Am I the only one that manages to sail straight past the default diary tasks and on to the fun stuff?

Why is it that no matter how good our intentions are, how good our planning is, how good our stopwatches are, and how well we can isolate ourselves from distraction (like logging out of Facebook and Twitter or cleaning our desk for just a little bit too long)… we still can’t get some things done?

How is it that people, like Richard Branson, can build over 300 companies in 40 years, and even send people on a Galactic mission to outer space but we still feel like we can’t get things done?

How is it that many businessmen and women can build businesses that they can step away from – even go away on holidays for a month to somewhere that requires a passport – and leave people behind to do the work? How did they afford that? Did they borrow money first?

As far as all the text books go, I’m doing a lot of things right. I start by listing all my tasks each Sunday night, then prioritising them using Brian Tracy’s method of A, B, C, D and E. Then I prioritise all the As from 1 to 10, and so on (too often up to about 28!) I’m on my way…

Some of the most rewarding projects that I’ve ever dreamt of are still up there in the dream. They haven’t become reality. Or I’ve done what I’m doing now, documenting it as an audio, but that’s where it stays. How is it that I’m getting this task done? Is it because this is another form of procrastination? Is it because it’s easier to talk than to write? Is it because I’m riding my bike to the studio and I’ve got some free time where I’m isolated with no other distractions?

Knuckling down and getting on with my most important task – the “MIT” – is where I always seem to fail. Maybe it’s just because I don’t make the best use of my time. I don’t always group my tasks together. As a business owner, I have the freedom and luxury of working when I want and I get to work when I want. Yesterday, I worked from home. I’m not sure how many hours of work I actually got done, but there was peace and quiet, and a few hours of high priority task completion.

But, was it as productive as if I was at the studio? Some Mondays, at the studio, I isolate myself and can power through a huge amount of work, with both productivity and efficiency. Perhaps this is the ticket.

On those days where distraction wears a bright shiny object, do you find yourself wishing that you had a school teacher come and grab you by the ear, and take you off to an isolated desk in the middle of a room? No internet, no distractions, just your tasks and the hours to complete it stretching ahead.

The times that I do find myself free to focus, without distraction, it’s often late at night when everybody in the household is in bed. Alternatively, I get up at 5.11am and try to achieve something before 6.45am, when our children wake and any attempt at focused effort dwindles with the interruption of sticky fingers and morning television.

So, what’s the solution that may work for me, and perhaps for you too?  I think I’ve discovered it…

1. Start with Why.

Identify why you are doing this [task, project, dinner date] in the first place. What’s the goal, reward, outcome, achievement? Get clear on this, write it down, create a vision board and a set of affirmations.

2. Quiet Time.

indentify a Quiet Time [QT] in your day/night. If you don’t have a QT, create one. If you simply can’t find time in your schedule to make one, go back to #1 and start over.

3. Write a list.

Nothing beats hand-eye co-ordination and pen on paper. You’ll get your ideas down faster than typing like ET on your mobile device.  Use a lined pad, or create a To Do List pad like we did for our clients. See our My To Do List here.

4.Prioritise

Now, prioritise your list using the Brian Tracy method.

5. First things first.

If you are like me, you’ll still sail past some of the big elephants and go for the easy or urgent tasks. Stephen Covey wrote about this in 1994, and created the Urgent / Important matrix. Print this out and put it up on your wall, or screensaver, or mobile device – where ever you stare when you want to do something easy, but low priority [for you].

6. Put your own mask on first.

Anybody who has flown in a commercial plane would know that parents are told to fit their own masks first in the case of an emergency. My mentor, Peleg Top used this phrase when asked how to deal with client urgencies getting in the way of marketing and self-promotion activities. Block the time into your Default Diary [the tasks that must get done in order to survive and thrive] and do it.

7. Delegate.

Capitalise on your strengths and delegate your weaknesses. If you hate doing a particular task then outsource it or give it to somebody else in your team to do. If you run a team, then you probably have the power to make it somebody’s KPI.

8. 9-5pm is a myth.

Don’t subscribe to the myth that you must work from 9-5pm in order to get your work done and be appreciated/promoted. Or that we need just 8 hours per day to achieve our objectives. We all work really long hours, but why not break it up into focused, energetic sessions? If you’re sitting around shuffling papers, reading emails, social networking or disturbing others just to get to knock-off time, then find something useful to do or go home, go for a run, sit in the sun or offer to help somebody else. Take some time out and pick up where you left off later. The fear most employees have is that if they finish their work early and announce it to their leaders then they’ll just get lumped with more work. Instead, they stretch out their tasks to fill their day, developing the bad habit of working slowly [and probably overcharging a client for the number of hours it took to perform that task].

9. Get away.

Anybody who works from home and has a young family knows how hard it can be at times to concentrate in the home office. Equally so in a busy, open plan office. Its not an excuse, you are just not being resourceful. Tony Robbins once said that we blame a lack of resources for our failures, when its actually a lack of resourcefulness. If you need quiet time, go find somewhere quiet. Make a breakfast date with at beautiful, inspiring hotel. Make it a ritual and do it every week. Others will get used to it, and even welcome it once you begin to show reward for the effort.

