There are weeks that are more intense than others. The first week of August has been an example for this. This is my tactic to overcome it.
There are scary weeks before you start. The week back from vacation is a good example for this. Even during the holidays I have had to think about the moment of return and it has intimidated me. The reason for this is simple. It is not a simple view but the beginning of several projects at the same time combined with an accumulation of tasks that have to be carried out in a short time. Today is Friday and I have the feeling that once again I have successfully overcome an intense week. Even these tactics help you when you are in the same situation.
You will see that the things I do are not complicated. Sound of common sense. For a client project, he had to create documentation for 12 different processes. Each of them was going to take me about an hour. My goal therefore has been to divide the task into 2-3 processes per day to arrive on time for the due date which is Tuesday of next week. These things are obvious but many times we find ourselves in a situation of overwhelm because we have the feeling of having to attack the task once and finish it. The hardest thing is to make the beginning. I started with it on Tuesday and we are on Friday. Of the twelve processes I have four left to carry out. Now that I have data for the rest of the days and knowing my agenda I see that I can do at least two today to finish the task on Monday of next week.
Summary: when you have a large task divided into small blocks that you can hang for x time to finish it. Start earlier to have data and know the speed of execution and in case of deviation from the initial plan you can adapt the pace of work.
This has already been mentioned on more than one occasion. On very intense days I usually divide my day into blocks of 30 minutes of work. It is to help me plan and guide me through the day. In general, just be faster so the confidence during the day is growing and I start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I usually start with calls with clients that I usually have several every day. The remaining blocks are the ones I have to carry out the work.
Summary: Divide your most intense work days into small blocks. Assign each block a task that you want to carry out. Do not be too optimistic in the execution but already a little margin to pause between each block. Make you always go ahead of the plan this will give you the necessary energy to endure until the end.
This point is special because it didn’t work for everyone but it works great for me. It was a practically spontaneous decision that led me to start intermittent fasting. At first it was “only” to skip breakfast but a few days after starting it he thought that maybe I could skip lunch too. Apart from the health benefits of this practice, I gain valuable time these days. Although I have never stopped for a long time to eat, in the end it is 45-60 minutes that I gain in total to work. Fasting allowed me to be more focused and with more energy, so apart from small breaks to have a glass of water, the day hardly stopped.
Summary: Not eating until dinner frees up bandwidth because I don’t have to think about what I’m going to have for breakfast or lunch. I gain additional time because the time I eat is now spent working. Stay longer in concentrated form.
I am a person who is willing to take risks. This in my case also entails accepting the fact that not everything is going to go perfectly. There will be things that are going to break and that they had to fix anyway. I’m not worried about that but I focus on what I can do with the time I have at my disposal. I put 100% focus on things I can control. If I try my best but still can’t accomplish a task, how I would have liked to change plans or accept plan B.
Summary: I eliminate negative thoughts in the form of “and so dirty bad”. I accept from the beginning that there are going to be things that will go wrong but I remain calm because my experience has shown me that I will find ways to solve it. Nothing and no one is perfect and it is not productive to try.
To finish off the extra ball. A long road leads you step by step. I do not focus on getting to the end but on the next step. As long as you don’t stay stopped you will arrive safely. Don’t worry so much about going faster but about keeping moving.
Stay tuned.
It is not enough to have positive affirmations to live on savings. You must gain superpowers over time to achieve financial freedom.
I have already said this on another occasion. It’s not getting up at 5 a.m. and making positive affirmations. These things can help you find more balance in your life, but they won’t get you on the path to financial freedom.
Honestly, I don’t have a recipe for that either, because I’m still on the same journey. Throughout it, I’ve discovered things that I consider superpowers. It will help me get to the point where I don’t have to work but I will do it anyway because I have already understood that it is not the goal but the journey that counts.
