The Art and Science of Getting Stuff Done - Part 1

I’ve always been pretty good at getting stuff done and keeping many metaphorical plates spinning, but since I started with Tetrate it’s taken on another level of importance. I’ve had a few people ask me in the past what system I use to stay organised, so over the next couple of weeks I’m going to write about it in the hope that people find the odd part of it useful. This week’s post is about laying the necessary groundwork, and next week’s gets into the nuts and bolts of the day to day workflow.

Personal productivity has been a minor obsession of mine for a number of years now, and I’ve never found one system that works for me completely. What I’ve written here then is an amalgamation of so many books, websites and ideas that I can no longer remember what’s mine and what comes from somewhere else, so apologies that the different aspects of this are not well credited. Even more sincere apologies if it turns out that I have indeed ripped off someone else’s complete GSD system and forgotten!

One further caveat before I get started - this post is about what works for me, in the types of role that I’ve had. It’s not an attempt to sell you some ‘one true way’ of being organised and having high throughput of work that matters. I’ll save that for the book deal ;) It’s also a system for someone who isn’t afraid to lean on technology to prop up their ageing brain, but I figure if you’re reading this you’re probably familiar enough with technology to deal with a few different apps. And that you may or may not be ageing.

Doing stuff that matters

Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all. - Peter Drucker

That’s right, I’m a proper productivity blogger now, I’m quoting Peter Drucker. Damn, this is a big day for me. Anyway, it’s important to acknowledge that the whole concept of getting a lot of stuff done only has value if you’re doing the right thing. I feel a separate post coming on the topic of working out what’s important for you on a personal level, but for now it’s enough if you can identify what it is that the people around you care about (especially those that keep you employed). There’s a specific thing (or possibly some things) that people care about you producing, Brendon Burchard calls them ‘Prolific Quality Outputs’ (PQOs) in High Performance Habits, and has this to say about them:

“Figuring out what you are supposed to produce, and learning the priorities in the creation, quality, and frequency of that output, is one of the greatest breakthroughs you can have in your career.” - Burchard, Brendon. High Performance Habits (p. 181).

Only you can figure out what your PQOs are. If you’re in a role where you’re wearing many hats then you’ll have more than one, and they’ll probably change over time as your role evolves. By way of an example, here are my current ones:

• Engineering Manager Hat
  – Number of significant new features shipped by my team & effectively shared with the wider community – Number of new engineers hired across the engineering organisation
• Security / Compliance Hat:
  – Number of significant audits passed– Number of security & compliance initiatives started and taken to conclusion with a demonstrable impact.
• Writer Hat:
  – Number of high quality (debatable I know…) posts written & published

Understanding if something is truly important and not just urgent is a key part of having an impact in your role, and that’s what we all want right? There’s no point being busy if you’re not having an impact, it’s about the least satisfying thing in existence. Therefore having a clear understanding of which parts of your role(s) create impact is really key.

It’s worth saying, however, that it’s important not to get too black and white with your thinking after you’ve figured out your PQOs. We’re all ultimately part of larger teams and organisations, and sometimes you just have to do things that enable that wider team but don’t align perfectly with your carefully thought out priorities. If it turns out that there’s a pattern in the things you’re being asked then perhaps you have a PQO that you weren’t aware of. Regardless, there’s value in being generally helpful, especially as it often opens the doors to other roles or opportunities down the road. Be focused, but don’t be blinkered.

Daily Routine & Chronotypes

The other thing that I’ve found a complete game-changer was understanding the way my energy levels and concentration naturally vary through the day in a very predictable way. When, by Daniel Pink, introduced me to the concept, prior to that book I used to think of it as a character failing that the me who’s working at 2pm is far less capable than the one who’s around at either 9am or 4pm, but it’s just a fact of life given the peculiarities of my own circadian rhythm. In the book, he talks about Larks, Owls and Third Birds, and shows the optimal time of day for each to go about certain tasks

The assessment linked in the book is sadly not around at the moment, but you can take a similar one here if you’re interested. My type means that I’m at my best between about 7am and midday, with a dip in the afternoon, followed by my second wind at about 4pm. And yes, I’m ready for bed at about 10pm which makes me the life and soul of the party.

When you understand this about yourself, you can make sure that you do your ‘Big Brain Tasks’ (Analytical and decision based ones) at the right time of day, which for me happens to be early. I use the first few hours of each day to do the things that require my best thinking, planning out my day so that I put the work that asks the least of me at the times of day when it’s best suited.

I think of it as having a ‘Boss’ me and a ‘worker’ me (which I think I stole from here, which is a book I recommend wholeheartedly). Boss me shows up in the morning and plans out the day (more on that next week), and does the tasks that require either a lot of thought, or something out of the ordinary. When Worker-me shows up just after lunch time, I’m quite happy to get on with doing the things that the Boss laid out in the morning.

I found I can make worker-me more efficient by being very careful about what I have for lunch, but I refuse to turn this into an article about nutrition so I’ll leave it there.

Next Week - Tools, Workflows and Ruthless Prioritisation

I’ll stop there for this week. Next week I’ll go over my day to day workflow in detail, the tools I use to support it, and how to factor in all these big thoughts about prioritisation in to your day to day todo list. Thanks for reading!

(edit: Part 2 is here)