Productivity Tips for the IT Professional

In response to my post last week on Cleaning up my inbox – Part 1, I got the following email from a reader… he’s allowed me to share it but wanted to remain anonymous for obvious reasons 😉 

 

Hey Wayne,

If it helps I’ve been doing the “monthly unplug internet day” for about 2 years now.    …when I do it, I just mark my OOF as “Travelling around our fair country right now”.  People accept it without question, and very few people know my little secret.  😉

Anyway It works good now, in the beginning it was “disgustingly depressive and frustrating” because I kept trying to cram so much in, and achieving nothing.  So I’ve added two minor tweaks.

Firstly:  Every Friday arvo, or quiet Saturday morning, I ruthlessly trim my inbox, sending a on line email to overdue stuff, normally saying “Sorry for the lag, been travelling, or, I’ll know more next week”

…Another dirty secret, I umm usually delay the response to be sent until Monday mid morning

Secondly:  I do VIP Wednesday;  I never allow anyone to book me for a meeting on Wednesday (unless I’m travelling and in their city) – I dedicate Wednesday of every week to work on the more important tasks/projects in my life and work; usually this means *I* book the meeting and go and see *someone else*, and it’s on *my* time.

I know it sounds silly, but it works for me.  My weeks may be booked out 5 or 6 (or even 9) weeks ahead, but my Wednesday is always open (to me), usually only gets booked the week before – yes you may laugh, but I love the sense of accomplishment on a Wednesday night.  Usually quietly celebrated with a glass of my better Scotch.

Lastly:  Internet and phone are off, but a pen and paper is always handy to write down what I need to do, when I switch them back on.

So there we go; use your superpowers for good; I’ve found that works for me; once a month I go book a study room in a library, or lock myself in my study;  

Hope it helps, feel free to share and use whatever you see fit.

Cheers for now

“a fellow tinkerer, who enjoys tech, but now seems to spend his time in meetings, and doing what he can to help others getting things done.”

 

 

Ok – so that’s his tips – what about yours? What things do you to to help improve your productivity?