how to beat the three most dangerous productivity …...how to beat the three most dangerous...
TRANSCRIPT
OR
how to beat the three most dangerous productivity
threats
Brought to you byBrought to you by
how to beat the three most dangerous productivity
threats
Look at your neighborrsquos desk Does your col league seem worry-free and always ends his or her workday at five orsquoclock on the dot
Then therersquos a big chance that your colleague is among the lucky 13 of workers who manage to avoid overworking You on the other hand have an 87 chance of overworking at least 1 hour per week
Manage to avoid overworking
Overwork
Our feelings about those extra hours vary For some indus-tries a strict 40 hour week is not an option Even if your com-pany typically sticks to a 40 hour work week there are situa-tions when you might need to stay a couple of extra hours to make sure everything is set and ready But if overworking leaves you stressed it might hurt your productivity
So what if you and your teammates could work less and at the same time get more done more during the day To accomplish this you just need to figure out a way to make ALL the time you spend at work productive
`
How can this simple e-book help you with that How can this simple e-book help you with that
First armed with the results of multiple research studies in-cluding our own wersquoll introduce you to the three most dan-gerous productivity killers This introduction however would be TBU (true-but-useless) unless backed up by some action items Thatrsquos why wersquoll also provide you with an arsenal of weapons to get rid of these threats once and for all
Share this book
Meet Tim an ldquoaveragerdquo manager who has been recently assigned to run a marketing team Though he has their best interests at heart Tim doesnrsquot seem to use his team to their fullest potential
To get the knack of each productivity killer yoursquoll see it through two stories Timrsquos and Tomrsquos By the end of each chap-ter yoursquoll find a useful tip box that will help you make the Tomrsquos insights even more practical So without further ado let us introduce you to the first of the three most notorious pro-ductivity killers
Now letrsquos imagine therersquos a ldquobetter ver-sionrdquo of him who happens to know a couple of useful tricks and scientifically proven techniques that help him trans-form the way his new team operates and thinks Letrsquos call him Tom
IT WILL ONLY TAKE A MINUTEChapter 1
Problem InterruptionsProblem Interruptions
Itrsquos half past one Tim needs to finish a presentation for his client meet-ing by 3 pm
At this moment his colleague Rachel a designer comes to his desk to show the brochure shersquos been working on and ask Timrsquos opinion on the general color scheme Surely it will only take a minute Fifteen minutes later Tim is trying to get back to his presentation when Josh from the business intelligence team rushes in to him to share how frustrated he is with the necessity to add the extra graphs to the monthly report Trying to continue working on the presentation in the background Tim ensures Josh that itrsquos a forced necessity and will pay off After a while Josh leaves and just when Tim manages to get his focus back the phone rings and it takes Tim ten more minutes to give his telecommuting col-league some clarifications on the latest assignment Frustrated by the call Tim checks his e-mail inbox and finds himself answering a journal-ist who asks to send her a couple of promo pics from his latest ad cam-paign
Some minutes later Tim looks at the clock Itrsquos half past two and he still has at least half way to go with the presentation
tick-tock
In Wrikersquos recent survey we asked almost 2000 men and women what they consider to be the biggest threat to their daily pro-ductivity Interruptions were a clear winner with more than 80 of the votes Anyonersquos groove can be easily ruined by another task or even a non-working issue and studies show that it takes 20 minutes on average to get your focus back
Guess how often interruptions typical lyhappen
During the day you are distracted 60 t imes
Be it a disturbing noise a phone call or a colleagues question your concentrations is under threat to be
broken every 8 minutes
9 am 5 pm
So what can be done to deal with this sneaky productivity killer
1 Filter interruptions as they arise
Tom knows that the ability to inhibit the possible distractions helps to save focus and time He is well familiar with Coveyrsquos time management matrix and uses it to divide the potential interruptions into four ldquoboxesrdquo based on their importance and urgency
Important
Not important
Last-minute fixes for the feature release sending the statistics for the presentation in progress
Professional training activities update list of potential clients draft marketing plan
Off topic phone calls and e-mails Results of the yesterdayrsquos game reading through RSS feeds
Urgent Not urgent
These are the easiest ones so Tom saves them for lunch and scheduled ldquowatercoolerrdquo
breaks He also encourages his team mates to do the same
Not important + not urgent
Urgent + not important
Important + not urgent
Important + urgent
Therersquos time for collaboration and therersquos time for staying fully focused on your task
Tom knows it So instead of answering the ringing phone he lets an administrative
assistant pick it up and ask the telecommuting teammate to call back in a couple of
hours To keep his ldquoflowrdquo Tom puts on his Beats and listens to his favorite music He
