Personal Productivity and Time Management

People have been calling me a lot lately worried about their procrastination. We all know that procrastination in its most toxic incarnation is just another word for fear. However, that terror can stop us in our tracks like nothing else and can paralyze our very best intentions.

But I was talking to someone the other day, who has turned it into a source a strength.

This fella said that he often likes to put things off because it creates a false sense of urgency, which forces him to get a lot done. He wanted to know if there was a name for this type of procrastination.

I told him it wasn’t procrastination at all. He seemed relieved.

I told him his method sounded incredibly strategic.

For some reason, it reminded of how we talk about addiction. Generally speaking, it’s not an addiction if you like drugs, it’s addiction if you do it to the detriment of everything else in your life.

So just because you’re putting things off, it doesn’t mean it’s a problem. If the work gets done, under the circumstances you create, then it’s incredibly useful. If procrastination leads to more significant issues: missed deadlines, unrealized goals, or just a general feeling among your teammates that you are not someone who can be counted upon, then there’s a problem.

So,if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

It’s not a problem unless it’s a problem.

When I had my car in for servicing the other day, I saw a sign in the waiting room.

“Ask About Our 29-Point Inspection”.

Well, that became a legit source of inspiration. And not about cars — about our businesses.

So, as I’m waiting for my car, I get a call from someone who owns a law firm. A friend told him to call me for advice. I can tell he’s frustrated and could use a little guidance. I ask my go-to question, “What is your biggest productivity challenge?”

He said that the biggest issue in their business is his father who is the chief partner and the bottleneck because he has to approve everything.

So I asked him, “Do you document processes?”

He said,”Yeah, we do. We have a bunch.’

I said, “Do you have a process for the review that your father does?’

He answered, “No, we don’t.”

The sign in that otherwise dull as dirt waiting room took on a whole new meaning right then.

You see, a master mechanic might have had to do the inspection in the beginning. However, if you have this 29-point inspection documented, now a more junior person can do it because it’s memorialized and road tested by a mechanic in charge.

I know what you’re thinking. “But that’s objective, mechanical, right or wrong”. It not at all like a lawyer’s work.

Not necessarily. Because what the documented system allows you to do, is take a process you think is very qualitative and subjective and start to put some hard stops around it.

I appreciate that there is a vast difference between crafting a legal document and reviewing it. You would want the best attorney crafting the material, but the review can be clearly be handled by a less senior person.

Additionally, if that senior attorney crafted a 29-Point Inspection, documented the thought process, anticipated the pot-holes and made contingency plans accordingly, the work becomes seamlessly transferrable.

I think my caller’s fundamental problem was an issue of control, not competency. The pushback I usually hear in these scenarios is “Well they just know it when they see it.” That can’t be documented.

I say that’s not true.

Machine learning has taught us otherwise.

I process a massive amount of content using a machine learning algorithm that has been able to reverse engineer it to an 87% accuracy based on something entirely qualitative. So if that’s the case, we can easily document subjective constraints objectively.

So I said, “Take a document that he might review and have him talk through it with you. Have him talk through why he makes changes he does and what things he looks for in an agreement.’ He might say, ‘Oh, I always want to include these clauses, or people typically write it this way, but I would prefer to have it in this way.’

So in your business, if there’s something that you think is just you and just so qualitative and you are the bottleneck to progress, start to talk it through out loud with somebody. Question why you make the decisions you make, why you pick something or change something. What you are beginning to create is your own 29-point inspection checklist that somebody else can easily take off your plate.

Remember, they don’t have to take all 29 points off your plate. If they take 5 points off your plate, that’s progress. Progress is all we need. That and new brake pads, but whatever.

Imagine the story of Sisyphus for a moment.

The Gods condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain. Once he succeeded in getting the rock to the top, it would fall back of its own weight. The tragic part is that Sisyphus would have to shove that same boulder back up that same mountain for all eternity.

Could there be a more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor?

Let’s modernize that agony for a moment.

Imagine if Sisyphus had two smaller boulders to manage.

He had one in either hand and pushed both boulders up the hill, together. They had to be pushed at the same speed and should he slip up, one would surely roll back, and the tortuous task began again.

That’s multi-tasking.

Well, the way I’ve re-envisioned it, so it’s not so utterly tragic is that one side of the mountain is multi-tasking and the other, infinitely more optimistic and productive, is something I call “parallel tasking.”

Parallel Tasking is if you take as many boulders as you can carry or push and summit the mountaintop. Then release them, one by one and watch them roll away without ever having to collect and push them back up the same hill.

For example, if I’m on a call, and I’m reminded of a task, I simply send a quick note to our VA service, Magic.”Hey Magic, do this thing.” I haven’t lost focus on the phone call, and now two or more things are happening simultaneously.

You can do it without people. You can use an automation. But either method will take the boulder away from you and give it to someone else to lug.

All that is required is that you set the action in motion and get back to work.

Pushing is no longer a good use of your time.

Just ask Sisyphus.

“It will take me five minutes.”

“I just need to find a half hour.”

“I’ll get to it as soon as I get some bandwidth.”

“It’s on my list. Really.”

We’ve all said these things.

Many of us have people on our team who repeat this mantra as a defense, an excuse or a legitimate reality.

It’s not very productive.

There is an enormous difference between how long it will take to do “it” and how long to get “it” done. It’s critical to understand the subtle nuance here because it’s the key to efficiency.

First, It doesn’t mean that you throw up your hands and put it off for yet another day. We all know that doesn’t work.

You do need to pick a specific time to get it done. Because you have to consider WHEN you can get to something, when you will be able to devote the appropriate attention to it and when you will find that “flow state” that enables you to get through tasks with ease.

We all have different peak times during the day.

Many of us try to plow through the procrastinated pile of stuff during a time when we should be focusing on low focus activities. And it doesn’t work. Your frustration may be the key to understanding that the “when” just might not be “now.”

I developed the Less Doing Peak Time App which will track and trend peak performance times throughout the day. It gives a detailed assessment of the right times for the right tasks. Once we know our rhythms better, we can batch our day accordingly.

Next, is the delegation part.

Remember outsourcing without first optimizing is the definition of putting the cart before the horse. You’ll just be stepping in a lot of manure.

Sure, you could do it, but if you can’t get to it for a week, then there’s value in having someone else do it right now. Once you’ve internalized a sense of your natural abilities during any given day, letting shit go is more comfortable.

If you haven’t gotten to it, ruminated on your failure to finish it and spent way too much time in your head wondering why, it’s time to let someone else help.

For example, I haven’t physically written an article in five months, there are other things I have to do. But the writing gets done.

Not writing for me is putting a two-line idea in my editor’s Airtable, then we pick a time to hash out the idea face-to-face. Then she writes it. I read it. And she posts it.

We can go through ten different topics in an hour, and I’m confident she will not only get my gist but can add weight and clarity to my thought processes.

The alternative, where I do all the writing, is unworkable for me because it means the content will never get out there and no one will find validation, inspiration, and assistance.

So my content creation system is outsourcing at its best, and if you put it into practice, it can be the beginning of the end of your overwhelm.