Productivity Hacks

FountainBlue’s November 6 Front Line Managers’ Online meeting was on the Productivity Hacks topic. My thanks also to our panelists for their participation. 

• Email Productivity Hacks – Parshuram Zantye, Lam Research
• Meeting Management Techniques – Nancy Moreno, Equinix
• Leveraging IT for the Good of All – Sameer Mehdiratta, Renesas
• Optimizing Communications – Adriane McFetridge, Netflix

Below are notes from the discussion.

The pressure to be productive in a technology company has been intensified by the global and technological evolution over the past couple of decades, and further exacerbated by the health, social, economic and political stressors introduced in 2020.

Our panel of technology professionals shared some very useful best practices which are compiled below.

• Be strategic so that you can work efficiently. 
  • A firefighting mode takes more energy and resources and in the end might not be as effective as planning ahead strategically.
  • Focus on what’s most impactful, most important to you. (See Stephen Covey 4 Quadrants)
    • 80% of your time should focus on the 20% of things which are most important to you.
    • Although you may do some firefighting for things that are important and urgent, most of your time should focus on the important things that are not urgent.
  • Distinguish between the urgent and the important and prioritize accordingly.
  • Consciously spend less time on incidental communications and proactively manage how much time you need from others for non-essential things.
• Manage your meetings well.
  • Be clear whether meetings are for information, discussion/debate, decision-making, brainstorming etc., and communicate the agenda accordingly.
  • Use the agenda to construct follow-up notes and actions.
  • Create value in short, iterative steps and build a predictable rhythm in the meeting and for the team.
  • Know the purpose of the meeting, the audience of the meeting, the role of each attendee and focus on the joint goals of the meeting.
• Manage communications so that all intended recipients can be clear and productive, and everyone is clear on the task at hand, and clear on the background/status/purpose for the project.
  • Know your audience and communicate to their needs.
  • Start with the big picture communication in the first three sentences, leaving the details under that. 
  • Deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time for the right reason.
  • Understand the impact of the communication, and the implications for the recipients and plan accordingly. 
  • Describe strategic details to those who are tactically-minded and vice versa so that parties understand how the team/people work together.
• Proactively manage your up-times and your down-times, away from your e-mail, your social media accounts, your slacks and texts.
• Be purposeful in what you do, focused on doing it well.
  • Sometimes multi-tasking is over-valued, if a singular, concentrated focus on a high-priority task is what’s in order. (Adopt the open-one-drawer-at-a-time mindset where appropriate.)
  • Welcome input and feedback and perspectives.
  • Know yourself and what you like to do, what you do well, and find opportunities which let you do both.
• Help others be more productive in these trying times.
  • Help them adjust to the process and technology changes which need to happen to keep up with work and market demands. 
  • There will be ‘life’ challenges which interfere with the productivity of others, including elderly care, child care, grocery shopping, house issues etc., Insisting on productivity when life hits hard could make people less productive in the end, and less committed and engaged.
• Embrace technology to support you in efficiently managing your workload and communications.
  • Video conferencing and the associated tools including recording, breakout rooms, subtitles and translations help us better document and communicate. 
  • The pandemic has accelerated the pace of digital adoption for individuals and companies. IT teams have moved mountains to provide secure and efficient access for their staff from locations throughout the world. These solutions make it easier for everyone to remotely communicate, collaborate and connect.

Studies show that we have not lost too much productivity, despite the challenges of 2020. But in the end, we are all social beings, so working in isolation may impact our productivity in the long run. Providing the technology solution and the physical contact will be necessary in order to maintain our productivity levels.

Resources: 

• Harvard Business Review, 2002: Stop Wasting Valuable Time 
• 11 Simple Tips to Effective Email Management, Celestine Chua
• CNBC, Oct 2020: What the Workforce will look like in 2025 as it morphs due to the pandemic 
• The 20 Best Productivity Hacks, According To Experts
• 20 PRODUCTIVITY HACKS YOU CAN USE TO BE 400% MORE PRODUCTIVE
• FountainBlue August 2020 Blog: The Stress Sandwich
• The Culture Map – Erin Meyer 
• Stephen Covery: 4 Quadrants – Visions to Excellence

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