You cannot build net worth out of thin air. It’s fine to invest $1,000 and get a 20% return, but it won’t change your life. You must find one or more ways to develop a skill, gain knowledge, or whatever is required. The fact that people like Youtube videos is not enough to make money from them. You also need to learn how to get subscribers for the snowball to grow and allow you to monetize your channel. It is not enough to be an expert in something if it is not required. Knowledge goes hand in hand with marketing. In my case, I learned to sell my knowledge on e-commerce and international project management within the framework of large companies. It has been three years since I had to look for a single project. They all came to me.
Working 10 hours a week is fine, but if you want to go faster, you need to bank more time that you can somehow monetize. Besides working, you want to do more things that are also important. There is one mainstay habit that helps me bring my level of productivity above average and that is to exercise in the morning. This motivates me to do intermittent fasting to multiply the effects of sport. It helps me stay more focused and creative throughout the day. In addition, the time I normally take for lunch or eating, I invest in work. It’s a chain of positive events that allow me to achieve a high level of productivity every day. Another positive effect is on my immune system. If I lose half a day a year because of some kind of flu, that’s already a lot. If I look around me, most people waste at least a week or more a year not being in bed.
There are some very basic things that a lot of people don’t want to understand. You cannot spend more than you earn. If this is you, quit smoking, quit the gym you don’t go to anyway, cancel your Netflix subscription, eat breakfast at home, don’t buy the new Play with a personal loan , etc. Many feel what they shouldn’t do but do it anyway. It is the fundamental basis of everything. Once you enter more than you spend, it’s all about learning how to invest. My easiest way to do this is my Amazon business and my investment in Lego. The more Lego I buy, the more I will earn in 12-36 months. I also like to use good debt as leverage. That’s why I also invest in real estate and now also in car rental.
The effect of your net worth growing will always be faster if you are able to make your ball faster than others. It doesn’t always have to come down to the ability to earn money. Sometimes it can also be the knowledge to pay less tax. In my case, I learned a lot by watching YouTube videos. They do not always give you everything sketched because many of them want to sell their courses, but they give you clues that allow you to learn and find pearls of knowledge. In my case, it was how not to pay taxes on 30,000 euros of profit, tax relief for my holidays in Spain, paying a minimum of taxes with a holding structure, etc. This is a subject that few master because it does not seem very attractive to them. I am very struck by the impact this has on my net worth growth.
All things take time. Going to the gym for four months or reading five books in a row will have no effect. Sometimes you see them, but in reality the short term is not so important. You have to be patient to see the effects that make the difference. Nothing is easy. It’s not what you can do in a day, but what you can do every day for years. To do this, you need to make discipline a habit and make it part of your lifestyle. This is where it really lasts because you do what you are. The marathon runner runs. The apprentice reads books. Etc.
When you want to get results with third parties, you have to be more impatient without getting overwhelmed. Tracking is important, but you need to give yourself space to breathe. Being able to count on third parties to help you along the way increases your possibilities. For this, you must create a base in the form of income that allows you to reach this point.
These are for me the superpowers of financial freedom. In my case, I have to continue to grow the snowball through hard work and investment. One day it will be big enough to keep growing by its own inertia.
Stay tuned.
Today I bring you 14 best productivity apps that have saved me a lot of time and money.
These productivity apps They marked a before and after in my life and in my business.
Do you recommend any other productivity apps?
If you think this article can help someone please share it.
The UK has a productivity problem. Its GDP per hour worked in 2020 was just 55% of that of EU-leader Ireland, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Why is he so far behind? The government Upgrade The same year’s white paper pointed to the country’s “long tail of low-productivity businesses and places.”
In his foreword, the Prime Minister spoke of the urgent need to “close the productivity gap”. I added, with an atypical understatement, that it would be “no small task”.
One of the many difficulties encountered in solving the problem is that “economic definitions of productivity, such as gross value added per employee, are too narrow”. So says Professor Mark Hart, Deputy Head of the Center for Enterprise Research at Aston Business School and Associate Researcher at the Productivity Institute.
