4/7/2016
Michigan Bankers Association
Ways to Improve Productivity
Presented by Ted Triplett
Ted Triplett Consulting
1
4/7/2016
Human Traits that Hurt Our Ability to Increase
Productivity:
• Ego
• Desire to please
• Fear of offending
• Fear of new challenges
• Curiosity
• Insecurity
• Pride in your own abilities; envy of others’
• Ambition
• Perfectionism
Scapegoats:
• Drop-in visitors
• Meetings
• Conference calls
• Emails
• Telephone calls
• Social media
• Annoying co-workers
• Ambition
• Perfectionism
2
4/7/2016
Statistic
Studies show that 40-45 percent of everything we do happens
automatically!
Myths About Time:
Myth #1:
• No one ever has enough time
Reality:
• We all have as much time as there is
Myth #2:
• There are many ways to save time
Reality:
• You can’t save time — you can only use it
“Time cuts down all, both great and small.” -- Benjamin Franklin
3
4/7/2016
Misconception about Time Management:
Misconception:
• Time can be managed
Reality:
• There’s only one thing you can do with time and that’s use it
POINT:
• You can’t manage time. You can only use it!
“Killing time is not murder, it’s suicide.” -- Lou Holtz
Reasons to Increase Productivity
You can gain at least two productive hours a day!
The Math
2 hours x 5 days a week x 50 weeks a year
= 500 extra productive hours a year
500 hours = 12 forty hour work weeks
= 3 extra months of 40 hour weeks
4
4/7/2016
Reasons to Increase Productivity
For financial rewards!
Show Me The Money!
Reasons to Increase Productivity:
• To get a better job
• Because the day will come when you will have to do more, you’ll
have no choice as to whether or not you want to, you’ll have
to…and will you know how
• Leverage
• For that elusive thing called security
• To give yourself a sense of purpose and the feeling of
accomplishment
• You will have more energy and less stress
General Douglas MacArthur’s definition of security: The ability to produce!
5
4/7/2016
Do You Need to Increase Your Productivity?
10 Reasons Why Things Don’t Get Done:
1. No daily plan
2. Lack of prioritizing work
3. We let our day be dictated by urgency
4. Attempting to do too much
5. Personal disorganization
6. Crisis management
7. Ineffective delegation
8. Interruptions
9. Meetings
10. Procrastination
6
4/7/2016
No Daily Plan:
• 10 minutes planning reduces completion of projects by 30 to 50
minutes.
• Spending an hour reduces completion by 3 to 5 hours.
STAT: Time-effectiveness studies show that for every minute spent
planning the time required to complete the activity is reduced
by 3 to 5 minutes.
Obstacles to Planning:
• Day-to-day operations
• Lack of immediate satisfaction
• Habits
• The fear of failing
• Planning is hard work
7
4/7/2016
Benefits of Planning:
• Planning helps make things happen
• Planning promotes job and career advancement
• Planning reduces stress
• Planning gives direction to energy
Why 15 Minutes of Planning are Critical:
• You know where to start
• You make the law of momentum work for you, rather than
suffering the effects of inertia
• You know what you’re going to do next
TIP: It takes only 15 minutes to leverage an entire working day. Make it a
priority to block off 15 minutes on your calendar.
8
4/7/2016
Advantages of Planning at End of the Day:
• Ideas are still fresh in your mind
• Provides a sense of closure for the day
• Helps jumpstart the next day
Lack of prioritizing work:
Failing to Prioritize Your Duties Will Lead You to Do:
• The most enjoyable things
• Those things that take the least time
• The easiest things to do that require the least thought and effort
STAT: You can increase efficiency by25% the first day that you
start using a list.
9
4/7/2016
Attempting to Do Too Much:
• What can I cut out or eliminate?
• What activities can I delete?
Personal Disorganization
Would you want to work for this individual?
SURVEY: 50 to 52 executives said that they would not promote an individual
with a messy desk or work environment even if the person was producing
good work.
10
4/7/2016
Personal Disorganization:
• Get simpler passwords
• Keep workspace clean
• Organize computer files
STAT: As much as 30% of time is spent looking for misplaced items or files.
Crisis Management
If you spend all your time managing fires, you’ll end up:
• Stressed out
• Worn out
• Burned out
11
4/7/2016
Interruptions
Six Ways to Block Drop-in Visitors:
• Meet the visitor outside your office
• Confer while standing up
• Set a time limit for the visit
• Go to your co-workers office
• Agree on an office “Quiet Time
STAT:
On the average interruptions happen every eight minutes! That’s more than
50 times a day. If every interruption takes 3 minutes that adds up to 2.5
hours a day.
