December’s monthly productivity tips! – Want to make next year great?
Graham Allcott

Graham Allcott










This month we’re focusing on the upcoming Christmas holidays. It’s a time for rest and reflection on a job well done this year, as well as thinking and visioning for what 2012 should look like.

Our gift to you! How to ‘Ninja’ your New Year’s Resolutions!
Click HERE for our cunning PDF toolkit to help you do just that! Use our CORD workflow model to work through all those new year’s ideas and come up with the attainable, sustainable masterplan you need for 2012. Feel free to share this around with your friends and colleagues too!

Tuck into some chocolate
Since for many of us Christmas is a time for indulgence and excess, here’s a chocolate-themed guest blog post: How to change the world with a bag of M&Ms! http://bit.ly/sm938u

Time to unplug… But are you addicted to connectivity?
Many of us have our emails travelling with us these days, even over Christmas (via smartphones, iPads and the like). This is a great time of year to address a BIG productivity problem: connectivity addiction. The truth is, our brains need a rest from all the emails and it’s time to take a stand! Here’s a video from our ‘Beyond GTD’ series, where Lee Cottier and I talk about this very issue: http://bit.ly/q59Gjn

Finally, time to say THANK YOU!
We’re so grateful for all the amazing relationships we’ve built up in 2011, as well as our growing following on Twitter, Facebook and the like. It’s a privilege to see the tangible changes people make as a result of our work and we love doing it too. A big influence on Think Productive as a company is Gary Vaynerchuk: American entrepreneur, social media expert and author of ‘The Thank You Economy’. So, to say thank you to Gary and thank you to all of you, here’s a link to a great video of his! This is his keynote from the Inc500 Conference earlier this year. He’s a compelling and entertaining speaker and whilst we love him dearly, this video does contain very strong language! Don’t say we didn’t warn you and I hope you enjoy it (especially the ending!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbHy7yESiyg

We wish you a season with as many of the following as you care to enjoy…

- Some amazing company
- Some great food
- Watching ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and remembering what’s important
- Revisiting childhood haunts
- Getting drunk and merry if that’s your thing
- Cosying up with a DVD, surrounded by empty chocolate wrappers
- And lots more!

Looking ahead to 2012…Why not come along to one of our public workshops?
Click on the relevant date below to book your place now – with our new 3 tiered pricing system. Fair, transparent and a fantastic return on investment.

The South West

Bristol
February 17th, 2012
June 15th, 2012
October 19th, 2012

The South East

London
February 10th, 2012
March 28th, 2012
April 26th, 2012
More 2012 London dates

The Midlands and the North

Birmingham
April 19th, 2012
November 23rd, 2012

Manchester
April 18th, 2012
November 22nd, 2012

Ireland

Dublin
Tuesday, 7th February 2012
Watch this space for more 2012 dates in Dublin!

See you in 2012!

Graham and the Think Productive team

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Monetisation, or Write A Limerick
Matthew Brown

Matthew Brown











“Slow down and remember this: most things make no difference. Being busy is a form of laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.”

Ah, wise words from Tim Ferriss. And the point he is making is a good one. With our most precious resources – time and attention – we should be obsessively careful about how we spend them. The key is the impact generated versus the time spent.

I think a lot about the impact/time trade-off, and Tim Ferriss provides a useful prism through which we can look at our tasks. For example, if I have to make a series of business development calls that are very unlikely to lead to a sale, why would I bother making them at all? Even if they were very quick (low time impact), my time and attention would be better focussed elsewhere. No impact? Bin it.

Similarly, if I have a mega proposal to write – and it looks like it will take me three days from start to finish – even if I know that it will be well-received, why bother? If I can generate the same amount of “well-received” with a snappy, comprehensive, well-argued one-pager in forty minutes, why would I spend three days on it? Too much time? Bin it.

But there’s a third angle here, and that is monetisation. Say I am working on a task that requires very little time commitment, AND has a good chance of achieving a very high impact. Great, right? Well, only if I have monetised the activity. By which I mean that the vast proportion of the value created by my time and effort goes to me – or, at worst, my employer. If I have done a low-time-commitment, high-impact piece of work and my employer and I are no better off at the end of it, I might as well not have bothered. No monetisation? Bin it.

Don’t get me wrong; there are many activities I indulge in that are low impact and time-consuming and offer no economic pay-off of any kind – drumming along to Led Zep tracks, writing limericks, walking in the cemetery. These are all good, because they don’t come in a bag labelled “work”. My choice.

If you’re doing something that either has no impact or takes up a big chunk of your day, please stop. You’re wasting your time. And if you’re doing something that is low time commitment and high impact but is making someone else money – but not you or those that matter – REALLY please stop.

Go and write a limerick.

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If you’re looking for time management training, our ‘How to Get Things Done’ workshops offer the basics on how to implement the ideas from David Allen, Peter Drucker, Tim Ferriss and many more! It’s available in-house to your company or also through our public workshops across the UK.

Time Management Training has changed! Click here to find out about our productivity-focussed Time management workshops, email training and facilitation training.

 

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No Waiting
Graham Allcott

Graham Allcott










In our “Beyond GTD” series, Think Productive’s Productivity Ninjas go beyond the basics and discuss some of the more advanced-level tips and tricks in implementing productivity systems such as David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done’ (GTD).
Here, our London Ninja, Matthew Brown shares his controversial “No waiting” approach to GTD, with Graham Allcott.

 

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If you’re looking for Time Management training, our ‘How to Get Things Done’ workshops offer the basics on how to implement the ideas from the likes of David Allen, Peter Drucker, Tim Ferriss and many more! It’s available in-house to your company or also through our public workshops across the UK.

Time Management Training has changed! Click here to find out about our productivity-focussed Time management workshops, email training and facilitation training.

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The 5 Minute Daily Review
Graham Allcott

Graham Allcott










In our “Beyond GTD” series, Think Productive’s Productivity Ninjas go beyond the basics and discuss some of the more advanced-level tips and tricks in implementing productivity systems such as David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done’ (GTD).

Here, our London Ninja, Matthew Brown talks with Graham Allcott about his “5 Minute Daily Review”, a take on David Allen’s Weekly Review.



 

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If you’re looking for time management training, our ‘How to Get Things Done’ workshops offer the basics on how to implement the ideas from the likes of David Allen, Peter Drucker, Tim Ferriss and many more! It’s available in-house to your company or also through our public workshops across the UK.

Time Management Training has changed! Click here to find out about our productivity-focussed Time management workshops, email training and facilitation training.

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