Tag: Productivity

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Entrepreneurship Philosophy Productivity Startup

How to Get Unstuck and Motivated?

Are you feeling stuck and not motivated enough to finish your project? Not seeing enough progress or finish line in sight?

Here’s a simple operating principle that keeps me motivated even in the most uncertain projects.

Divide your project into smaller milestones.

Yes, it’s clichéd, but it’s still surprising how often people get stuck because they focus too much on the end goal.

They get overwhelmed, stressed, and lost. And that kills their motivation.

And that’s why – you need to set smaller milestones.

Ideally, a milestone should be accomplished in a few days or max 1-2 weeks.

No milestone should be longer than 2-3 weeks. If it feels it would take longer than a few weeks, then break it again.

Smaller milestones help you get something done.

It helps you accomplish smaller victories and build momentum.

And momentum fuels your motivation and keeps you going.

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Philosophy Productivity

Why are we busier than ever?

Technically, our life should be easier than our parents’ because so much of manual work is done by machines and software.

But for some reason, we’re busier than ever.

How can this happen?

One hypothesis I have is – we’re being presented with a lot more options and opportunities in every single area of our life.

We’ve many growth opportunities at work.

We’ve many fun activities for our hobbies.

We’ve many options to stay connected with our friends and families.

We’ve many videos to watch, articles to browse, and books to read.

More, more, more…

There is only one thing that hasn’t changed from our parents’ days to ours.

And that is – each of us is born with a finite amount of time on this earth and has 24 hrs on any given day.

And it seems like figuring out how we use it wisely is one of our life’s primary activities.

And I don’t know what is the solution to this issue.

Most likely its – do, use, and aspire fewer things.

It’s easier said than done.

But nonetheless, hope it’s a good reminder for everyone.

Categories
Philosophy Productivity

“Required To Be Done” list

Sometimes, small changes can result in big results.

Here’s a small change you can do in your daily task management routine if you want to do “impactful” work.

Rename your “To Do” list as “Required To Be Done” list.

“To Do” signifies what tasks you “want” to do.

“Required To Be Done” signifies what tasks are “important” and are “priority” for your company/team/life that are required to be done “first”.

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Philosophy Productivity

Discuss Ideas vs Events and People

There is a simple hack to improve your productivity.

And it doesn’t require buying new tools or doesn’t cost anything.

Spend your time wisely in discussing ideas instead of discussing events and people.

Discussing ideas give you energy.

Discussing events and people drain your energy.

And the secret of getting more done is not having more time, but having better energy.

Categories
Philosophy

How to Find New Hope, Energy and Inspiration?

If you’re feeling low, burnt-out, overwhelmed, or hopeless, here’s a simple suggestion for you.

Stop looking at the future and what’s ahead. Instead, do this.

Look at the past and how far you’ve come along.

Sometimes the future is inspiring, but sometimes it’s daunting too.

And sometimes the past is not exciting, but sometimes it’s inspiring too.

And the interesting thing is – it’s the same set of past events that happened.

But it’s your perspective to look at it needs to be different.

When you realize how far you’ve come along, you’ll find a new source of hope, energy, and inspiration.

And that’s all you need today, to tackle the future and what’s ahead.

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Philosophy Productivity Startup

The Secret for Doing Effective Work

If there is one secret to do your work most “effectively” – then it is “concentration”.

Every single time when I take up too much on my plate and commit to too many things – I mess up.

The quality of my work and results hamper.

And obviously, I never complete everything I commit.

On the other hand, every single time when I concentrate on only one important thing at a time – I excel.

While saying this is easy, doing it is very hard.

Even though I know this, I make the mistake of saying “Yes” to too many things all the time.

But constantly thinking and reminding about this helps me to keep building my self-discipline to say “No” more often.

In fact, concentration helps me to
– Finish things faster
– Produce better quality
– Use lesser resources

So my recommendation to you – review what’s on your plate, pick up the most important thing, and only concentrate on that thing.

