Productivity Tips For Those Who Make Things

I was going to write this as a 3-part series, and then thought it might be more helpful if it was presented all at once. Since it exceeds LinkedIn’s character limit, I’ve published it as an article.

It’s all about protecting your time and energy

If you work as a product designer in a corporate environment, you have likely come to realize that there’s an enormous amount of “work around the work”, which is the admin stuff (meetings, Agile ceremonies, JIRA, Tempo, etc) that have the potential to hinder us from doing what we love and get paid to do, which is deliver quality design. Here are some thoughts and things that I do that may help if you need it. I definitely do not have all the answers, and you may already have your productivity honed. This is just what works for me.

Organizing the day (to the extent you can)

• If you are able, start your day earlier than most. Getting a jump on the day, before the 9am crazy hits, has always worked for me. For most of my career I’ve started my day at 7:30 (although that’s been pushed back a bit recently). It allows for some quiet time to sort out the day ahead.
• Do creative work when you have the most energy. Save admin tasks for lower energy times of day if possible.

• At the beginning of each day, before you do anything, write down two things you must accomplish today. Write down two things you’d like to accomplish today.
• Block large chunks of time (2 hours or more) on your calendar to be distraction free and focused.

About meetings

Volumes have been written about the best methods to conduct effective meetings. Some meetings are productive, meaning you come away feeling that it was a good use of your time and energy. Many are not. These are my guidelines:

Question meetings where:

• You are unsure of why you are invited

Say no to meetings where:

• There is no clear goal
• You have a deadline to meet and the meeting distracts from that
• You will not add value and anticipate not learning anything

Leave meetings when:

• It becomes clear that you will not add value or learn anything

Be respectful of other people’s time and arrive on time.

Leave/end meetings when the allocated time is up. You most likely have better things to do.

Meeting times are driven by the defaults in Outlook, and tend, like air, to fill the available volume. But they don’t have to be that way. If you create a meeting, don’t mindlessly default it to 30 minutes or 60 minutes - really think about what you feel it will take to meet your goal(s) and schedule the time accordingly.

If there is a meeting scheduled that you need to attend but it’s right smack in the middle of your focused design time, kindly ask if it can be moved. If it can’t, well at least you tried.

Remember our performance review doesn’t hinge upon how much time we spent in meetings during the year. Again, we get paid to consistently produce quality design.

Read Paul Graham’s piece on Maker’s schedule vs Manager’s schedule

Get a jump on upcoming work

This tip goes back to grade school, but one of the most surefire ways to be productive and less stressed is to get a jump on upcoming work. If you find yourself toward the end of a sprint with some extra time on your hands, take advantage of it and get started on the next sprint.

Take breaks

• I know that if I don’t take a decent break around lunchtime I will not show up with my best energy and focus for the afternoon.
• I step away from the computer for short breaks throughout the day.
• Also, when you let your mind take a break from the work, the work continues subconsciously, and you may find that you come up with some great ideas during those breaks.

Under-promise, Over-deliver

• Unless you’re a sociopath, we all want to please people to some degree. This does not mean always saying yes to everything, on the other person’s timeline as well. People will be displeased if you consistently over-promise and under-deliver.

Know when to turn it off for the day

If you find yourself constantly working more than 8 hours/day, you may have...over-promised. We need to have a life outside of work. Burnout will kill your productivity, and you will find yourself...under-delivering.

And know that sometimes things are out of our control and we just have to get through it. Hopefully those instances are infrequent.

Email management

Try to check email just three times per day: once in the morning, once around mid-day, and once later in the day. Another tip on email (yet another topic upon which books have been written): if you have hundreds of unread emails dating back months, just delete them. Keeping them there, staring at you day after day, is just going to make you feel like you're constantly behind and unproductive. If it’s that important, the person who sent it three months ago will follow up with you. Keep a clean inbox.

I hope you find some of this helpful. I'd love to know what tips you have.