The notion of ‘extreme productivity’ is often confused with staying back late in the office or working over the weekend. But this understanding of productivity will not be feasible in 2021 for two main reasons:
- Employees are working from home and the managers have less visibility on what their direct reports are doing.
- The modern thought leaders value smart work over hard work.
According to Forrester’s prediction for business trends in 2021, remote work will rise to 300% of what it was before the rise of the pandemic. This could mean that we are looking at a new era in which ‘work-life balance’; would literally mean juggling various roles while working from home. While some may find this manageable, a lot of employees with families or dependents may take the brunt of juggling personal and professional deadlines.
Though we have started yet another year, a few responsibilities like childcare and household chores still majorly fall on women, which adds an extra hurdle to their WFH battle when compared to men. Women make up about 48% of the US workforce, yet they are pressured into adjusting their careers owing to the added responsibility of managing and taking care of their families.
How can we address the issue before it gets further out of hand? What if mothers, single parents, and anyone with substantial personal responsibilities find a way to achieve extreme productivity by putting in a reduced number of hours? That’s exactly what this article will help you figure out.
1. Begin at the End
According to the MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer Robert Pozen’s book titled Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours, it is always a good idea to map the course of action from the end result to the starting point, especially when it comes to high-priority projects. Get an idea running, do “mid-flight” checks to devise changes, and learn on the job instead of spending weeks or months just doing research and gathering data. Understand that information gets updated every day. If you wait for long, the data you gathered might even prove to be irrelevant.
2. Prioritize your goals
Strategizing is key to extreme productivity. Set daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals. This might sound like an impossible feat, but it’s not, really. As we are at the start of 2021, this is a great time for this exercise. Set a yearly goal for your career and then work towards is by setting monthly and weekly goals. These can be then simplified to simpler daily tasks.
For example, if your goal for this year is to become an expert in Artificial Intelligence (AI), your monthly goals can be to complete one course in AI every three months. Your weekly goals can be to reach out to subject matter experts within or outside the organization once a week to top up your knowledge. And your daily goal can be to read one new article on AI or Machine Learning (ML) every day.
3. Delay Gratification
Don’t procrastinate or get distracted by the things you love to do. Instead, treat yourself to these “distractions” whenever you complete a task. Don’t think “I’ll listen to some music first” or “I’ll finish this task after watching one more episode”—do it the other way around. Give yourself a break by savoring a snack or taking a short Netflix break after you have finished half of your tasks for the day. Use this delayed gratification as a way to recharge yourself for achieving extreme productivity.