The 6 Keys to Perform at Your Productive Best
August 2nd 2010 Posted at Productivity
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Last month I was given the opportunity to get a sneak-peek at Laura Stack‘s new book “Super Competent” (to be released on 9 August).
I sat down with it a while back and started to read, keeping notes on the parts that struck me. I really enjoy reading business and personal development books, and there have been a few lately that were real stinkers, I didn’t bother to finish a couple of them.
This book is not like that, it has some very useful and actionable information.
The 6 Keys to Perform at Your Productive Best
“Success with come to those who can accomplish more in less time & consistently perform at their productive best. The people who achieve their fullest potential are not simply competent; they’re SuperCompetent.”
Stack defines what she calls the 6 key areas for achieving super competency:
- Activity – Determine what you should be working on
- Availability – Make time for it
- Attention – Focus on those tasks
- Accessibility – Organize the information needed to complete it
- Accountability – Be responsible for your results
- Attitude – Never give up
To anyone familiar with the principles of Getting Things Done (which most of you reading this should be after following this for 3 years!) these are the essential steps to accomplishing your tasks and goals.
Managing Your Activities
Crossing things off your list means that you actually need to sit down and do the things that need to get done. Stack calls this the Activity Key and recommends the following for your List Management:
- Start with your smallest key tasks
- Clean up your workspace
- Prioritize the rest of your tasks, focusing on valuable activities
- Delete the things you know that you are not going to do
- Preserve your energy for the things that advance your goals
I know that most of this is familiar territory, but it is interesting to see it arranged in this order. GTD tells us to clean up our workspace first, then move on to prioritizing ( In the workflow: Collect, Process, Organize), where Stack starts off by applying the “Two-minute Rule” (if it can be accomplished in two minutes, do it now) to those small key tasks. I am not sure that I agree with that, as quite a few people that I have spoken to about being productive complain about getting bogged down in those little Two-minute activities. Many actually spending a big chunk of their day on them and not having the energy to tackle the big stuff, which Stack leaves until last on the list. I think that you need to consider your energy levels earlier in the process.
Managing Your Attention
The strongest chapter in the book covers your “capacity to concentrate on what you are doing.” Stack covers all of the bases, including:
- Avoid multi-tasking
- Capture your thoughts on other topics that come up while you are working on something, then put them aside
- Pay closest attention to the tasks that have the greatest return on your investment of time
Accessibility or Having a Unified Filing System
Unfortunately, in her effort to make all six start with the letter “A”, she runs into a bit of a contextual problem with the chapter on Accessibility. Stack uses the term to describe your ability to access your information and archives, while the term has a different meaning for me that made this chapter difficult.
Accessibility, to me, has to do with managing the way that others can interact with you, gaining access to your attention. But this is a small quibble and I suppose simply my own weakness.
Organizing your filing system and having access to your data and archives is an essential part of your productivity practice, and Stack provides some useful tips on creating and maintaining such a system.
Not Just another Productivity System
Super Competent is not just another system that you have to learn in order to become wealthy and influential overnight. Stack builds on and explains how you can learn from other systems to find the right way for you to get done with your tasks and achieve your goals. When this book hits the shelves next Monday I recommend that you give it a look. It is well worth your investment of time.
Here are my hand-written notes that I took while reading the book, click on the thumbnail to see it full-sized:
[Editor's note to the FTC: I did receive a copy of this product for free in exchange for writing a review, no other compensation or expectation of a positive review was expressed or implied.]
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