106 - Getting shit done 💪😅
Hey there, !
How do you get shit done?
Here's the story of how I tried lots of things, kept what was useful, and am currently in a place where I think I have a good collection of ideas on how I've improved my own efficiency / productivity. Does it lead to better outcomes? Maybe. I don't know. But speed is its own advantage as well!
This really only applies to office workers rather than anyone who does #essential #work. Let me know if you have any tips that have worked really well for you!
Vince's Principles for Getting Shit Done:
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Just do it: This concept is stolen straight from Getting Things Done - one of the seminal works on the productivity system type where you spend a bunch of your time filing things away, putting them into buckets of 'Do, Delegate or Defer' and then cycle this over and over again. A good summary here.
It's not a bad system, and I've adopted a lot of core principles from it. But I was finding the full system extremely time-consuming; I hated spending so much time working out how to trudge through all the filing and sorting required. The overhead was taking up a lot of time in itself!
The key thing I took from GTD was the Do it principle - if it's going to take you less than 2 minutes to do something, then just do it right now. It'll probably take you less than 2 minutes anyway, and it quickly and efficiently finishes the task before it's even made it on to your list of things to do. Also, if it takes more than 2 minutes, you already started the task anyway so the inertia of stopping actually helps you continue completing it.
I use this principle for a lot of things - like chores, or tasks at home as well. If you're passing something that can be done in 2 minutes, just do it! It's not that hard.
A corollary principle which I call the Jaide principle (named after a friend of mine from Deloitte) is 'if you're never going to look at this again, just Delete it'. Very Marie-Kondo-like, and made me gasp in horror the first time I saw it, but it made life so much easier. It went against the whole 'file it away for a rainy day' type system I had read about in GTD, but it worked!
And that's the most important thing :)
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Write it down: The physical act of writing things down helps give you a 'physical' reminder of where something exists. It's kind of like when you put up some art in a room, or when you have your books in a particular order on your bookshelf; the physicality of it helps jog your memory that you've actually written something down.
I remember when Microsoft Vista came out and had those 'post-it notes' you could put on your screen. My screen rapidly cluttered up with notes of varying sizes and colours, which added to the chaos and mess of the screen. I had to get rid of that system pretty quick...
In addition, the brain craves task completion. It's why we hate having bills or debts hanging over our head, and will take the easy way out rather than set up the long term benefits - all to alleviate the distracting pressure of 'hey just remember you have to pay this bill! Oh and also make sure the milk is picked up! Oh also that you have to get a present for XYZ' (which is called an 'open loop' in the literature).
Writing things down means that it comes out of your brain on to a page, removing the constant distracting chatter from your brain because it knows it's physically somewhere on a list. You've 'closed the loop' in your mind - good job!
Just hope you remember to consult the list...!
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Single threaded categorisation and review: I read and tried bullet journaling, which is another complex system of using different types of bullets to denote if something was a task, an event, a reminder or something else.
There's an entire subculture of productivity artists who spend their days decorating and prettifying their bullet journals to improve the A E S T H E T I C (which is super impressive, but not for me).
The problem with this system was that lists had too many categories. I was hunting through my lists for my tasks, but they were scattered between notes, and events and other random symbols for importance or interesting tidbits I had written about. It became messy - thus actually decreasing efficiency.
In my current system, I've reduced the categories into single system ownership - paper to-do list for tasks, Calendar for events, and Notion.so for links / quotes / other things of interest. This simplifies what each tool is for and ensures I'm going to each tool for one thing. Much cleaner, much simpler.
In addition, every week, I write up a new task list for the week, making sure I clear the previous list of things I've completed, discarding stuff I don't need any more with an X in their box, and then using a strikethrough for those I still have to complete (as they have now moved to the next list).
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Block out time: Cal Newport wrote a book a while ago called Deep Work, whose main thesis was to lock yourself away for a dedicated period of time to get into a state of flow. John Cleese talks about this same concept in various talks when discussing the process for creativity - labelling it open and closed modes of thought that need specific blocks of time, as well as a dedicated (physical) space, to encourage creativity.
Obviously, in the real world, neither of these are practical. I can't lock away 3 hours out of my day to just have to myself; there are meetings and tasks I have to be aware of and be adaptable to.
The reason these two guys can do this is because they have a bit more ownership over their time (being independent contractors of a sort). Also, they're rich and successful. Wealth begets wealth.
However, I did start blocking time out in my calendar for things (even if it was just tentative). Planning and blocking out the time in your day / calendar means:
- you're being more conscious about the time you're using in your day
- you're giving yourself a deadline of when you can get your shit done. Parkinson's Law states that the task will fill the time allocated to it; if you have the whole day to wash the dishes, you'll probably procrastinate and leave it to the end of the day. Structure can help!
It also helps me block out 'Exercise' time during the day when I see I have a break, or understand when I'm going to eat lunch.
This doesn't necessarily help me get into a deep state of flow, but it helps me not have to think / make a decision about 'what shall I do for the next half hour' - because it's already planned!
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Invest in teaching time: Make time to teach the people around you. I know this sounds counter-intuitive to the productivity principles I've listed above, but you have to spend this time so that others around you can learn how to do what you can do.
It's not just a force multiplier (in that you can 2x something when you've taught someone something), it's also a long-term investment in other people's capabilities so that they become another port of call when you have to delegate (see point 1).
It's a great way to practice your teaching skills anyway (like for boardgames, or home tasks, or otherwise) - because you can practice evaluating somebody's capability, help them upskill quickly, and ultimately grow in their roles. Win-win-win!
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Let things go: Don't blame yourself if you can't stick to your to-do list, your system, or the multiple tries you've had at improving your own productivity. It's always evolving and optimising, and blame doesn't help anyone. Just take the lessons you've learnt, try again, and see what sticks. Cultivate that growth mindset for everything else in your world.
This system is ever-evolving! I don't think it's perfect for you, and it's definitely not set in stone. The key is to try things, see what you like, meld it with other things that you like, and make something that's perfect for you.
Let me know what you think - what do you do to get shit done?!
Chat soon :)
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✔️Real Life Recommendations
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Save to Notion chrome addon - I use this all the time to save the links for the below - anything I find that's interesting or fun or insightful, I save into one long list of URLs. The advantage is that it copies the content as well, which means that even if the articles goes down, I'll still have a copy to read.
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The White Lotus - a short series from HBO on a bunch of people touching down at a Hawaiian resort. Lots of really interesting social critiques, dialogue between families / couples, and great characters. Loved Murray Bartlett as Armond, the resort's manager, who gives a wonderful performance trying to stay on top of myriad problems that pop up across the hotel. Highly recommended! (Can be accessed via BINGE)
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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Hundreds of ways to Get Shit Done, and we still don't - this is the article that made me think of writing this piece. All these different systems and we still haven't found Right Way To Do Things?! Maybe perfection doesn't exist.
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Looking at Example Product Management boards - expert product consultant John Cutler simulates some scenarios for product kanban boards, and helps identify what problems may exist quickly and efficiently, just based on how the board has been set up. Years of experience at work...
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Manage your Energy, not your Time - great HBR article on the different components of energy (Body, Emotions, Mind, Spirit) that you need to be in control of to be at your very best. Also has an Energy Audit you can do to check yourself out!