knows that if something really important happens his teammates would reach him
directly via his personal phone or drop by his desk
Realizing that these matters affect his teamrsquos long-term goals and success Tom leaves
sufficient time for their completion He creates a task in the task management system
he uses so that it doesnrsquot slip out of his sight Then he sets time the next week to deal
with it
Yes this deserves Tomrsquos attention Armed with knowledge about dual-task interfer-
ence he knows that his brain can successfully deal with only one issue at a time so
he tackles the arising issues one by one
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Before yelling try telling
DONOTDISTURB
His teammates are no psychics and Tom knows it So he makes sure they are aware of the pressing presentation hersquos working on at the moment Following the example of nurses who wore special vests to let their colleagues and patients know they are busy preparing medication and canrsquot be dis-tracted Tom puts a ldquodo not disturbrdquo sign on his desk and in his Skype status He also lets his colleagues know in the grouprsquos chat that hersquoll be busy for the next couple of hours
Mention your colleaguersquos name in the taskrsquos com-
ments to draw their atten-tion to your question with-out interrupting them Your colleague will later notice
the mention and will answer as soon as they have time
Mark the important but not urgent tasks as ldquobackloggedrdquo
without the need to set a strict due date Yoursquoll be able
to prioritize them and set time to deal with them
Use the timer in the task to let your colleagues know
about the importanturgent matter you are currently
working on Once you click ldquoplayrdquo the task you are work-
ing on is automatically broad-casted to the Activity Stream (real-time project news feed)
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31
Compare Tim and Tom when the clock strikes three Tim who was con-stantly distracted has only 20 out of 30 slides ready keeps working on the presentation until the very last moment and as a result is late to the meeting and stressed This becomes a mental distraction and Tim doesnrsquot have his best to give during the presentation As you can imag-ine the client isnrsquot very impressed
Tom on the contrary finishes the presentation 15 minutes early and has time to drink a cup of coffee and get in the right mood for the meeting Confident and ready his verbal and body language communicate confi-dence presence and charisma As a result of the meeting Tom gets a fruitful contract for his company
The productivity killer Tim is facing in this chapter came as the second most dangerous one in our survey No wonder Statistics show that as much as 95 of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally And for 20 of us itrsquos a chronic problem
DUE TOMORROW DO TOMORROWChapter 2
Problem ProcrastinationProblem Procrastination
of us are chronic procrastinators
20
95of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally
Tim has two tasks he canrsquot make himself start working on First is a global financial conference he has to plan Itrsquos been hanging over his head for the last two weeks But every time he opens the document to start planning he just stares at the blank page and then switches to another less pressing task He also needs to sort through all the busi-ness cards he brought home from the recent conference The task seems simple but Tim keeps postponing it andnow it has become almost awkward to act on them
The first question you need to answer is ldquoWhyrdquo
Why do we keep postponing a task till the very last minute and create for ourselves a whole bunch of extra problems To say nothing of stress and panic Once you figure out why you are procrastinating you can decide how to deal with it
Tom knows that it will be easier to manage a task if he splits it into several small actionable items that he can handle right away So he starts with making a guest list and then assigns his assistant to look for the conference venue He also creates a task ldquoSend out the invitesrdquo in his task management software He now feels that the conference monster is not that scary any more
Split it into several small actionable items
Try using the ldquo3+2rdquo rule
Tom follows the advice of developer Jakub Stastny and com-pletes 3 big and 2 small tasks and calls it a day Today world domination can wait
The reason why Tim canrsquot make himself sort through the busi-ness cards is that the task seems too boring and meaningless to him What can Tom do about it
The reason why Tim keeps postponing planning the confer-ence is that the task is too big and complex When we are faced with such a task we just donrsquot know where to start so we never do So how would Tom handle it
Keying in business cards from the conference can be repetitive and boring But often tasks like that are necessary So to get through this task Tom promises himself a hot cup of his favor-ite coffee in the nearby coffee shop You just need to find your own trigger
Reward yourself
Sometimes taking a short break is more rewarding than making yourself work through with gritted teeth and Tom knows it Instead he takes a 5 and recharges his productivity
Take short breaks
Spice the things up a little A quick piece of advice from Tom why not compete with a colleague on who finishes the monthly report first You can also compete with yourself and do the same task 3x faster with no harm to quality
