How to be a Productivity Ninja

Sharing my learnings from the book, How to be a Productivity Ninja by Graham Allcott

How to be a Productivity Ninja by Graham Allcott

In the age of information overload, traditional time management techniques simply don’t cut it when it comes to overflowing inboxes, ever-expanding to-do lists and endless, pointless meetings. Thankfully there is a better way: The Way of the Productivity Ninja. Using techniques including Ruthlessness, Mindfulness, Zen-like Calm and Stealth & Camouflage you will get your inbox down to zero, make the most of your attention, beat procrastination and learn to work smarter, not harder. Written by one of the UK’s foremost productivity experts, How to be a Productivity Ninja is a fun, accessible and practical guide to staying cool, calm and collected, getting more done, and learning to love your work again.

• the term “ninja” simply means a person with elite skills and a focused mindset. By employing the right techniques, anyone can become a ninja.
• What qualities does a productivity ninja have?
  • a ninja keeps her cool. Even when a ninja has a spiraling to-do list, she cultivates the calm mindset needed to tackle tricky decisions and balance competing priorities. She has processes in place to ensure that no task slips through the cracks. As a result, she’s never overwhelmed. 
  • A ninja is ruthless. She says no to tasks and obligations that don’t serve her ultimate purpose, and she doesn’t tolerate unnecessary interruptions and distractions.
  • a ninja is weapons-savvy. She doesn’t carry swords or throw stars; instead, her weapons of choice are well-honed workflows and time-management tricks – a suite of organizational tools that she can skillfully apply as needed.
  • she’s unconventional. She’s not afraid to take risks or challenge the status quo if it means getting things done quicker and better. She slashes through bureaucracy to take the shortest route between to-do and done.
  • A ninja is also agile – she handles her workload efficiently and is a pro at knowing when to pivot between tasks. She’s always prepared to drop everything to respond to an opportunity or extinguish a threat. 
  • a ninja is not: perfect. Sometimes, she’ll miss a deadline or forget a task or spend the morning scrolling through Instagram instead of tackling her to-do list. And that’s OK, because it isn’t perfection she’s aiming for – it’s consistency.
• a productivity ninja knows that attention management, not time management, is the key to ultra-high productivity.
• people generally fluctuate between three levels of attention.
  • proactive attention, where you’re sharp, focused, and in the zone.
  • active attention – you’re working in a good rhythm, but your attention is flagging and you’re susceptible to distractions.
  • inactive attention: you might be sitting at your desk but, let’s be honest, you’d much rather be napping.
• A productivity ninja makes sure his precious proactive attention is never wasted. That means he never attends pointless meetings when his attention is sharpest. On the flip side, he never schedules critical client negotiations when his attention is inactive.
  • he gets to know his own attention cycle. For a few days, he maps his attention levels, noting when he’s at his best and when he slumps.
  • he has to be vigilant against outside interruptions, too. So he operates in stealth mode. He says no to unnecessary tasks and declines invites to meetings where he’s not a stakeholder. When he’s in the zone, his email notifications are off and his phone is in silent mode.
• You can’t make the most of proactive attention periods when you’re obsessing over unanswered emails. So you need to get your email under control. Goal: inbox zero
  • stop checking your emails, and start processing them instead. To process email efficiently, remember the three d’s: if you can deal with it, delete it, or delegate it in less than two minutes, then do it! 
  • Emails that demand more than two minutes from you should flow into one of three other folders. The first, the action folder, is for emails that require an action that will take more than two minutes. Next, the read folder is for emails you’d like to read more carefully when you have time. And finally, the waiting folder is for emails that need someone else’s attention.
• Inbox zero is really that easy: process rather than check emails, and then funnel them into an ultra-simple filing system. Maintain the magic number by going through emails in batches, say three times a day, and achieving inbox zero at the end of each session. 
• Combat half-written to-do lists with the CORD model: an approach to creating your to-do list that’s adapted to the realities of modern life.
  • Capture and Collect, will ensure your to-do list is an accurate snapshot of outstanding tasks.
    • Get in the habit of capturing your tasks without analyzing them.capture nags, or recurring thoughts like “Maybe I should get life insurance.” Capturing these things doesn’t oblige you to deal with them immediately, but it will help you eventually complete them. 
    • Once you’ve captured your tasks, you’ll need to collect them.
  • Organizing – If you want to turn the to-dos in that big pile of paper you just collected into dones, you need to organize them.
    • sort your tasks into two categories: Projects and Master Actions. 
      • Projects are your most involved tasks.
      • break your projects down into action items. This list of project-related actions forms part of your Master Action List.
  • Review – ruthlessly reviewing your to-do lists and workflows will help you achieve an elite level of productivity.
    • add two more lists to your productivity arsenal: the weekly checklist and the daily checklist.
      • Your weekly checklist is your thorough review of your tasks, targets, and performance. You’ll want to set aside about two hours a week to go through it. 
      • Before you dive into your to-do list, check your calendar for the day’s agenda and any looming deadlines. Then, identify your big rocks – that is, the tasks that are going to require some mental heavy lifting. Finally, decide which ones you’re going to tackle today, and allot some proactive attention time for them. 
  • Do – The best way to get things done is to do them.
    • a ninja aligns his to-dos with his attention level by checking in with himself as he works.
    • Cultivating agility is important to a ninja. He knows his day can look one way at 9:00 a.m. and look completely different by noon. If he needs to pivot from one task to another, he simply refers to his Master Action List to get up to speed.
    • If there’s one thing a ninja hates, it’s spending too much time in setup mode. He’s aware that there’s a time cost to setting up tasks.
    • Boredom is the ninja’s enemy. When he’s bored, he’s prone to procrastination – so he’s careful to keep things interesting.
• Use smart strategies to boost your productivity.
  • instead of multitasking, try monotasking. In other words, do one task at a time, do it well, and move on to the next one when you’re finished. You’ll find you get far more done that way. 
  • there is one time-management technique that can really boost your attention levels. It’s called the pomodoro technique, and the premise is actually pretty simple: It’s easier to sustain proactive attention for short bursts rather than long periods of time. And taking small, scheduled breaks boosts your level of focus even further. To use the pomodoro technique, set a timer for 25 minutes – that’s a single “pomodoro.” At the end of the pomodoro, take a five-minute break before tackling another 25 minutes of work.
  • power hour. This trick is especially useful for tackling the tasks you’ve been dreading. deal with it head-on – but only for an hour – by scheduling a power hour in your calendar. And at the end of the hour, you’ll probably have made enough progress that your bugbear task doesn’t seem so daunting after all.