Comments on: How to Make 2009 More Productive by Doing Less

By: Chris Garrett

Chris Garrett — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:53:14 +0000

@lawrence – Great advice, I find most often I start with whatever feels urgent rather than being organised about it, I need to follow you guide there

@Martin – Prioritization is crucial, not only in productivity, but also not feeling overwhelmed

@Barney – Absolutely

By: Barney

Barney — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 09:19:44 +0000

Thanks for the good advice, Chris. Perhaps being more systematic in my blogging would be a good aspiration for the year.

By: Martin Assmann

Martin Assmann — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:25:51 +0000

I absolutely agree with you! One of my personal goals for 2009 is to bring work and leisure in balance so productive will be a very important point. I plan to do this with prioritization, reduction and automation.

By: lawrence berezin

lawrence berezin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:09:28 +0000

Here’s 4 things I do that helps a forgetful 60 year old guy, and may help you:

1. Have a plan and stick to it. I’ll wake up some days and start working on the first thing that enters my mind. It’s off to the races. I’m more productive when I take a breath, and find a spot to insert that “first thing” into my plan where it belongs

2. Lead, collaborate and delegate. Have faith in the people you work with. Collaborate and delegate by emplowering people in your tribe to do their fair share of the work. You can’t wear every hat, and perform each function well. Ask Pat Bowden, owner of the Denver Broncos, who recently fired Mike Shanahan.

3. Use your right brain. Think before you act. Think before you write. I find that Monday’s great idea is almost unrecognizable on Tuesday. My best ideas come in the shower (metaphorically speaking) when I allow my right brain the time to think freely. After internal brainstorming, I’ll wake up my left brain to construct a framework to execute the idea

4. Don’t reinvent the wheel. How many of your tasks are repetitive? Formulate a template and use it.

Thought provoking post. Great conversation. I enjoyed participating

By: Chris Garrett

Chris Garrett — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:43:17 +0000

@Barney – Going with your inspiration is a good thing to do, but continuing while you still have it can set posts up for future when you might not be so inspired

@Rajeev – I think a lot of people are finding a balance between social media and their blogs, I think blogs provide a lot of value that people are only just rediscovering

@David – Having a notepad handy is a great tip, I have one of those moleskine notepads with me most of the time as you never know when an idea might hit.

By: David A. Shaver

David A. Shaver — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:12:42 +0000

Do What Needs To Be Done When You First See That It Needs To Be Done
Most plans to get the most done involve scheduling or time studies. In trying to think outside this box I found the best plan for me is to use what you could call “Procedures & Triggers”. For example I seem to get the best article ideas when I am working on something else so I keep a notepad handy and accessible from whatever computer I am working on and write down this article idea or even begin on the article and then go back to what I was doing. If I wait till I have time to write this article I will have forgotten the main points of it.
A big part of this is simply to work as much as you can or do things that make your creative ideas flow and accomplish your goals.
The most basic point of all this is do what needs to be done when your first see that it need to done. When you have several large tasks to be done just prioritize them and start work and work till they are done. If you are at an impasse on client A or Article A go on the next.

By: Rajeev Edmonds

Rajeev Edmonds — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:19:33 +0000

Great Post Chris

Like D. Cronian, I’m also spending much time on social media sites. I need to cut that and schedule it.

Posting frequency is another area I have to look upon. Recent guest post at Problogger ‘How To Write Fast’ can help immensely in increasing my posting schedule.

By: Barney

Barney — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:16:57 +0000

My best writing time is in the morning. That’s when I like to write blog posts. But once I’ve written a good post, my creative energy dips. Unfortunately, morning is also the time when a lot of work-related emails come in and need dealing with. So I really need to prioritize. Job? Or blogging?

And I don’t always find batching posts is easy to do. I get the urge to write about a topic – and I write then and there, if I can – but I don’t really have a systematic approach to writing for my blog. Well, it’s a personal blog.

But I’m starting a new human rights training business with a colleague and the blog for that business will require systematic attention.

Twitter, of course, is the great distractor. I love Twitter, but it really does take my focus away from other, more important, computer-based work.

Oh well, I shall struggle on. Great ideas in your post, Chris. I shall follow as many of them as I can.

By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:10:28 +0000

@Chris – I think Twitter has played a massive part in building my brand, and to help people know about the writer behind the blog. I find though that most of my followers are from the US – there’s nothing wrong with that, but i am trying to increase my consumer readership here in the UK.

By: Chris Garrett

Chris Garrett — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:03:16 +0000

@Darren – I hope it works for you I think social media is important but there comes a point where you get diminishing returns, I think Scoble discovered this in 2008 with Arrington’s “intervention”