The QLog

Productivity 101 (Day 101): The 80-20 on 80-20

Although the Italian sociologist and economist, Vilfredo Pareto, provided the foundation for the 80-20 rule (often called the Pareto principle) when analyzing income distributions in the 19th century, it was Joseph Moses Juran who applied the idea to quality management theory. It is a very useful idea; however, one must be careful not to oversimplify it.

Juran initially referred to the 80-20 as “the vital few and the trivial many”. This is a good description for many of the things that an individual, team, or organization does.

Yet, problems can occur with this definition when looking at CORE competencies.

For example, would you want to visit a Doctor, Dentist, or Lawyer who only focuses on 20% of your problem as it will give 80% the solution? Probably not.

Or, would you buy a cake that was only made with the top 20% of the ingredients (water, flour, eggs) as from the 80/20 Bakery as if the other ingredients (yeast, chocolate) were superfluous? Doubtful.

Sometime, it is necessary to achieve excellence and the small components are important too. Juran realized this late in life and began to characterize the 80-20 rule as “the vital few and the useful many” yet this phrase has mostly been lost.

What is the 80-20 of 80-20?

• 80% of your daily tasks do fall into the “the vital few and the trivial many” category where increased effort will produce diminishing returns and may not be worth the extra effort.
  
• 20% of your daily tasks will require great attention for real success. This is when “the vital few and the useful many” should be your overall guide.

Bottom Line: It Depends! Both ideas are true. You need to be aware of your goals, projects, and overall outcomes to decide if something is important to you are not. Productivity is about being able to choose wisely and then commit the correct amounts of time, energy, and resources to achieve the final result.

Productivity 101 (Day 100): 12 Habits

In order to establish a new habit, it takes a minimum of 21 days. This means repeating the same behavior every day to train your mind. However, to insure this new pattern becomes ‘sticky’ and part of your life, I highly recommend focusing on this new habit for a full 4 weeks or an entire month from beginning to end.

This means, over the next year, you have twelve excellent opportunities to add 12 new and powerful habits to increase your overall productivity, from enrolling in iPod University to Serial Tasking instead of trying to Multi-Task. This strategy of adding a single productivity per month is a simple way to become more efficient and effective.

Although you can work on more than one new habit at a time, do not try to do any more than two or three in any 28-day period. This division will diffuse your effort and energy. Instead, choose to add a behavior that will have an obvious global impact (such as creating a stop list or projects list) which can enhance your own Life Management right from the first day you begin.

Productivity 101 (Day 99): Kaizen

There are two kinds of changes:

1) Explosive Innovation
2) Small Incremental Alterations

Often, it is believed that explosive innovation is necessary to improve a system, a process, an organization. Innovation is wonderful, especially when the current way is failing; however, if a current methodology is not ‘broken’, then small incremental alterations are often the best way.

Also, one of the best ways to start a new habit, from daily exercise to creating a task list, is to begin small and then expand once that has been mastered. For example, one might begin walking 15 minutes a day. After a while, the time period may increase to 30 minutes or a more strenuous exercise, like jogging, may replace it.

The Japanese have used this of minor changes and their word for it is Kaizen which means “improvement” but a better English translation is “continuous improvement”. Companies like Toyota have used Kaizen at all levels of their organization to become a world-class company. In part, their success is due to an entire workforce that is dedicated to always finding a better way each and every day.

Change is rapid in the 21st century; flexibility and adaptability are needed to be productive. This means that it is necessary to review and revise the ways we do things.

Today, look at a common process that you have control over. This could be as simple as cleaning your home or as complex as your latest work project. Thing about how you could make it better.

Consider all the steps. I suggest you write them down or figure out the overall workflow. Then, ask yourself these simple questions:

• What step might be a waste of activity (superfluous, unneeded)?
• What step might be a duplicate or repetitive?
• What two steps might be combined into a single action? 
• What step causes the longest time delay? How can that be reduced?
• What step can be improved to result in a better, shorter, faster way?

Small incremental changes result with powerful outcomes over time. If you were to lose 3 pound a month, this would be 36 pounds after a year. Kaizen should be part of your life.

Productivity 101 (Day 98): Values List

Question: Who are you?

I do not mean your name. I mean your beliefs. What are the central values in your life?

Create a list of top ten values. For example, many people list things such as God, Family, Wealth, Love, Health, Integrity, etc. Then rank this list.

A Values List is useful for making decisions. This means your top value would supersede all the other values below it. Likewise, your second top value would over-ride any lower ranked values. For example, if Integrity was your top value and Wealth was your second value, if you were offered any easy billion dollar deal, but you knew that it was unfair to others, you would flatly turn it down.

How does a Values List make one productive? Simply, values provide an easy framework to constructing a life and a clear blueprint for decision-making.

Values help insure that your goals, projects, or tasks are well-aligned with your life purpose.

Productivity 101 (Day 97): Mission Statement

The BIG Question: Why are you here?

To be productive, you must have a mission, a purpose, a reason for being. Otherwise, all your actions could just turn out to be noise.

Everyone is unique. Certainly, genetics is part of that; however, the real key is what you choose to do with your life. Mission Statements are like large boxes that contain all your real goals, projects, and tasks.

