yesterday's final draft is your template for today's task

My organization has a quarterly performance/bonus review. Previously I was making unorganized notes for myself when I received praise or did something extra at work. I had the idea to use the review form as a template. Today I helped someone senior to me and felt the effort and results were worth capturing. After reviewing the categories, one of them jumped out as the place where I could record this. Because the event was so fresh in my mind I was able to tailor my accomplishment for the category and the record will be there when performance reviews roll around. Plus, I won't have to try to remember how or why something was important to put it in context later. As a broader lesson, when you have a recurring task, consider using the final version as a template for gathering future information. It cuts out much of the formatting and processing and reduces the total effort required. People will think you are super productive when you can produce such polished reports at a moment’s notice.

recycle content to accelerate production

I reused content from a product user guide to write four reports today. It would have taken me days or weeks to come up with the content and summaries without the user guide. I focused on the objective of the exercise which was to answer some customer questions with general information about the product. Because the expectations were set, there was no need to craft perfect answers. I gave the minimum necessary responses to address the questions. As a result I knocked out four polished reports with minor additions from my own knowledge. Those who have reviewed the reports have already been impressed.

you're more efficient when the time is precious

I was working on the weekend when I had a realization. I was more efficient in my work when it was eating up my precious weekend. Think of 9-5 Monday - Friday as weekend time to preserve your personal time by working more effectively and efficiently.

try the fastest solution first

Sometimes the fastest approach to a question gives you the necessary amount of information and prevents needless discussions or technical research. Bing, Google, or other search tools well represent this approach. Try applying this at home, on vacation, or fulfilling a work request and see how much time you can win back for yourself.

suggestion for task batching

Schedule mundane, low-cognitive activities for the same time as a webcast or other listening-only activity. You get two tasks done while increasing your enjoyment of both.

refer to the manual

I was missing several points of understanding related to a product. I had a few questions written down and fit into proper context. I turned to the user guide and quickly found three answers to three questions. I could spend hours trying to figure something out on my own. This is akin to recreating the wheel. Referring to instructions lowers the inputs required for potentially greater output.

win the championship while keeping practice in perspective

During a training my team kept our focus on the key goals. We prepared for the main objective during the time allocated for mini-assignments. As a result we won the grand championship with a more polished, complete, and effective presentation. Instead of getting lost in the weeds, we kept the view of the forest. Our advance work saved time and stress in the final preparation leading up to the competition.

simple tasks deserve simple starts

I was asked for a two-minute pitch recorded on video. I quickly reviewed the instructions to initiate the recording and wrote down the main points I wanted to hit. Instead of searching for detailed instructions or building up a comprehensive outline, I hit record and started talking. I completed the assignment in less than ten minutes. Others spent over an hour prepping, practicing, and re-recording to obtain the same result. Don’t make a simple task complicated. Sometimes you can start quickly and learn what you need as you go.

try the quick solution first

Search engines are your friend. A quick suggestion from a web search and a few minutes of testing might give just as good a solution as hours on the phone with tech support.

templates increase results with fewer inputs

I give many presentations. Much of the content is redundant. I’ve created templates to cover various business requirements. Add or remove modular templates to quickly construct a full presentation based on current needs. Using this approach you can decrease your preparation time and the risk of errors. This strategy can also be applied to questions that you receive frequently. For presentations you can keep unused templates in the backup to address any questions. You will appear far more prepared without a significant increase in effort.

Give your best first

When I finish my highest value work first, it gets my best brain cells. The rest of the day is less stressful knowing my most important tasks were done best.

turn disrupted plans into a win

I started a training program that required eight different learning modules. However, the organization released a separate, overlapping training program. The redundant work initially made me angry. After looking through the details, I had an epiphany. I sent my manager an email. I reframed the disruption as an opportunity to streamline my training. The result was one month of training instead of four.

streamline your Continuing Professional Education (CPE)

Online CPE learning can be completed by downloading the attached documents and going straight to the test. Listening to all the videos may give some additional insights, but the test questions often require searching for specific details in the text. Cut the time from 120 minutes down to 20 minutes of research.

More contact reduces communication friction

I was speaking with someone through a messaging app and the conversation was escalating in complexity. I stopped the chat and took it to the phone. We immediately accelerated the pace of the conversation and increased understanding. Sometimes more contact is less friction in communication. Whether it’s 140 or 160 characters, it lacks the auditory experience that efficiently provides the valuable context.

It's also what you choose not to do

I received a request that at first glance appeared to be a lot of work with something I'm not familiar. I knew I had bigger priorities so I reached out to someone familiar with my situation. This person gave me several key insights and prevented me from spending any time on a very low value task. In fact, the requester completely forgot and hasn’t brought the task up in more than a month. This is one of the great benefits of Pareto analysis applied to life. Unimportant tasks can fall to the wayside leaving more, valuable time for critical tasks.

What and Why

I attended a training session that included opening presentations and instruction followed by hands-on lab work, all completed remotely by web conference. The lab consisted of a script to follow with software in a demo environment. The script provided an excess of information that distracted from the core goal of becoming familiar with the software. The greatest benefit of the training came from reading the lab overview and following the prescribed steps through the software. In other words answering the ‘what’ and ‘why’ and then stepping through the interface provided the most learning. All the other details were less critical to the core concepts and quickly forgotten. Thus spending any serious time focused on those non-core details was inefficient.