First, some introspection!
How was the last month for you? What are your achievements? What are the things you wanted to complete, but did not?
And if you could redo yesterday, how would you work? If you could really relive yesterday, how would you start your day? What all actions would you take? What would you not do?
More than 80% of us would like to be more productive, more expressed and more satisfied if they could relive yesterday. Why did we not live yesterday like that than? It’s not that we couldn’t do it. It’s not a question of ability, it’s a question of going beyond the usual.
You may know that we have a Monthly Review Meeting in Magnet. Different teams meet once a month to review the last month, share the learnings and to create something for the month ahead. We started with these introspective questions this time.
Our habits determine our productivity
As you think more, you can see that you work and behave in a particular way. These patterns are due to our habits. Our habits determine our productivity. Look at your achievements, and you can see there are some good habits giving you those results. On the other side, there are some bad ones contributing to your failures.
To share something from my life, I could make a list of good habits and bad habits.
My good habits are:
- Creating alternative solutions to a problem
- Setting targets for myself and following them up
- Listening to podcasts and music while I am on the move
- etc.
My bad habits are:
- Losing track of time while reading interesting blogs
- Being a control freak when I could delegate
- Pushing my ideas without understanding others’
- etc.
When I looked at it for myself, I could clearly see that if I develop my good habits further and reject the bad ones, I can be much more productive. I also saw that good habits practiced together created a momentum of energy that kept me motivated till I got the work done. And bad habits took away energies.
What are some good work habits?
There are many good work habits – coming on time, planning your work and working your plan, understanding client needs etc. We picked up the topic of nurturing good habits in this month’s Monthly Review Meeting in Magnet, and came up with a few suggestions. I think even you will find them useful. Here are some habits you can embrace:
- To-Complete Lists: Instead of making “To-do” lists, start making “To-complete” lists. There is a big difference between “working on” something and “completing” something. Focus on completion, not just progress.
- Understanding Time: If you don’t value your time, no one will. Train yourself to gauge how long is an hour. Understand the value of each hour you spend, and maximize it.
- First Thing For Tomorrow: At the end of the day, I decide what’s the thing I will do first when I come in office tomorrow. I keep things ready and mentally prepare for it. That ensures that I don’t waste the precious few hours at the start of the day just in checking emails!
- Focus On Important: Ignore the rest, simple!
Monthly Targets
What good a learning if it’s not put to use? We created a one page sheet to list 5 learnings, 5 goals for the month, and 5 rewards – one each for achieving a goal. Rewards could be big or small, but it’s mandatory that you have a reward for each goal. Each goal should also be a SMART goal.
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Timely
This sheet is with each Magneteer now, and we check how far everyone’s got every now and then.
Things are going on well so far! I will tell you what the results were in the next month! In the meanwhile, feel free to nurture a few good habits that inspire you! And share with us what you get!
Additional Resources:
- Monthly Plan Sheet for June 2008 (Feel free to customize this to your needs.)
- How to form a good habit
- SMART Goal Setting
- Anatomy of a habit
Really a Good article And reminder to believe that things can be more better.
Nirav,
I stumbled upon your website and read lot of your posts. You got exceptional content and very inspiring to read. I have subscribed to your blog.
1. Talking about “To-Do” list, it never works. I’m a sincere follower of GTD, where tasks are defined based on the projects and put into appropriate @context list.
At any given point in time, based on the time available, energy available and the importance, you work from the predefined tasks.
2. Talking about focusing on important tasks, everyday I define three most important tasks. One of the tasks will be on my goals. I first finish those most important tasks before jumping to anything else.
Ramesh
The Geek Stuff