Takis Athanassiou | Leadership Initiative

The Productive Self

Simple strategies, approaches and tools to make
you more effective in business and life!
Table of Contents

1. The 5W+1H of Productivity

2. 3 Productivity Tips To Make Your Day

3. How to Boost Up Your Productivity

4. Multiply your Productivity by a Factor of 10

5. The Hidden Infrastructure For A Productive Day

6. What's your next action?

The 5W+1H of Productivity

The 5W+1H productivity formula is a small shorthand that permit us to

evaluate a given task or action from a productivity point of view. This
scheme consists of a number of questions whose answer would provides us
with all the necessary information and data for research or for evaluation
of an action.

What the 5W+1H Productivity Formula is About?

The 5W+1H productivity formula is analogous to the original 5W+1H formula,
referred to the information gathering and covers disciplines as the
journalism, research, investigation, etc. Using this formula, we can have a
solid reference matrix for evaluating and answering (with a degree of
certainty!), questions related to the productivity.

Why we should concern with defining more accurate the productivity, you
would ask? Because in order to be better in one thing is to define an
objective, goal, task, etc. in measurable terms. It is to develop SMART goals
and monitor through their implementation.

For instance, the 5W+1H scheme can helps us in answering questions such
as:

When is productivity productive?

Why, even though I'm working 12 hours a day, I can not meet the
required results?
How to manage more efficiently my time?
What is my production to procrastination ratio?
How to achieve personal startups?
How much, really is my productive/creative time?
How can achieve more goals, working less?
How to plan new startups?
How gain more time for creative/quality discussions, relations, etc?
What should I do, in order to have a balance in my personal and
professional life?
 How to develop better habits for an efficient and productive day?
How to develop a new skill in an efficient way?

All these questions (and many more) can be answered for the productivity
(and for other disciplines as business, blogging, leadership, personal
development, social media, etc.) if you follow the 5W+1H productivity
formula.

The 5W+1H Productivity Formula

The 5W+1H Productivity Formula can be implemented in any sector,
subject or issue involving a task, activity, etc. In this mode, is neutral in its
implementation and does not depend on any particular field, principle,
discipline or other conditions.

Its implementation is based on a simple algorithm, which prescribes the

answering of a set of some basic questions. In that context, for any given
activity or task you can start your analysis with 6 basic questions.

The formula takes its name from the initials of the adverb of the 5 first
questions (5W) and the initial letter of the last question ( H) thus the name
5W+1H formula. These questions are:

Who can do it?

What can be done?
When can it be completed?
Where can be implemented?
Why have we to implement it?
How are we going measure it or monitor it?

Providing and answer to these question, you are able to define more
precise the activity or task and prescribes all its basic "components" ( who,
how, when, where, etc.)

The 5W+1H Productivity Formula: A Case Study

Case Summary

We try to define better the operation "project budgeting" we usually use in

budgeting our projects. The activity related to the budgeting of every
project assumed by the company.

Objectives
1. Define and optimize the project budgeting
2. Measure the success of the activity in each project
3. Evaluate the new scheme used

5W+1H Productivity Formula Implementation

Who can do it? Project budgeting is the responsibility of the Project

Manager in cooperation with the HR and Financial department of the
company.
What can be done? We should budget each project based on:
Out published/prize lists or established fees for similar projects
The ROI (Return of Investment) for our company
The available Resources
The cost of our services/products
The cost and quality of our services
Our margins of operations
The good business practices
Other?
<...>

When can it be completed? The budget should be drafted before the

inauguration of a project along with a ROI sheet, on the proposal phase,
before the official contract signed in, and should be verified just before
the official assumption of the project.
Where can be implemented? The project budgeting should be
implemented within the company and communicated towards all
involved parties.
Why have we to implement it? Without a proper budget for the project,
we risk of economic failure and inadequacy in delivering the agreed
outputs of the project.
How we going measure it ormonitor it? We going to measure the
project budgeting procedure on the base of:
Budget efficiency
Positive ROI
Gross Profits for the company
other indexes

Conclusion

The above, case, should demonstrate the effectiveness of the formula in

the definition and evaluation of given activities and tasks. I believe that its
application can provide various value added results for personal and
business activities, providing:

Better definition of any given task or activity

Improved accountability and tractability
Detailed specification for the implementation of an activity
More exact implementation duration and timetables
Better resource management
Enhance clarification of the tasks and activities involved
Better communication due to better understanding of the parameters
involved.
Better measurements of the procedures involved
solid base for the establishment of S.M.A.R.T. goals
Better defined objectives and quality outputs and results

Based on the 5W+1H Productivity Formula, a person or an organization can

make better results, in shorter times and with better management of the
available resources. What do you think?