10. [Dis]connect.

Get further away. We all know that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and that we tend to appreciate what we have when we don’t have it. I traveled to the US twice last year, for personal and business development, and boy was the isolation and distance invaluable. I felt inspired to try harder, to focus and to create more opportunity for myself and my family. Those trips to LA were definitely turning points in my life. More on those ventures with Peleg Top and our ‘Retreat of extraordinary creative men’ soon.

11. Productivity isn’t efficiency.

Make sure that your tasks are even needed in the first place. What outcome will the task achieve and what if it doesn’t get done at all? Shifting 100 bricks from A to B in a world record time may well be very efficient, but was it productive? Did the bricks need to be moved? Did that long email need to be written? Did the book shelf really need all the magazines reordered by date, again?

12. Beware the email quicksand.

Don’t get stuck in email for half the day, only checking it twice daily, at 11am and 4pm. Turn off inbox notifications and minimise email client. Email is the single biggest anti-productive mechanism under the sun.

In closing, I should now admit that I originally wrote this article just for me. Like a blog or personal diary entry, I find that writing about my challenges often brings clarity – as indeed this one has. Therefore, I thought you may find value in it, too.

What works for you?

As always, I would love to know what you think and how you tackle these challenges.

Cheers,

Dan

There’s nothing quite like the experience, and memories, of a great holiday. You save for it, look forward to, and generally plan ahead to make the most of your most precious resources – time and money.

 
A list is essential. Pack for the weather, book flights and accommodation, a good book, passport and all those little things that you sometimes forget. To make the most of your hard-earned and well-deserved vacation, quite a lot of planning and thinking goes into it. You don’t just jump in the car and take off [as liberating as that sounds], unless, of course, you are a sucker for the mystery flight option – if you don’t know where you are going then any destination will do.

The same rules apply to getting the most out of a design and communication project – don’t just dive into the executable without having a strategy first.

You took that vacation to get some kind of return, be it rest and relaxation, meet new people, strengthen a relationship, celebrate a wedding or get a tan. Rarely, if ever, is it just to spend 20 hours in transit. Working with a designer should be the same. You should engage them with a specific outcome in mind.

Here are seven topics that we ask our clients to think about when approaching a design project.

1. What is the objective of this project?

If the objective is to facilitate a sale, then how simple is the sales and fullfilment process? How easily can the customer pay and take delivery?

2. What other design and marketing tools will you need to complete your objective?

What will they cost to execute and maintain? Clients and consumers are busier than ever before, so how do we catch the [shrinking] attention span of our customer when there are so many messages, over 6,000, via so many channels, competing for their attention every day? An offer that “gets the cripples out of bed” is one method, but that’s not sustainable. Smarter competition and shrinking margins are taking care of that.

3. Who is your target market and how do you currently communicate with them?

As business becomes more complex and the competition―and the consumer―become smarter we must find new, relevant ways to communicate with them, to differentiate our brands from the competitor and clearly say who we are and why we are the best choice.

4. Who else has done this and what results did they get?

There is no point reinventing the proverbial wheel, particularly if its been done before – and even more so if it failed. Perhaps a similar problem to yours has been solved already, and succeeded, but didn’t return a margin of success that warrants pursuit.

5. What is your brand’s positioning?

How will this communication strengthen it and contribute to your brand’s goals, vision and mission?

6. Who is your competition and how is your product different?

How are we going to differentiate your product from your sea of competitors, both visually and in the copy? What does your product do that nobody else does? Where is your product positioned compared to the competition? This information is critical in developing a brand and communication strategy that successfully informs the creative.

7. How will you measure the success of your project?

Too often, marketing and communications fail to get a seat at the decision making table, and therefore they become reactive exercises where we, as designers, are given the task of creating a deliverable, rather than guiding our client about which deliverables to create. There are too many brochures, annual reports and direct mail pieces sitting around, by the box load, under somebody’s desk, destined to find a home in the recycling bin, the casualties of a plan that never was.

As strategic designers, these questions enable us to better understand your project, so that we can design in context and serve you best. So that we can bring your information to life, and differentiate your product from the sea of competition. So that your design journey is a safe and prosperous one, as any good journey should be.

The brief was to present 44 pages of reports and tables in an engaging manner, clearly identifying content by each of its 5 sectors. Our approach was to design a simple navigation system, using colour and an information hierarchy. Engaging, full page imagery and breakout devices for key statistics and content facilitated the location of relevant subject matter for the reader.

This is the same approach used for designing a web site. It is the role of design to present information in the most accessible and engaging fashion, no matter what the medium is.

GSA welcomed the opportunity to simplify and develop the organisation’s branding as an extension of this project, and as a result, this key piece of collateral is used by their team as a sales and marketing tool, conveying a more accurate reflection of their organization and its value proposition.
We have since extended this branding strategy across the entire organisation, whilst maintaining the original Government Skills Australia logo mark and colour palette.

Scope of work:

Annual reports | Corporate & campaign collateral | Case study publications | Document templates
Digital campaigns | Website redevelopment [Phase One launched April 2013]

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