Create a competition
Rock productivity with music
Music with an upbeat rhythmcan reduce stress by as much
as 41
Charge your brain with a quick snack
79 of workers believe coffee breakes make them more
productive
Get away from your deskRegular short exercise helps
53 of employees to feel more active throughout the day
Tomrsquos choice
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31Nothing motivates like the actual look of the well-done job Break down your big and complex project into action-able tasks and mark them ldquocompleterdquo one by one You can then visualize your progress on the Gantt chart and see what else you have left to accomplish
Use time-tracking to see how fast you can complete a not-so-exciting but recurring task next time (with no harm to the quality of course)
If you have several tasks to complete prioritize them in your to-do list and avoid mul-titasking
Share this book
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Itrsquos impossible to foresee all the emergencies and details from the very beginning
So Tom starts with creating a ldquoframeworkrdquo for the project He opens the task management software and sets the major goals and milestones He knows that a fixed time frame is important for the teamrsquos motivation as it creates the needed level of posi-tive stress So he sets due dates for every milestone However Tom understands that along the way hersquoll be able to adjust the schedule and add more spe-cific due dates based on the project details he gets
Take it one step at a time
It should be done byhellipYESTERDAYChapter 3
Problem Inaccurate planningProblem Inaccurate planning
Itrsquos not the first time when Tim encounters a task that took him twice the amount of time to complete as he had planned This time it was a clientrsquos product launch He canrsquot understand when ldquoDonrsquot worry we still have time to deal with itrdquo turned into ldquoHow can this task be two weeks overduerdquo
Tom believes his team members are competent and responsi-ble enough to take care of their own tasks so he doesnrsquot mind sharing some planning power with them -) After all a little trust can pay off and bring great results
During the planning phase he lets his team members set their own action items based on the defined goals Their ex-pertise will help them establish the possible roadblocks op-portunities and develop a realistic schedule And as a bonus this will increase their sense of responsibility and will let them know Tom trusts and believes in them and thatrsquos price-less
Replace micromanagement with self-organizing
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
21
Tim and Tom have gone a long way to fight the most notorious pro-ductivity killers Itrsquos up to you to decide whorsquos done better -) How-ever staying productive throughout the day is easier than it may seem With these proven techniques and a little help from the right task management software your team can finish more work in less time and easily become productivity superheroes
Be victorious in your battle over productivity killers and have the most productive day
CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION
With love your Wrike Team
Add your projectrsquos milestones to the Gantt chart and make sure to plan the first one in detail Once your project progresses yoursquoll be able to add new tasks to the chart And if therere any changes along the way you can easily adjust the schedule with a simple drag-and-drop
Encourage your team members to ldquopickrdquo and assign tasks to themselves Meanwhile yoursquoll be able to keep an eye on the tasksrsquo progress in the Activity Stream and be ready to step in if needed
Task management software that makes your life easier
Start free trial
how to beat the three most dangerous productivity
threats
Look at your neighborrsquos desk Does your col league seem worry-free and always ends his or her workday at five orsquoclock on the dot
Then therersquos a big chance that your colleague is among the lucky 13 of workers who manage to avoid overworking You on the other hand have an 87 chance of overworking at least 1 hour per week
Manage to avoid overworking
Overwork
Our feelings about those extra hours vary For some indus-tries a strict 40 hour week is not an option Even if your com-pany typically sticks to a 40 hour work week there are situa-tions when you might need to stay a couple of extra hours to make sure everything is set and ready But if overworking leaves you stressed it might hurt your productivity
So what if you and your teammates could work less and at the same time get more done more during the day To accomplish this you just need to figure out a way to make ALL the time you spend at work productive
`
How can this simple e-book help you with that How can this simple e-book help you with that
First armed with the results of multiple research studies in-cluding our own wersquoll introduce you to the three most dan-gerous productivity killers This introduction however would be TBU (true-but-useless) unless backed up by some action items Thatrsquos why wersquoll also provide you with an arsenal of weapons to get rid of these threats once and for all
Share this book
Meet Tim an ldquoaveragerdquo manager who has been recently assigned to run a marketing team Though he has their best interests at heart Tim doesnrsquot seem to use his team to their fullest potential