Action Points: Do you find useful the 5W+1H Productivity Formula? Can use
the 5W+1H Productivity Formula in your work? Try to implement the 5W+1H
Productivity Formula for a week in your projects to see the results!
3 Productivity Tips To Make
Your Day

You are always in demand for productivity tips that make our life easier.
Productivity is a much elusive and much-required feature, by anyone,
wants to do better and more effectively, today. Under the present living
and working conditions, time, seems, never to be enough.

This is the reason you need to have some "aces up your sleeve" to cope
better with the pressing demands of our life!
How To Use The Productivity Tips!
Productivity tips are not, just, shortcuts! It is not something you use
sporadically and expecting to have good results.

They should be used within ( or in conjunction with ) a well-established

framework of an organization system, an existing workflow or a personal
system.

You should select and employ these systems, based on clear defined ideas
of accountability, limitations, boundaries time, and time management.

In order a productivity tip you use to help you to do more effectively,

efficiently and in less time your tasks, activities, projects, chores, etc. needs
to be first:

Selected based on your personal traits and workflow,

Consciously adopted,
Embedded in your daily habits, rituals, and customs,
Cultivated continuously, and
Used on an almost, daily basis.

You should not expect something to be efficient before it became a habit!

3 Productivity Tips To Make Your Day

3 such useful productivity tips and "habits" for the modern man/woman
can be:

1. The MIT (Most Important Task). The concept of the Most Important task is
actually simple: the MIT is the one task you should absolutely need to be
done for the day. It may be the paying of a bill, a mail you have to
send, a phone call, something you have to write, or anything else. How
this it is work? Simple! From your task list (if you use a productivity system,
you should have a list or a calendar with tasks/activities should be done
in the day!) you select the one task you need to do, in order to have
results for the day (according to your goals, objectives, etc). The MIT you
select should be in alignment to your core values and goals and its
completion would bring tangible personal and professional results for
the person selecting it for implementation! Pretty simple, isn't it?
2. The Time Blocking. Time Blocking is a productivity technique, that allow
you to maximize your focus on a task and eliminate distractions. It
 includes the scheduling of specific time slots for the implementation of a
task (i.e. I make an appointment in my calendar for a 2 hours time block
for writing a post or a report, or an article, a 3 hours block for preparing a
marketing report for a client, etc). A very important and very useful
specialization of this technique is the scheduling of an appointment with
yourself. This makes you focus on and do the critical tasks you should do
eliminating the external distractions (like budgeting, strategy drafting,
personal crucial tasks, etc). For more information on the subject, you
can check the article "How to Time Block" and this video, by Chris
Brogan:
3. Batch processing of tasks. Another very useful productivity tip, I use
often, is the task batching. Batch processing is a variation of Time
Blocking principle but a very specialized one! It included the time
scheduling for the accomplishment of specific and similar tasks! For
instance, you can set a time block of 5 hours for do all the writing of your
blog posts, or a 2-hour time block for social media or e-mail, etc. You
can set time zones for the implementation of specific and repetitive
tasks (i.e. half an hour at the morning for checking my e-mail, or check
social media, half an hour for exercise, etc). If you organize your life as
that, you can schedule all your tasks/activities, around such productivity
principles!
How to Boost Up Your
Productivity

Productivity is an essential factor in today personal and professional life. It is

important for everyone wants to improve the conditions of his or her life.
Furthermore, it is important for anyone wants to do more and make a
difference! Productivity it is defined in different ways, by different people.
But, in essence, it means to do the things you ought to do in a more
efficient way.

There are many ways and methods to help you boost up your productivity.
Among them are included:

MIT (Most Important Thing(s)

Timeboxing
Time Quilting
GTD (in various forms and genres! )
Covey's approach
McGhee’s Methodology
Michael Linenberger approach
Autofocus
Various Tips and Hacks

I usually use my own system for doing things and it is something it has grew
organically over the years of my work! I also have done a lot of work on my
goals and priorities, the procedures and systems I could use more
effectively, the tools that may help me produce more quality results in the
shorter amount of time (as the templates, are), etc.