Once you have a clear Mission Statement, you will be able to identify those pursuits that do not align with your mission and stop them immediately.

Many organizations have long-winded mission statements and I think this is a big mistake. I encourage you to develop a personal Mission Statements that is short, simple, and succinct.  For example, Walt Disney mission statement was “To Make People Happy”. This global statement directed his life’s work (from the creation of Steamboat Willy to the building of Disney World).

To create one, review past accomplishments, core interests, major life themes, and your central values. Discover the main focus of your life and craft an initial statement. Do not worry if this is not eloquent. I suggest keeping it under three sentences.

Consider this a ‘living’ document and open to refinement over time to improve your own clarity of purpose. The more crisp and clear your Mission Statement, the easier it will become to travel down your life path.

Productivity 101 (Day 96): Do Anything

Here is a short aphorism that everyone should remember: one may do anything, but not everything!

You do not have enough time to complete everything. You can not read every book, see every town, or have a pint at ever pub.

The solution is to choose well. Do what you love. Develop your strengths. Focus on those goals that are most important to you.

Never feel guilty about not being able to do everything as it simply is not humanly possible.

Productivity 101 (Day 95): Goals Friday #12

Awesome: You now have SMARTER Goals. The bad news: goals are not enough!

Now that you have your goals written and well considered, you need to do two additional things:

1) Plan

What specific subgoals, projects, and task do you need to need to complete in order to achieve your goal? This means you need to start with the end in mind and then work backwards to today. What do you need to do to complete, to learn, to try, to do in order to achieve this goal?

Make a plan. This is essential to insure you that you continue to move toward your final target in a systematic, logical way.

2) Act

Goals require that you act! The old adage is that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” I suggest that “a task a day paves the way”. Here is my tip: act on your most important daily. Devote, at minimum, 15 minutes per day to doing a task related to you goal, from reading relevant books to implementing a new behavior. Add this time to your calendar. Consistent action is the real secret to success.

Productivity 101 (Day 94): Time Boxing

Question: How do you eat a whale?
Answer: One bite at a time!

Anytime you decide to focus on a single task, you need to decide if it can be reasonably be finished the same day or if it will take more time. If it is the latter, you may want to consider Time Boxing.

Time boxing is a common technique for large IT projects to insure that the various subparts are completed in a timely manner; however, it is also a great way for anyone who wants to tackle a long, complex, or boring task.

Instead of attempting to complete the task in a single time period, it is broken into smaller pieces. The key to this method is that each ‘Time Box’ is defined for a set number of minutes and you also decide on a distinct deliverable or measured outcome for each one.

For example, suppose you would like to read a non-fiction business book with 14 chapters; however, you do not have enough free time in your schedule to devote an entire afternoon to devour whole volume. Instead, you decide to put aside 45 minutes each morning at 7:00 AM for the next two weeks to read. Your goal is to complete one chapter each day.

When using Time Boxing, the quality or quantity of the deliverables can slide a little, but the scheduled does not. Also, you stop working on the task when the after the set amount of have has lapsed. Consider this permission to stop, especially if it an undesirable task, so you can proceed to focus on other important items. Sometimes, this will mean that reading the entire book may take a full 15 days due to a long unusually long chapter, so planning at the beginning is essential. The goal is to hit the deadline. Schedule enough boxes to make this possible; however, however, there is always some flexibility to re-negotiate the time table, just make sure you do this before the last day.

Personally, I think Time Boxing is great for writing journal entries, short stories, essays, etc.

In addition, Time Boxing is an easy way to conquer procrastination as it provides a road-map for completion (and each deliverable can also be seen a reward, the fruit of one’s effort). As a result, I strongly believe that it should be part of everyone’s Life Management Toolbox.

Productivity 101 (Day 93): Prepare!

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe” – Attributed to Abraham Lincoln

I love the above quote as it makes clear that preparation is a key attribute of highly productive people. Of course, trial and error learning is necessary for any beginners; yet, there are easy ways to get information that will increase your likelihood to succeed. Some include:

• Talk to Experts
• Reading Books
• Attending Seminars
• Review Similar Projects
• Conduct Deep Planning
• Produce Contingency Plans

The larger the project, the more time you should spend planning and learning; however, like the quote above suggests, this does not mean you need to prepare forever. After getting ready, it is time to act swiftly. Avoid the paralysis of analysis and cut down that ‘tree’.

Productivity 101 (Day 92): 5 Choices

Productivity is the result of five basic choices:

1) Starting a new activity. This means beginning a new habit, goal, or project to your life, such as a new exercise program.

2) Stopping a current activity. This means completely eliminating a habit, goal, or project, such as television viewing. This step can be difficult but much needed to reach the next level.

3) Doing less of a current activity. Reducing the frequency and duration of lower-level (yet necessary) tasks is a great way to give yourself more time for to focus on higher-level tasks.

4) Doing more of a current activity. Remember: high output tasks should get the maximum portion of your time.

5) Modifying a current activity. By improving the methodology of a certain task or by simply altering the timeframe (e.g. shifting your exercise time from late afternoon to early morning) can be very worthwhile. Sometimes, a small change can increase your productivity.