that change needs to happen. It scares me when talking about ‘when the lockdown ends…’ As we are slowly moving out of lockdown, I hope we can change our views on productivity.

Keep reading to find out more about how I came upon the quote below:

It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.

W. Edwards Deming

Finding the Right Productive Efficiency

Is it not maybe time for us to look at productivity and the science behind it. Concepts like ‘ultradian rhythm’ should be something we are familiar with.

We refer to that 24-hour cycle as a “circadian day;” within that 24-hour circadian day, we cycle through periods of 90-minute blocks of productivity and heightened focus. Those blocks of premiere productivity time are known as “ultradian cycles,” and the manner in which we cycle in and out of them is called our “ultradian rhythm.”

As with running, we know that although sprints are very effective, unfortunately, you can’t sprint through a race. As organisms, we need to appreciate the cyclical nature of our existence. Tapping into our full creativity and productivity means we need to find the rhythmic cycle.

According to the ultradian rhythm, our brains can focus for 90 to 120 minutes before it needs a break. Therefore dividing your work time into blocks of 90 minutes or less is ideal. Breaking up those 90 minutes into 30-minute intervals. Subsequently focusing for 25 minutes with a 5 minutes break

Why Your Breaks are Important for a Productive Day

The important bit is the switching off bit. It’s a bit of a yin and yang. To function best on the work bit, you have to be good and adamant about the switching off bit.

Digital strategist Tom Gibson said it best in a Medium post:

“We need to incorporate ‘off-time’–the outward breath, the ebb–into our working patterns. Not with simple lip-service like ‘you need to sleep better,’ but as an integral, affirmed part of the process of working…

We need to understand that ‘on’ is impossible without ‘off,’ and that the distance between the two needs to be made closer: like the beats of a heart or the steps of a runner.”

Tom Gibson

Therefore, to be the most productive version of yourself, make time for fun and laughter. Make sure to switch your phone off and take some time away from all the distractions. It is very interesting what you can get done if your mindset is right.

Productive Efficiency should be the goal

As I wrote, thought and researched different angles on this topic over the past couple of weeks I was compelled to take the breaks and explore the different topics. Although mostly born out of my procrastination in completing this blog. I did my first little drawing in many many years. This was something I used to love doing with my grandmother. We used to draw and paint together often. She was an amazing artist. I used to spend weeks at a time on the farm with her. We would read and paint and talk about history and poetry. Her working in the garden and me reading poetry to her.

There was no cellphone reception where she lived. 20km from the nearest town. The water came from the dam in the mountain and in summer we would sleep outside and hope the snakes would stay away.

Even more reason why this quote stands out to me. Inspired by the Business Audit podcast by the amazing Dawn Denton. As I’m reading more about W Edwards Deming, I just love his quotes so you’ll ve seeming a lot more of them.

It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it — a costly myth.”

W. Edwards Deming

Tools for Higher Productive Efficiency

Trello — Project Management

I love working with Trello. I know everyone has there favourite tools of the trade and maybe I don’t know all of them. However, Trello has been a great tool for both setting out tasks for clients and myself, but also to store information for later reference.

• I can schedule tasks directly from my emails onto Trello,
• Upload documents to different cards
• I can set reminders
• Use different labels and backgrounds.
• Using the Calendar power-up is a great way to set social media content and view as a calendar

Although, even though I love working on Trello and having all this online. I still use paper and pencil.

Canva — design and play

I love Canva. Yes, once again, I’m sure there are other platforms that have more functionality. However, Canva is easy, for me.

On the pro version, you have many stock pictures to choose from. You can resize pictures, make pretty catchy branded quotes, create banners for your various social media. You can even create your own logos, pamphlets, business cards or even infographics. Not to mention ebooks, book covers and social media posts.

Google — communication, storage and planning

There are just too many cool features to Google products. Each email account has its own storage, Google my Business options and calendar. The document creation options (I don’t even use Microsoft products anymore) are probably some of the most convenient, replacing Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

Most importantly though, it’s time for us to focus on what is important to us and our growth. It is time to change the narrative from ‘I am busy’ to ‘I am being’.

Alan Watts probably said it best:

The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.

Alan Watts

First published on 14 July 2020 here.