But in the end all the planning should output in a coherent workflow that
would support you to any activity you want to implement and support you
to achieve your goals! For me, this workflow has the following steps:
think and set your goals SMARTly (life goals, business goals, family goals,
health goals, financial goals, etc.) and with clarity, according to your
life scope, your beliefs, your values and your lifestyle!
break down your life goals to small manageable SMART tasks. The
smaller the better!
find the suitable motivation for you
follow a constant system or methodology it suits you to achieve your
objectives
decide carefully your next move
be present when you're doing the task you have select for
implementation and try always to provide more value to the output
from the one it is expected (not only for the other people but for yourself
as well)
Do not expect the ideal conditions to do the task or the activity you
have chosen to implement. Take a big breath and start doing it, even if
the conditions are not so favourable! Just start it and build upon that
activity!
Track your results and do what's possible to perform better ( faster, more
confident, more relaxed, etc.), next time!
Multiply your Productivity
by a Factor of 10

As a person, sometimes, I am an impetuous one! I use to grasp quickly the

situation and respond or decide quickly for the next steps! I usually like very
much complex situations because they suit me just fine! I do not like delays
and I try to process everything in a single swipe (or more actually in a
dedicated time slot)! That's why I was thrilled to read the "processed once
rule" presented by David Allen in his GTD methodology! It is a rule I found of
maximum importance for many aspects of my personal and professional
life!

The Decision Status

Most situations in our life do not require too much mental process. Many
situations are common in your daily life and you, over the years, have
developed the mechanisms and the procedures (habits, customs,
experience, etc.) to handle them. As in driving, many things we have
learned during the years have been "embedded" in our autonomous
system and conducted in an automatic mode!

The same happens in life. The new, extraordinary or not familiarized

situations happen does not span in a more than 5-10% top of the situations
you have to decide or take a different approach fro your custom ones!

This small block of situations you will be called to handle are those need
your readiness, your focus, and your consciousness to be handled
effectively towards your favor.

The problem usually lays in the fact that you have never prepared to
handle any situation, at all in a consistent and structured way, which is the
way you need to make conscious decisions about various subjects. The
problem here is how to take decisions and if the choices around you
(choices dictated by your abilities, your resources, your capacity, your
environment, your habits, etc.) can help you make good decisions or not!
A good decision is the one that can help you in your life, promotes your
goals, help your family, your friends, etc. A bad decision leads to action,
inaction or "blind spots" deteriorate your conditions of life (in many levels )

Why One is usually Enough

Check yourself in a supermarket! You have a list of groceries you have
agreed upon with your spouse, but coming to your favorite supermarket
you find other things you would like to buy as well. And you do, and you
quarrel a lot with your wife!

Your decision of buying, for instance, a replacement razor set which does
not exist in your grocery list it was a perfectly logic decisions but
contradicts, perhaps, to the money spending limitations you have agreed
with your wife! So basically you have the razor set and a bad situation with
your wife. The results is a lousy evening! Isn't it?

If you have followed your list all would be okay! Or not? Well, perhaps! The
problem is that in the supermarket you have too many choices for too
many thugs to selects from, things you have originally doesn't thought of,
when you wrote your list.

So the "freedom" of choosing in a rich alternative environment, actually

impaired your ability to choose well.

This is one of the most valuable and less published keys of maximum
productivity for the productivity gurus. You need more productivity, less
your options on the nonimportant things and focus on what's important!

For the 80%-90% of the things we do daily you have not to decide anything
if you have prepared a little bit yourself and your environment. You should
structure your life around some intentional and steady choices to help you
carry yourself withing your day.

For instance:

1. You structure your life around strong habits you follow without question
(because you have tested them and see their value). You wake up in
the same hour, you dine on the same hour, you use a limited set of
healthy food you enjoy, etc.
2. You reinforce habits you want to root in your autonomous system like
 reading or writing daily, listening podcasts, stop watching TV, etc.
3. You start to develop a mindset that would eliminate the redundant
decisions and further you towards your goals.
4. You implement systems, recipes and procedures would benefit your life
as a whole.
5. You prioritize, automate, outsource, etc. other tasks to leave room for
the important ones or the ones only you can do them!

When you take this kind of actions, usually you never need to go back to
the question or cancel your previous decisions, or choices. This is the once
processed rule!

When One Time isn't Enough!

The once processed rule though is not globally applicable. Because there
are the other 10% of situations need you full attentions and focus. These
might be life threatening situations, cases of sickness (of you or of a person
you care about it), career or serious work decisions, etc.

