Do You Know The 7 Ps for Productivity in the Workplace?

August 1 is Planner Day, and we’re all rejoicing!

OK, some of us are rejoicing. People who like to plan love Planner’s Day! After all, prior proper planning prevents piss-poor performance.

Of course, plans can take you only so far. (According to Jewish lore, man plans and god laughs.) Yet having a blueprint for the day/week/month can help improve productivity in the workplace, even if from time to time there are fires to put out that interrupt the framework. Building some flexibility into the plan will help you get back on track when life happens.

I’m not a perfect planner myself, but there are a few ideas that work for me.

Block out the calendar for better time management

I find that my appointment tool really helps with this. I can block off the hours and days that I know I need for concentrated work, so my focus time isn’t interrupted by calls I set my calendar to accept appointments only Tuesday-Thursday, and I blocked off at least one of those mornings because that’s focus time for me (bear sleep chronotype.)

That means no one can book calls with me Mondays and Fridays unless I’ve agreed ahead of time. Since afternoons are not focus time for me, it’s fine to work in among the appointments that people schedule. My calendar is also set for some time between appointments, because I need energy, and doing calls back to back is draining for me.

Generally, Mondays are writing days, but I can shift that if I have days later in the week with fewer appointments. My calendar doesn't allow for same-day bookings, so I don’t have to worry about an interruption I wasn’t expecting. I like to leave Fridays for planning.

I have both a paper planner (I’m analog) and an online one that syncs up with my Google calendars. I like to write things down, and I add notes. I can see a week at a time in the one I use, which is the Tudor planner by Heather Teysko.

Chunk time in larger blocks to have a more productive day

I’ve seen those weekly calendars that give you 15-minute increments, and I’d rather get a root canal with no anesthesia than even think about getting so granular. I block my thinky work in hourly increments (though I take half-hour calls).

Doing larger blocks of time helps in two ways. One, when things come up or they take longer than I think they will, a larger block of time can accommodate that. If I was blocking every 15 minutes, that’s not enough time to account for life happening.

Secondly, that way when the unexpected happens my entire day isn’t necessarily thrown off. Sometimes the curveball is bigger, but most of the time my blocking is flexible enough to accommodate it. If instead I did 15 minute blocks and something happened, all the rest of the 15 minute blocks are now in jeopardy.

Plus, 15 minute blocks make you look busy, but how much can you really accomplish in 15 minutes? Certainly not big tasks. And unless you’re leaving some of those blocks for breaks, your brain is going to get more tired out than it needs to be.

Support your brain for more productivity in the workplace

The human brain can focus intensely for 45 minutes to an hour. I can actually feel when my brain needs a break. That’s when I start fat-fingering the keyboard, or reading the same sentence over and over again without understanding it. Blocking out an hour at a time means that when my brain is drained, I can stop and give it a break for the rest of that hour.

And ensuring that you take brain breaks during the day, where you step away from work and ideally away from the screen, supports your brain. If I’m taking a longer break, I might go for a walk. If it’s an hourly pause, then I usually go to the bathroom or get some water or play with the cats.

I like to leave mornings open for my thinky work, since that’s the time my brain is best able to handle it. Bears tend to concentrate best 9 am-1pm or thereabouts, so I try not to put too many appointments at that time. Sometimes things get in the way, like programs or courses tend to be scheduled for morning Pacific time. Flexibility!

Your thinky work time may not be in the morning. It could be earlier or it could be later. Blocking that time for thinky work, whenever it happens, gives you a huge boost in productivity. 

Recap (tl;dr):

A calendar really helps in planning. Using my calendar wisely helps me have a more productive day so that I’m blocking time for important work. I also take breaks as necessary to support my brain so that it doesn’t get tired - and I have time built in the day to plan for those breaks.

Interested in learning more about productivity in the workplace so you can break through your business’s profit plateau? Schedule a chat with me to see if the Profit Velocity program can help.