Interruptions
Ways to Handle Telephone Interruptions:
• Don’t answer every call
• Screen your calls
• Group important calls
• Stand up to talk
• “Time limit” every call
• Develop verbal gestures to end calls
• Avoid playing phone tag
STATS:
Interruptions and the requisite recovery time now consume 28 percent of a
worker’s day. Basex
It takes an average employee 25 minutes to return to the initial task. It also
shows that 40% of the time, they won’t return to that interrupted task again
for that day! -- Gloria Mark, University of California
12
4/7/2016
Interruptions
Ways to Handle Electronic Interruptions:
• Disable notification alerts
• Allocate specific times to respond to messages
• Screen emails for importance
• Keep email responses to five sentences or less
STAT: The average worker opens his or her email program 50 times a day
and uses instant messaging 77 times a day. Rescue Time
Meetings
How Much Do Meeting Cost?
The multiplication factor:
The Math
1 hour meeting x 10 attendees
= 10 production hours
10 production hours x $15 average attendee’s hourly salary
= $150 in lost wages
13
4/7/2016
Meetings
Nine Ways to Have More Productive Meetings:
• Start the meeting on time
• End the meeting on time
• Have a written agenda
• State the purpose or objective of the meeting
• Cover the most important item first
• Control the discussion
• Invite only those who need to attend
• Cancel unnecessary meetings
STAT: 37 percent of the average office worker’s time is spend in meetings.
Procrastination
Six Attributes that Make Procrastination More Likely:
1. Boring
2. Frustrating
3. Difficult
4. Unstructured or ambiguous
5. Lacks personal meaning
6. Lacking in intrinsic rewards (i.e., it’s not fun)
“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.”
- Mark Twain
“Across the scores of surveys, about 95 percent of people admit to
procrastinating.” The other 5 percent are lying.) -- Piers Steel
14
4/7/2016
Procrastination
Six Ways to Overcome Procrastination:
1. Do one small thing to get started. “Just Do It”.
2. Do the task that causes you the most fear or anxiety!
3. Start with the most unpleasant task first!
4. Think of the negative consequences of not completing the task.
5. Think of how you will benefit from doing the task.
6. Decide to not worry about doing the job perfectly.
31 percent of people openly admitted to wasting an hour every day
26 percent of people admitted to wasting two or more hours every day
- Salary.com
One-a-Week Plan
Question: Why only one time concern a week?
Answer: It’s far easier and more effective to focus on one thing
at a time.
Question: How long will it take to turn these ideas into
habits?
Answer: It takes about a month of repetition to develop a
new habit, about a year of practice to make it permanent.
Question: Where do you start?
Answer: With your biggest time concern!
15
4/7/2016
To Keep Your Plan on Track You Will Need to Do The
Following Steps:
• Commitment to definite actions
• Use Attention-joggers
• Announce your plans
• Continued, consistent effort: Institute a “no exception policy”
• Practice the new habit often
• Involve all team members
• The 3 R’s. Review, Reinforce and Reward
Ways to Increase Your Productivity:
• Stop wasting the first hour of your workday
• Schedule blocks of uninterrupted time
• Stop socializing
• Use telephone or send an email
• Do one thing at a time, and do it well
• Work fewer hours
• Give yourself deadlines
• Quit delaying decisions
• Do what you do well
• Handle each piece of paper or email once
16
4/7/2016
Ways to Increase Your Productivity (continued):
• Seize the moment
• Ask good questions
• Prime time
• Take a break
• Switch tasks when your attention wanders
• When you work—only work
• Find time to relax
• Blow off some time with a vengeance
• Get enough rest, nutrients, and exercise
• Sleep your way to productivity
Ways to Increase Your Productivity (continued):
• Take work home only as an exception, not the rule
• Set your opportunity clock
• Beverage rituals
• Eliminate stew time
• Avoid negative people
17
4/7/2016
Michigan Bankers Association
Ted
The End
Stop Wasting the First Hour of your Workday
The “Have-To’s”:
• Share what we did last night
• Discuss the latest episode of our favorite TV show
• Give our opinion of the “big” game
• Make several trips to the coffee maker
• Read the paper or look at social media
18
4/7/2016
Work Fewer Hours
Parkinson’s law says, “Work expands so as to fill the amount
of time available for its completion.”
Studies show that after 35 to 40 hours your productivity begins to plummet.
Productivity falls off a cliff at 55 hours—so much so that someone who puts
in 70 hours produces nothing more in those extra 15 hours.
Seize the Moment
Spare minutes can add up:
3 “In-between” times a day averaging 4 minutes
= 12 minutes of more productivity a day!
More than 60 minutes per week x 50 weeks
= 50 hours per year!
19
4/7/2016
Prime Time
Once you know when your Prime Time occurs, there are three
things you need to do:
• RESPECT IT. Don’t do the trivial.
• PROTECT IT. Block it off your calendar.
• DIRECT IT. Schedule the most important things.
Formal studies indicate that 80 percent of all people experience Prime
Time during the morning hours.
Sleep Your Way to Productivity
STATS:
In the U.S., about 50% of the population is walking around right now with
some form of sleep deprivation.
According to Gallup, 40 percent of Americans get less than the
recommended 7 to 9 hours every night.
20