“When I talk to the SMEs I work with, we talk about how to do things better in their business to generate more profit,” he says.
But even a goal as seemingly simple as “doing things better to create more profit” may not apply to significant parts of the economy. Michael Mankins, global leader of organizational design, business strategy and transformation at Bain & Co, notes that “there are no very good productivity metrics for white-collar and knowledge workers. “.
But he’s clear on the key factor that can change a company’s fortunes and, in some cases, boost the broader economy: “The focused deployment and leadership of great talent has the biggest impact on productivity. .”
Mankins – who co-wrote the 2017 book Time, Talent, Energy: overcome organizational obstacles and unleash the productive power of your team – cites the history of two operating systems as an example: iOS10 and Windows Vista. At Apple, 600 engineers took less than two years to make iOS10 work. At Microsoft, 10,000 engineers spent more than five years developing Vista, which won few fans when it was finally released.
Targeted deployment and leadership of great talent has the most impact on productivity
What Apple did was ask its best engineers to work together on a specific project. Company executives “pointed at the map, said, ‘Take that hill. How you do it is up to you’ and rewarded their performance as a team,” says Mankins.
Microsoft has taken the opposite approach by operating a so-called forced ranking – a controversial performance management system where employees are rated against each other and certain workforce quotas will still be ranked as performing, medium or low, even if everyone is equally productive.
“That meant no engineer on an A [high] ranking wanted to work with people at the same level,” he says. “They knew most people would be graded and rewarded at less than A’s regardless of their performance.”
As this example illustrates, even in the most successful high-tech companies, not everyone is successful. After studying about 600 companies of different types, Mankins and his colleagues were “surprised to find that the proportion of high-quality talent they have generally doesn’t vary much. On average, it’s about 15% of the workforce. What really mattered was how that talent was trained, deployed, and directed.
The training element could prove decisive for the British economy, according to Hart. “We’re missing a trick not to incentivize the tens of thousands of small businesses that are lagging in productivity to improve a bit,” he says.
Companies often complain about skills shortages and a lack of suitable candidates in the recruitment market, but Hart says the talent they need may already be in their company – if they’re willing to invest in its development. .
He cites the example of a company which “offered a training as a welder to a young woman who worked in the administration. She has become one of the most skilled on the team and is extremely loyal to the company.
Having employees who feel highly engaged is also great for productivity, whether those people are considered stars or not. Research suggests that employees who feel “engaged” are 44% more productive than those who are simply “satisfied” with their jobs, according to Mankins, who adds that those who feel “inspired” by their work beat those who are “engaged”. an additional 55%. %.
We’re missing a trick not to push the tens of thousands of small businesses lagging in productivity to be a little better
This naturally leads us to the question of where to find leaders and managers who can engender the highest possible levels of engagement in their teams.
Stuart Tootal, the founder of Matero Consulting and a former Colonel in the British Army, believes that the Peter Principle (the tendency of people to reach their “respective level of incompetence” in an organization) is a relevant factor in business.
“One of the problems in the business world is that people are usually promoted for hitting the right numbers and getting the manager’s attention, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be good when they’re given the responsibility to lead. other people,” he said. .
The British Army’s Officer Selection Board uses three days of intensive testing to determine whether a candidate has the potential to become a leader after undergoing an additional 18 months of training, he explains, adding: “Companies don’t can never reproduce that, but they can postulate what we have learned from it. »
Total argues that, just like in the military, highly productive organizations perform well across all functions and their employees have the permission and psychological safety to constructively challenge their leaders.
Hart confirms that he has observed this dynamic in the successful SMEs he has worked with.
“In a good company, there are no obstacles,” he says. “The CEO doesn’t stand aside from the rest of the staff.”
But even though, by definition, most of us are mediocre performers, some employers only want star players on their teams. Fintech company Revolut is one of them.
