Productivity through Simplicity
In the modern world it seems like "simple" has gotten a bad name. We see it in a few areas, like Apple products and minimalistic designs, but we fail to embrace it in all areas of our life. The lack of simple is what drives us nuts during our work days and causes us to vent about our customers and bosses. We find fault in the overly complex approaches we are forced into, but how can we be sure we are not doing the same to others and ourselves? Lets look at some things we can do to to reduce "clutter" in our daily work and improve our productivity simply by not having to do so much.
Set Limits
Although technology has made our lives easier in many ways it also has allowed us to do more in a typical day. This drive to do more is not always the best approach and is why we have the phrase: "work smarter, not harder." The best way to take advantage of technology and make sure you personally benefit from productivity gains is to set reasonable goals each day. Goals and lists are often used to help people focus and "get more done", but they also help set limits. Your limit of work for the day should be your list for the day. Once you are done, take a break, go for a walk, spend more time with family, etc. Do not go back and spend more time on completed tasks or add more to you list to "fill the day." We have plenty of days that are too full so start reaping the benefits of those few days where you completed the tasks you needed to complete.
In setting goals or tasks be specific in what really is needed to get the task completed. If there are related tasks that are not required for completing the task, then find ways to avoid them. This may be an obvious waste of a task, like a meeting, but the little productivity killers like trying to format your status report may not be as obvious. There is a lot of value in being professional about how you approach your work, but sometimes we add bells and whistles that aren't needed. For example, you might need to write a response to an email you received. Make sure you respond to the email and move on, do not get caught thinking you need to pad out the response to make it look more important by simply making it more wordy. We tend to be better at staying focused in email than phone calls. How often has a phone call that should take two minutes or less taken 15 minutes because you spent the time in small talk about the weather or the latest news? This is a good argument for choosing email over phone calls when possible. A simple rule for reducing the size of your responses: "When in doubt, cut it out." If you aren't sure if that extra sentence is important for your point, then simply remove it.
See the complete article with more examples and suggestions here
We seem to use the gains technology gives us to do more, but is that more really useful? Complexity can be impressive, but it can also be life-sucking. Find some ways to simplify your day and you will be happier for it. Need I say more? No. Lets keep it simple.
Rob is a co-founder of, and frequent contributor to, IT 4 Recruiters. He is also a longtime student of technology as a developer, designer, and manager of software and software projects. He is a founder and principle of RB Consulting and has managed to author a book about his family experiences. In his free time he and his wife Karla keep busy raising eight children and he spends time on the ice playing hockey to relax.