These are the case you need to be present. To pay attention. The first thing
you should do about those situations, are to develop your readiness. What's
means that? You need to be the person can handle those situations to
manage those situations effectively!

It means to prepare yourself to:

be able to recognize these situations and respond accordingly

to have enough experience permit you handling these situations in the
best possible manner
to grow the proper mindset permits you to be pro-active and not
reactive
to acknowledge quickly all the critical features of the situations and
channeled them in the most favorable way. It needs preparation,
planning, and experience.

At the end of the day, there is nothing it can prepare you to handle
effectively such situations but the life you have lived and the lessons you
have drawn from it!

How to Multiply your Productivity by a Factor of 10

The first thing the most experienced and skillful productivity gurus know is
that there are no shortcuts or universally applicable solutions! Every solution,
in productivity field or everywhere, needs to be customized to the special
needs and requirements of the person use it and there is a lot of work
involved to incorporate that solutions to his/hers daily working routine.

The second things productivity gurus do is the process once rule! The rule is
simple! You pay attention only once to a specific task and you do not
spend more time for it!

How that can work? Let's say you have to buy some things in the
supermarket. You decide, once, on the things you need, you go to the
supermarket and buy exactly and only the things on your list. No matter
what!

In your mail inbox, you are not "organizing" your incoming emails for future
reference. You have to decide what you have to do with each mail. For
instance if you are subscribed to many newsletters, select the most crucial
for you and unsubscribe from the rest. Delete whatever is not pertinent to
what you do or you are never going to use it again! Use a system (as the
GTD is) for organize your tasks and projects.

Process each incoming e-mail just once and either archive it for future
reference, or put it an action folder for doing something with it (or to a
defer folder, or to a waiting for folder), or just delete it! Do not leave withing
your inbox. There are much more interesting things to do with your time!

NOTE: For a better mail organization you can download my free guide
here!

Recurring tasks that fall in an organization scheme can be easily

accomplished, but when you postpone an action related to a message, a
mail, a phone call, a task, this going to come back in a different form and
perhaps providing different results.

The "process once rule" is a valuable tool to your productivity toolbox, but is
not a solution for every productivity problem! Actually there is no a specific
solution for everyone. There are solutions that work for some people and
solutions that don't. It is you that you have to find how and why you can
use this rule in your workflow and how to "tweak" it to be fitted to your
personal and unique requirements! You are the sole responsible of how you
can use it.
You cannot live a life in auto mode. The trick here is to focus on the things
that are important to you and make you a better person, husband, father,
workers, associate, etc. Not to live a life without conscience! The concept is
exactly the contrary! How to live a meaningful life focused on the thing are
important to you and to the people you care about!
The Hidden Infrastructure
For A Productive Day

Modern working conditions require modern tools to help you manage your
work and focus on what's important. I use daily a set of tools that help me
to manage my work and connect me with the people I need to
communicate.

Select Your Best Productivity Tools

I've heard once by a carpenter that in order to work effectively the wood
you need to work it across its grain direction. Exactly like human habits. You
cannot oppose them without considerable thinking, a plan and a direction
because this is the best way to have to opposite, from the intended ones,
results.

There are many productivity applications out there can help you achieve
your objectives and a lot of ways to help you select them.

Their effective usage depends on you and your:

personal values,
goals and objectives,
preferred personal and business philosophies and strategies
productive methodology,
workflow,
working habits,

among many other parameters.

The Hidden Infrastructure For An Efficient Day

A productive day may have many parameters and many activities you
have to complete. But a day you have truly achieved the bulk of the things
you have planned for and supposed to do is not just a productive day is an
effective day, bringing you closer to the accomplishments of your goals.

To this end, a large contributor is the selection of the right, for you,
productivity tools and applications can help you maximize your
productivity and focus on the things are important for you life and business.

My productivity toolkit, include many applications, but there are some I use
almost daily. The most important one, are described below.

Text Expanders

One of the first productivity tools I ever used in my business life, was the text
expanders. Text expanders are the software you use a small phrase or a
combination of keystrokes and they produced full phrases or even
predefined texts. Useful for repetitive writing tasks (formal emails, standard
company's correspondence, key phrases like your e-mail, signatures, etc.)