There you have it – a simple, yet powerful secret to do your work most “effectively”.

Categories
Productivity

Remote Work: From Synchronous To Asynchronous Collaboration

The big transition with work from remote is going from “synchronous” to “asynchronous” collaboration.

You don’t have to be at the “same place” to work together.

In fact, you also don’t have to work at the “same time” to work together.

This means the tools that have helped us to collaborate in real-time, are no longer sufficient.

Either existing tools need to evolve to help us collaborate more efficiently asynchronously or we need new tools and workflows.

It’s definitely not easy and not meant for everyone too.

It will take some time and practice to get the hang of working asynchronously.

But once you get hang of it, you’ll realize that it’s the work that matters – and not the face-time clock hours.

Categories
Philosophy Productivity

Remote Work for Forever

All knowledge workers should work remotely now.

Forever, not just for this pandemic.

If you use computer to do your work, you should work remotely (preferably home or a closest coworking space).

You should let industrial workers, medical professionals, local businesses, or anyone who absolutely needs to be in physical space, give a priority.

It isn’t about a preference or convenience.

It is about being responsible and doing the right thing.

It isn’t just about social distancing and being cautious and prepared for another pandemic.

It’s about getting back the 5-10% time of our life we waste in commuting.

Less people on the road means:

Less or no commute time for everyone.

Less stress, neck and back pain, headaches, and accidents.

Less pollution and fuel consumption.

And more importantly – more time for family, exercise, cooking, and hobbies.

Categories
Philosophy Productivity

Meeting Participants’ State of Mind

There are a lot of folks who are experiencing video meetings a.k.a. Zoom fatigue with the new normal of working remotely.

What if you get asked – “How do you feel?” before and after each meeting? 🤔

It needs to be a very lightweight approach to capture each participant’s “state of mind”.

Before the meeting, you can select one of the options:
• Great: Well-prepared, well-rested, excited, or calm.
• Meh: Not prepared, overwhelmed, tired, or distracted.
• Worse: Sad, angry, depressed, sick, or injured.

And after the meeting, you can select one of the options:
• Great: Inspired, hopeful, confident, or decisive.
• Meh: Confused, hopeless, doubtful, overwhelmed, or distracted.
• Worse: Angry, unhappy, lost, frustrated, or sad.

In Avoma, we already capture each meeting’s “Purpose” and “Outcome” to track meeting level success.

But this is taking it to the next level and understanding each participant’s success.

It would be interesting to capture participants’ feedback over a certain period and see how it affects meetings’ outcomes and employee satisfaction.

What do you think? Would you like to track this?

How could it be helpful for you as an individual and your team?

Categories
Productivity Startup

Slack Etiquettes

With remote work, I’m worried if we’re spending more time Slacking vs doing uninterrupted high-quality work.

Here are some Slack etiquettes:

1. Fewer messages mean fewer notifications

Never send a one-word message like hey, hmm even if you immediately follow up with your real message.

2. Use Reactions vs sending one-word messages

For acknowledgment, use Reactions instead of one-word messages (Thanks, lol).

3. Use formatting for longer messages

Use bulleted lists, bold, and italic text styling to make your titles and key points stand out.

4. Use threads to reply and comment

Use threads every time to keep an ongoing conversation with replies and keep the main channel clear.

5. Default to public channels

Use @username mention for specific requests or urgent matters. DMs are for confidential conversations.

6. Set prefixes to indicate message purpose

BUG: someone needs to look into it
FYI: no one needs to reply
CUSTOMER ISSUE: a high priority issue

7. Disable Notifications

Disable all Slack group notifications sounds and alerts. Keep only personal DM or @mention notifications.

8. Praise publicly, criticize privately

9. Know when to Slack vs to meet

If you’re furiously Slacking in channel, consider having a meeting/call. Share discussion points & decisions for others.