“We recruit from among the top 3% of talent in the world,” explains Alexandra Loi, its global HR manager. “We search for people by first identifying companies that are leaders in the relevant field and then measuring the candidate’s pace of progress and contribution to their field. We ask: are they achieving industry firsts? This ensures that we select A players who can work together in a highly focused and productive squad.
Revolut’s reputation took a hit a few years ago when it was accused of unethical hiring practices, having unachievable goals and widespread burnout. The company denied the charges. Recently – without referring to the culture – its founder and CEO, Nick Storonsky, said the company had made “every possible mistake” and learned from them.
Revolut does not claim to be cuddly. “We are like a professional sports team. We hire, develop and retain only elite athletes and put them in the right places to win,” says Loi. It also means working them hard.
The company notes, “People who consistently put in smarter hours significantly outperform their peers in the long run. We think of committed hours in the same way as compound interest.
What does it mean by smart and engaged hours? It’s about using time efficiently, prioritizing what’s important, and using the best tools to maximize performance, says Loi.
But could the company be as productive if it wasn’t a technology company? “Yes, the fundamentals can be in place in any organization,” she says. “What makes the difference is Revolut’s inclusive culture that empowers people to succeed, combined with the talent and values that each of our A players embraces.”
A cynic might wonder if it’s realistic for a business to operate in the same way as an elite sports team. After all, not even Apple – the first company to reach a market capitalization of $3bn (£2.45bn) – expects everyone to step out of the park. Google is another high-performing company that has a nuanced approach to hiring. Grades aren’t everything.
“Making a degree a prerequisite means losing a great talent opportunity,” notes Tootal. “What you need to select is how people collaborate, communicate and lead, and how quickly they learn.”
This approach should encourage a change in the way businesses are run – which appears to be a significant barrier to productivity.
“Do we see cross-pollination, where people take good ideas with them when they go to a new employer? Not really,” Hart says. “The tone of a company usually comes from the top.”
I’m back from vacation and even though there are still two weeks left in Austria, we have to pull ourselves together for the next two weeks. I’m going to have to be more focused than usual.
Start a difficult week. Returns from holidays always are, but this is all the more the case since I started a new project. Today I have to move from my house, which is already a logistical challenge given the number of appointments that I have to organize around.
I have principles that I apply consciously or unconsciously. Here I summarize them.
With 80% we are doing well. I just greenlighted the Amazon book mockup. It looks like it’s coming out in September. I’ve gone through it so hopefully what I’ve seen is repeated in the rest I haven’t seen. I don’t have time to be 100% sure. It’s also not an essential part since the content is the most relevant and I have 100% control of it. In most cases with 80% we are fine. In this case, I even failed.
If I can’t hit 80% in first person, I have to rely on third parties. I have more and more people on my team taking on tasks for me. This is the easiest way to be able to cover more once you have a critical mass that allows you to pay freelancers and/or workers to do more work each day.
Luckily, our return trip was quicker than the outward trip. This allowed me to take advantage of the return day by planning today. I have already advanced a few emails and messages. I have revised and edited a presentation that I will have today. Everything is not ready yet, but a large part is already done. I also planned today to reduce stress as much as possible. Improvising is never the solution because we find ourselves very overwhelmed. Planning avoids it 95%.
Just as you can train your body, you can train your mind. The one who never puts himself in a stressful situation crumbles when the next problem looms. Those who experience complicated situations day after day get used to them and increase their mental resistance. What may seem complicated to others will appear to someone who is trained as one more thing to solve. I force myself to face uncomfortable situations continuously to work on mental resilience. At the same time, I train my body and take care of my diet because the two problems go hand in hand.
The day starts strong. The post of the day is written. It’s time to do the Freeletics exercises. I have a little back pain so we’ll see how it goes. The rest of the day is approaching and I’m definitely a little anxious because I don’t really know what to expect. This afternoon I will surely have the clearest thing at least I hope…
Stay tuned.