To get the knack of each productivity killer yoursquoll see it through two stories Timrsquos and Tomrsquos By the end of each chap-ter yoursquoll find a useful tip box that will help you make the Tomrsquos insights even more practical So without further ado let us introduce you to the first of the three most notorious pro-ductivity killers
Now letrsquos imagine therersquos a ldquobetter ver-sionrdquo of him who happens to know a couple of useful tricks and scientifically proven techniques that help him trans-form the way his new team operates and thinks Letrsquos call him Tom
IT WILL ONLY TAKE A MINUTEChapter 1
Problem InterruptionsProblem Interruptions
Itrsquos half past one Tim needs to finish a presentation for his client meet-ing by 3 pm
At this moment his colleague Rachel a designer comes to his desk to show the brochure shersquos been working on and ask Timrsquos opinion on the general color scheme Surely it will only take a minute Fifteen minutes later Tim is trying to get back to his presentation when Josh from the business intelligence team rushes in to him to share how frustrated he is with the necessity to add the extra graphs to the monthly report Trying to continue working on the presentation in the background Tim ensures Josh that itrsquos a forced necessity and will pay off After a while Josh leaves and just when Tim manages to get his focus back the phone rings and it takes Tim ten more minutes to give his telecommuting col-league some clarifications on the latest assignment Frustrated by the call Tim checks his e-mail inbox and finds himself answering a journal-ist who asks to send her a couple of promo pics from his latest ad cam-paign
Some minutes later Tim looks at the clock Itrsquos half past two and he still has at least half way to go with the presentation
tick-tock
In Wrikersquos recent survey we asked almost 2000 men and women what they consider to be the biggest threat to their daily pro-ductivity Interruptions were a clear winner with more than 80 of the votes Anyonersquos groove can be easily ruined by another task or even a non-working issue and studies show that it takes 20 minutes on average to get your focus back
Guess how often interruptions typical lyhappen
During the day you are distracted 60 t imes
Be it a disturbing noise a phone call or a colleagues question your concentrations is under threat to be
broken every 8 minutes
9 am 5 pm
So what can be done to deal with this sneaky productivity killer
1 Filter interruptions as they arise
Tom knows that the ability to inhibit the possible distractions helps to save focus and time He is well familiar with Coveyrsquos time management matrix and uses it to divide the potential interruptions into four ldquoboxesrdquo based on their importance and urgency
Important
Not important
Last-minute fixes for the feature release sending the statistics for the presentation in progress
Professional training activities update list of potential clients draft marketing plan
Off topic phone calls and e-mails Results of the yesterdayrsquos game reading through RSS feeds
Urgent Not urgent
These are the easiest ones so Tom saves them for lunch and scheduled ldquowatercoolerrdquo
breaks He also encourages his team mates to do the same
Not important + not urgent
Urgent + not important
Important + not urgent
Important + urgent
Therersquos time for collaboration and therersquos time for staying fully focused on your task
Tom knows it So instead of answering the ringing phone he lets an administrative
assistant pick it up and ask the telecommuting teammate to call back in a couple of
hours To keep his ldquoflowrdquo Tom puts on his Beats and listens to his favorite music He
knows that if something really important happens his teammates would reach him
directly via his personal phone or drop by his desk
Realizing that these matters affect his teamrsquos long-term goals and success Tom leaves
sufficient time for their completion He creates a task in the task management system
he uses so that it doesnrsquot slip out of his sight Then he sets time the next week to deal
with it
Yes this deserves Tomrsquos attention Armed with knowledge about dual-task interfer-
ence he knows that his brain can successfully deal with only one issue at a time so
he tackles the arising issues one by one
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Before yelling try telling
DONOTDISTURB
His teammates are no psychics and Tom knows it So he makes sure they are aware of the pressing presentation hersquos working on at the moment Following the example of nurses who wore special vests to let their colleagues and patients know they are busy preparing medication and canrsquot be dis-tracted Tom puts a ldquodo not disturbrdquo sign on his desk and in his Skype status He also lets his colleagues know in the grouprsquos chat that hersquoll be busy for the next couple of hours
Mention your colleaguersquos name in the taskrsquos com-
ments to draw their atten-tion to your question with-out interrupting them Your colleague will later notice
the mention and will answer as soon as they have time
Mark the important but not urgent tasks as ldquobackloggedrdquo
without the need to set a strict due date Yoursquoll be able
to prioritize them and set time to deal with them
Use the timer in the task to let your colleagues know
about the importanturgent matter you are currently
working on Once you click ldquoplayrdquo the task you are work-
ing on is automatically broad-casted to the Activity Stream (real-time project news feed)
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31
