This post is by Kirsten Simmons of Personalized Productivity.
Let’s think through your day. When you arrive at your desk, what’s the first thing you see?
Is it the pile of paper comprising three weeks worth of files that you’ve put off sorting into their alphabetical hanging files?
Is it the 100+ emails that would only take a moment or two to reply to, but that you haven’t had the motivation to dive into?
Image courtesy aliwest44, licensed under Creative Commons
Is it the blank sheet of paper where you were supposed to write today’s to-do list before you wrapped up yesterday, but you were so relieved to just get to the end of the day that you forgot all about it?
What do you feel when you see that pile of files, that overflowing inbox or that blank sheet of paper? If you’re like most people the response is guilt, frustration, or even a muted resignation. Because despite your best intentions, you’ve failed yet again to maintain even the most basic organization or productivity system. You’re just an utter failure.
Hold it right there! Think for a minute and tell me, where did you get those systems from? Did you make them up, or was it from a book or article trumpeting the ease of this or that system for skyrocketing your productivity and getting your life back on track? How could that person—who’s writing that book without ever even meeting you—how could they possibly know that this system will be right for you?
They couldn’t. And not only do they have a minimal chance of selecting the correct system for you, there’s a very high probability that their personality is such that their system will never work for you.
Let’s think through your day again. What if you arrived at your desk and found nothing there that shouldn’t have been there? What if your e-mail inbox had just a few messages that had come in overnight? What if you sat down knowing exactly what you were going to do and how you were going to do it?
Would you feel better? Would your stress be lower? Would your productivity increase?
When it comes to productivity and organization, there are four important personality types. Each type has distinct preferences for organizing their physical space, managing their time and optimizing their productivity. And yet over 99% of productivity books and products are written by one type—the one that naturally gravitates toward “traditional” organization strategies like alphabetical filing and schedules planned to the quarter hour block.
Discovering your productivity personality and creating a system that works with your brain frees you from the stress and frustration of trying to maintain your old system. Your new one will come naturally, will scale to your work load and adapt as you move into new projects.
Let me tell you a bit about the types and give you some tips to get you started right now. There is no reason to ever feel like a failure when it comes to productivity again.
The Fantastical
If you’re a Fantastical, you’re a creative problem solver who thrives on variety and originality. You’ve been known to become so engrossed in your projects that you forget appointments, meetings or even meals! The biggest key in a Fantastical organization system is space—you have to see all the components of a project in front of you, so structure your office space accordingly. Shelves above your desk are a great way to do that, but don’t fall into the trap of using them for binders! Put your project piles there instead so you can see everything you need to.
The Environmental
If you’re an Environmental, you’re the person that everyone around you depends on. Your warmth and caring shines through in everything you do, and you worry when anyone is feeling sick or uncomfortable. As such, you’re constantly shifting your schedule and your priorities to help out someone in need, and it drives those around you crazy! Instead of trying to conform to someone else’s quarter hour schedules, plan out your day in blocks of at least two hours. That gives you time to work on what needs doing while still stopping to lend a hand if someone needs you.
The Analytical
If you’re an Analytical, you’re motivated and goal oriented. You rely on facts and figures rather than emotion, and you’re great at seeing the big picture. Your most effective productivity strategy is learning how to focus your time on high value tasks while delegating the rest to assistants or others on your team. Your goals will be achieved when everyone around you plays to their strengths, so make sure you know what those strengths are and do your best to see that the work gets divided accordingly.
The Structural
If you’re a Structural, then congratulations, organization comes naturally to you! You’re the one everyone turns to when something needs to be planned, and when brainstorming your first action is to start making a list. You’re most comfortable in a routine, and you can become overwhelmed by interruptions or unexpected increases in workload. The good news is that there are a LOT of systems out there for you to choose from, so take a look at what you’re doing now and ask how it could possibly break. Then do some experimenting and find ways to streamline your systems and routines to handle unexpected situations.
Once you’ve identified your productivity personality and altered your systems to fit, you’ll find that your day flows easier, your stress is reduced and all the time you spent struggling to maintain someone else’s system is suddenly free for whatever you’d like.
Kirsten started researching personality and productivity out of curiosity one day last October, and before she knew it she had a business on her hands! Are you interested in learning more about your type? Come visit Personalized Productivity to take our free quiz to determine your primary type and get customized advice to begin building your system.
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I liked your thoughts on reducing stress. In the past few weeks I’ve been working through this on a professional level. I realize that a lot of the stress that I dealt with was because I was trying to put some tasks off. I started responding to emails immediately and keeping a cleaner inbox. I also started handling tasks more effectively. If I can do a task in 3 minutes or less I go ahead and do it rather than putting it off. This has started to save some stress in my life. Any other suggestions?
Thanks for your comment, Eric – glad you’re having luck reducing stress! It’s hard to give specific advice without knowing your type, but if you swing by http://www.personalizedproductivity.com and take the quiz, you’ll get lots more suggestions customized to your type. 🙂
I agree entirely with the point reaisd by Costas. Among the two priorities reaisd it is the first one that needs the most urgent attention, that of refroming the judiciary. Without an efficiewnt court system all other reforms will become ineffective. The need for growth as a vehicle that would take Greece out of the current crisis is tautological. The debate about whether to remain or not in the euro zone is important, but it will remain academic unless there is a concerted effort (with the help of the EU in this case) to fight corruption. To do that most of the energy and effort has to be spent on reforming the judiciary. The rules of the game are such that whoever “screams the loudest” has better access to the media and the benefit of the judiciary system that is inherently incapable of ensuring a framework on which economic reforms can take place. Without contracts that are enforceable for all the parties involved, it will be futile to introduce reforms. The latter will be unravelled by the inability of the courts to enforce these contracts. For the new reality to become understood as something that requires new bold reforms to open up highly regulated markets and allow for productivity convergence between the public and private sectors, people need to be convinced that the rules of the game apply to all concerned. Until now as we speak, any attempt to bring individuals to justice who have either stolen public funds by not returning huge sums of collected VAT to the government, let alone the known income tax evaders, only results cases that are pushed into the future as these individuals are allowed to walk. The excuse here is that the judiciary is too overburdened to deal with these cases effectively and promptly. I am afraid that unless this government or any government deals with that aspect of the broken system, any reforms will never be implemented. To have any chance of success, let alone any chance to reach a climate for economic growth, there has to be a framework for enforcing contracts that is recognized and respected by all by imposing stiff penalties to all those who violate their side of the contract, whether public officials involved in corruption cases or entrepreneurs not returning the sums of VAT that they have collected on behalf of the government.One may counter, that Greece was growing until 2008 at reasonably healthy rates with the same judiciary and the same lack of contract enforceability system. Yet, even though we all recognize the reasons behind this consumption led growth engineered by easy credit, which led to the current crisis, it is the asymmetry between the upturn and downturn that obscured any need for reform. An expanding economic pie conferred benefits to all, even though these benefits also created “built in” destabilizers that now confront us all. I think, given the state of corruption as the result of lack of contract enforceability, the main reform that at this point that needs to take place, is the reform of the judiciary, for anything else to have any chance of success.
“The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager. ” – Peter Drucker
An employee can’t achieve maximum productivity and choose the most valuable tasks to work on, if he has a dumb manager who assign tasks that has no real value.
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