At first, there was the text expanding capabilities of Microsoft Word but
later on, many tools of this category have added. I have used many of
them at the different platforms I use, but my best selection by far is:

PhraseExpress (Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android )

AutoHotkey (Windows)
aText (Mac)
TextExpander (Mac)
Typinator (Mac)

Text Expanders need a little bit initial time and though investment to prove
their worth, but once they have set up and configured to your working
habits the provide a huge positive impact on the final results.

Templates

Text expanders are particularly good when they combined with templates.
Templates are pre-written and pre-arranged writing blocks you can use as
blueprints for the development of newly written assignments.

You can have templates for almost any writing tasks ( and there are many
writing strategies can help you in this ) as letter, e-mails, repetitive mail
answers, pre-sales material, etc.

Actually, you can have templates for almost anything if you gave some
thought of what you want to say and how to say it.
Workflows/Processes

Workflows are a very particular subset of templates in the sense that also
provide a blueprint for corresponding actions, but their power is far greater
and provide a huge impact on the final outcome. In essence are
algorithms for activities aiming at providing a specific and always the same
output.

Basically, workflows (as processes) are series of steps of a specific

procedure or steps of a procedure (usually in a written form or in the format
of an illustration depicting the separate steps of a process, the actions
accompanied each step and the output) used to achieve specific
outcomes.

For instance, the GTD methodology is a generalized workflow which when

applied at your inbox for instance and can help you to process your
mailbox faster and more efficiently. There are many such
workflows/processes in the business area from how to write a blog (not just
writing but all the steps from the idea to publicize it to social media, etc.),
how to communicate with a client requiring some information, etc.

These workflows/processes are very important today that you have not the
time to do all the required activities by yourself and you have to delegate
some activities to other people. A documented workflow can save you a
lot of trouble and for entrepreneurs, startup owners and freelancers are
extremely useful

There are many tools can help you documented your workflows and
processes. Tools as the Process Street (not an affiliate) or the SweetProcess
(not an affiliate).

Business/Marketing Funnels

A very specialized sub-set of business and marketing processes are the so-
called business/Marketing Funnels.

Business and marketing funnels are in essence purchasing channels. More

specifically:

is a consumer focused marketing model which illustrates the

 theoretical customer journey towards the purchase of a product
or service. (Wikipedia: Purchase funnel)

Usually, they based on marketing techniques and analysis prescribing ideal

sales processes for a product or a service and aiming at optimizing the
process.

It is excellent blueprints for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and

freelancer because they can help them to optimize their sales procedures,
formalize their marketing and sales operation and having more sales and
profits.

Other Productivity Tools

These are some of the "hidden" tools for an enhanced productivity, but
according to your line of work, there are much more you can choose from
to do your work more efficiently.

Some of these productivity tools are:

Gmail (for all your mail communication requirements. Compete

expendable with many extensions which can cover many requirements)
Google Docs (for all your working requirements. Incudes Word
processing, presentation, spreadsheets, compatibility with Microsoft
Word and integration with the Google Drive)
Evernote (for all your note-taking and task listing requirements )
Dropbox & Google Drive (for all your storage requirements, business
or/and personal)
Trello (affiliate link - for all your task and project management
requirements. Excellent for working with remote and distributed teams)
LastPass (excellent password manager, able to help you to organize
and use effectively your passwords across the different browsers and
computing environments)
Skype (provides video, audio calls capabilities, instant messaging and
file sharing)
Coursmos (affiliate link - e-learning platform and system for developing
and delivering courses*)

Wrike (affiliate link - a web-based project management tool, very useful

when you have to lead or participate in a project)
Slack (a team communication and collaboration tool with many
 advanced features, to help you do your tasks more effectively)
Act-On (a marketing automation platform for all the marketing
requirements of a business)
HubSpot CRM (an excellent and free CRM for every modern business)
Buffer (an excellent post manager and scheduler for all your social
media accounts)
Hootsuite (an integrated social network management suite)
ViralTag & ViralWoot (excellent Pinterest and Instagram management
platforms)

As I have tell you all these tools depend on your working habits and your
preference. You need to invest some thought and time before adopting
any tool to your workflow because a wrong for you tool can bring the
wrong results to your work, life, and productivity.

Click here to get your free book of 'The Hidden Infrastructure'

Question: What are the tools you are using to do your work? You can leave
here your comments and your questions.
What's your next action?
Do you like what you have read? Subscribe to my newsletter
and get some more ideas and approaches like these in your
inbox.

SUBSCRIBE NOW