6 General Production & Productivity Hacks!
Every human was born with 24 hours in their day, yet for
some, they can achieve so much more than others.
Why is this?
Why can’t others also do that?
Do these people just sleep less?
The most productive people usually sleep well, because
being tired doesn’t make them MORE productive, it makes them a lot less
productive and in extreme cases unproductive!
So, that’s not the reason.
So what is?
The clue lies in Benjamin Franklin’s adage:
“If you want something done, ask a busy person.”
A busy person knows they cannot manufacture more hours in
the day or skip sleep, so they need to be good at managing their time.
The same 24 hours everyone else has.
As a media, marketing or media person, you already know what
you need to do in your role…
But if you’re reading this, you can use a bit of help
getting ‘everything’ done.
Not only will this relieve your sense of overwhelm, but it
will also increase your confidence to take on more and … achieve more!
We’ve been there too. In this series of hacks, we’re
going to show you what we’ve learned that really works.
We’re just as human as you are, susceptible to all the same
sh*t like procrastination! And we’ll get to that shortly, pun intended!
Here’s what we are going to cover:
- Prioritisation
- Inputs,
Activities, Outputs & Outcomes - The
Pareto Principle (a.k.a. the 80/20 Rule) - Parkinson’s
Law - Being
effective vs efficient - Automation
& Outsourcing
Let’s get into it…
Hack #1 Prioritisation
Based on urgency and importance, marketing trumps sales –
without marketing there are no sales.
Sales trump product delivery – without sales, there is no
product to be delivered.
Product delivery trumps customer service – without
product delivery, there are no customers to be serviced.
Business “admin” is all the way at the bottom of the
pile.
As a media or marketing person, what you do in your role,
drives the rest of the dependent functions, so break what you do into sub-areas
and prioritise them based on what moves the needle the most.
Hack #2 Inputs, activities, outputs & outcomes
Inputs are resources for activities.
Activities are actions that create outputs.
Outputs create outcomes.
Outcomes are the result you need, not outputs or
activities!
To move the needle the most, you need to focus on
outcomes (a.k.a. RE$ULT$).
To get there, your time and effort need to be put into
activities.
Those activities, such as creating attention and
awareness or writing sales copy will create an output; for example, a Facebook
Ad or printed brochure.
That Facebook Ad or brochure creates an outcome – that
is, either:
- Attention
and awareness or NO attention and awareness; or - Sales
or NO sales.
It’s binary.
Focus on outcomes that create RE$ULT$ by working backward
to the outputs, activities and inputs required to get them!
#SimpleAs
Hack #3 The Pareto Principle
The Pareto Principle was an observation by Vilfredo
Pareto, the Italian civil engineer who noticed that roughly 80% of outcomes
come from 20% of inputs, activities and outputs.
This is referred to as “the Vital Few”.
Out of your prioritised list of outputs, what inputs,
activities and outputs will get you the greatest outcomes?
What are your “Vital Few”?
Spend your time on them and watch your productivity soar!
Hack #4 Parkinson’s Law
In 1955, Cyril Parkinson published an essay in the
Economist stating that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its
completion.”
What this means is the longer the deadline is, the longer
the input or activity will take to complete it.
Students are the clearest example of this in the real
world…
What do they all do?
Leave their assignment until the night before it’s due
and miraculously, they complete it on time!
Why not hack Parkinson’s Law to your advantage and get
your deadlines set sooner – you’ll find the ways (Prioritisation, Inputs, activities,
outputs & outcomes, and Pareto Principle) to get them done in less time.
IKR? More done in less time.
Who knew?
Cyril did! Now you do too!
Hack #5 Effective vs Efficient
Being effective creates the right outcomes.
Being efficient is about completing activities faster.
If you are efficient at a task that doesn’t create an
outcome, then you’re not moving the needle on output productivity and that
means you’re ineffective .
If, however, you are efficient at the right task, you
create outcomes (being effective), quicker.
Aim first for being more effective than efficient in your
role and if you really want to run up the corporate ladder of success, combine
both!
Hack #6 Automation & Outsourcing
If your role allows it, let technology get you to 3rd-base
and do most of the heavy lifting for you, then you can step in, to complete the
home run!
These could be role-specific apps, outsourcing parts of your
role you don’t like or are not good at, or using readily available templates
and/or checklists.
Bonus Hack: Don’t judge yourself
Finally, don’t judge yourself.
In life, you never know what the alternative would have
yielded.
For every choice you make, there is no way to test if the
other option would have been a better use of time and effort.
Given that fact, don’t spend time thinking, let alone
dwelling on what could have been.
Instead, use your time to create more, better outcomes.
Now, just reading this list doesn’t automatically make
you more productive.
I can hear you say “damn”!
Am I right?
If it was that easy, everyone would be successful!
The hard part is implementation.
The best way to get going is to START!
- List
the outcomes your role requires from you to succeed - Set
shorter deadlines for each outcome - List
the Vital Few activities (20% that create 80% of your results) and outputs
required to meet those deadlines for each outcome - List
the inputs, yours and others’ time and effort that you can access for
additional leverage - Deploy
those inputs either yourself or automate and outsource them
For example, on a typical day, you may have the following
activities:
- Defining ideal customers (based on customer
data) - Defining customer problems (based on customer
data) - Solving customer problems (working with product
managers to create offers) - Finding customers (locating where they are
“located” online or offline) - Generating attention and awareness (writing and
distributing copy through various channels)
Based on this, you may decide on their priority as:
- Generating
attention and awareness - Finding
customers - Defining
ideal customers - Defining
customer problems - Solving
customer problems
This will isolate the deadline and Vital Few (items #1
and #2):
- Generating
attention and awareness - Finding
customers
Then list your resources:
- $500
for Facebook Ads - $250
for influencers - 7.5
hours
Allocate those resources to the Vital Few:
- Generating
attention and awareness – $500 for Facebook Ads and $250 for influencers - Finding
customers – 7.5 hours/5
You can use an Excel worksheet with the above example to
track the specific tasks.
Back to choices and alternatives, clearly, you can stay
on the path you’re already on productivity-wise…
And we both know where that leads!
Or you can take a more productive path to get more done
and feel less overwhelmed.
That is a path less travelled: Being more productive than
you were before.
Godspeed!
If you need a guide on your journey, check out our marketing
audit to empower your next marketing strategy.
And be sure to come back for the second instalment in
this 4-part series!