In 2021 we have become a remote company. Work from the office and from home. Asana has helped us reach a new level of productivity.
Two years ago we made the first attempt to work with Asana. Since then we have been working with Slack. Slack has already been a first step in considerably improving communication, but Asana has helped us take a leap in terms of productivity.
When I say Asana, the brand really doesn’t matter. It could also be Trello, Monday.com, Jira, or another similar tool that helps you better organize your tasks. Here is a list of the main effects he observed.
Right now it generates many tasks every day. Not all can be done in the short term. That is why a few accumulate. Many of them appear in Asana with a date of days ago. Here we have to improve by updating dates and/or deleting those tasks that are no longer relevant.
We also have to improve the description of the tasks so that everyone is clear about what it means. It is always relevant when there is a change of person in charge. If you first assigned me a task but then I want someone else to do it, I have to make sure it has an understandable description.
We also need to improve the documentation of task status through comments. In this way everyone can see that a task has not been forgotten but that we are simply overcoming an obstacle to continue with it.
There are many pending issues that will allow us to improve even more. It’s a start and it’s been good. Now you don’t have to lose the habit.
Stay tuned.
Gradually the team grew. In order not to lose productivity, we must be better organized than ever. This is what we do.
It took me too long to implement these improvements. We have had the tools for a long time, but there is an important nuance. It’s one thing to have them and another to use them.
I would say years ago we moved communication to Slack. How most start-ups barely use email internally. We also started organizing tasks with Asana years ago. This was the post I shared at the time about the experience of the first few weeks. I was not at the top and little by little we gave up Asana.
All tasks are organized by projects. Each project has a team. Each task is in a different phase:
I’m getting used to having Asana open during team meetings. This way, we review topics and flag new ones as they arise. In the past, some tasks were overlooked due to lack of real-time documentation. Task tracking is now much easier.
Kanban is one method and sprints are another for tackling tasks. Sprints require advance planning and Kanban allows you to be more flexible by changing priorities on a daily basis if the situation calls for it.
We are going to do an experiment where we work in Kanban mode but we apply sprints for a group of tasks. In the sprint we have at the moment, we want to launch our two new ads and to do this, finish everything necessary: texts, photos, video, preparation for sending to Amazon, Amazon Ads campaigns, etc.
You will see that what we do except for the last point is probably not much different from the number of organized teams. For us it is an experience and I have the feeling that this time we will have the discipline to continue. There is an important difference with the situation two years ago. Now I also actively use Asana. Let’s see how things go.
Stay tuned.
There’s a productivity tip I heard years ago. I don’t remember who or in what context. This year, I’m really enjoying it.
When it comes to being productive, that’s not something I really consider. Productivity stems from the need to do many things in a short time. This year it looks like he’s mastered a little “hack” that I also didn’t consciously start.
While reviewing today’s post, an idea popped up due to the need to make an entry in less time than usual. I still want to spend time on the book before playing sports. Then we went on an excursion to Avignon. With this line, I have already given you a hint that today is not a normal day. We are on vacation and it is an optimal time to finally highlight the Amazon book which is more or less in the final stretch.
The hack is this. For a task for which you have 3 days or 3 hours of time, the result is often the same in the end. I push this to the extreme where sometimes in an hour I generate the result of 3 days of work.
The explanation behind this “phenomenon” is quite obvious and a matter of common sense. When you go with the times, you also take your time. It is possible that during these three days, you get up from your chair 30 times to make coffee, clean the house, fix a bookshelf, surf social networks, etc. When instead you have an hour to complete the task and then have to present the results in a meeting, there is pressure to finish. If you know how to handle the stress involved, you will have generated something that is not 100% but maybe 70%, which depending on how you present it can become 85-90% after the have delivered.
In the end it is not the quantity of the result but the quality. In a time frame like the one mentioned, I found a way to save a client between 150 and 200 thousand per year. Can walk. At least it works for me.
Stay tuned.
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