Compare Tim and Tom when the clock strikes three Tim who was con-stantly distracted has only 20 out of 30 slides ready keeps working on the presentation until the very last moment and as a result is late to the meeting and stressed This becomes a mental distraction and Tim doesnrsquot have his best to give during the presentation As you can imag-ine the client isnrsquot very impressed
Tom on the contrary finishes the presentation 15 minutes early and has time to drink a cup of coffee and get in the right mood for the meeting Confident and ready his verbal and body language communicate confi-dence presence and charisma As a result of the meeting Tom gets a fruitful contract for his company
The productivity killer Tim is facing in this chapter came as the second most dangerous one in our survey No wonder Statistics show that as much as 95 of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally And for 20 of us itrsquos a chronic problem
DUE TOMORROW DO TOMORROWChapter 2
Problem ProcrastinationProblem Procrastination
of us are chronic procrastinators
20
95of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally
Tim has two tasks he canrsquot make himself start working on First is a global financial conference he has to plan Itrsquos been hanging over his head for the last two weeks But every time he opens the document to start planning he just stares at the blank page and then switches to another less pressing task He also needs to sort through all the busi-ness cards he brought home from the recent conference The task seems simple but Tim keeps postponing it andnow it has become almost awkward to act on them
The first question you need to answer is ldquoWhyrdquo
Why do we keep postponing a task till the very last minute and create for ourselves a whole bunch of extra problems To say nothing of stress and panic Once you figure out why you are procrastinating you can decide how to deal with it
Tom knows that it will be easier to manage a task if he splits it into several small actionable items that he can handle right away So he starts with making a guest list and then assigns his assistant to look for the conference venue He also creates a task ldquoSend out the invitesrdquo in his task management software He now feels that the conference monster is not that scary any more
Split it into several small actionable items
Try using the ldquo3+2rdquo rule
Tom follows the advice of developer Jakub Stastny and com-pletes 3 big and 2 small tasks and calls it a day Today world domination can wait
The reason why Tim canrsquot make himself sort through the busi-ness cards is that the task seems too boring and meaningless to him What can Tom do about it
The reason why Tim keeps postponing planning the confer-ence is that the task is too big and complex When we are faced with such a task we just donrsquot know where to start so we never do So how would Tom handle it
Keying in business cards from the conference can be repetitive and boring But often tasks like that are necessary So to get through this task Tom promises himself a hot cup of his favor-ite coffee in the nearby coffee shop You just need to find your own trigger
Reward yourself
Sometimes taking a short break is more rewarding than making yourself work through with gritted teeth and Tom knows it Instead he takes a 5 and recharges his productivity
Take short breaks
Spice the things up a little A quick piece of advice from Tom why not compete with a colleague on who finishes the monthly report first You can also compete with yourself and do the same task 3x faster with no harm to quality
Create a competition
Rock productivity with music
Music with an upbeat rhythmcan reduce stress by as much
as 41
Charge your brain with a quick snack
79 of workers believe coffee breakes make them more
productive
Get away from your deskRegular short exercise helps
53 of employees to feel more active throughout the day
Tomrsquos choice
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31Nothing motivates like the actual look of the well-done job Break down your big and complex project into action-able tasks and mark them ldquocompleterdquo one by one You can then visualize your progress on the Gantt chart and see what else you have left to accomplish
Use time-tracking to see how fast you can complete a not-so-exciting but recurring task next time (with no harm to the quality of course)
If you have several tasks to complete prioritize them in your to-do list and avoid mul-titasking
Share this book
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Itrsquos impossible to foresee all the emergencies and details from the very beginning
So Tom starts with creating a ldquoframeworkrdquo for the project He opens the task management software and sets the major goals and milestones He knows that a fixed time frame is important for the teamrsquos motivation as it creates the needed level of posi-tive stress So he sets due dates for every milestone However Tom understands that along the way hersquoll be able to adjust the schedule and add more spe-cific due dates based on the project details he gets
Take it one step at a time
It should be done byhellipYESTERDAYChapter 3
Problem Inaccurate planningProblem Inaccurate planning
Itrsquos not the first time when Tim encounters a task that took him twice the amount of time to complete as he had planned This time it was a clientrsquos product launch He canrsquot understand when ldquoDonrsquot worry we still have time to deal with itrdquo turned into ldquoHow can this task be two weeks overduerdquo
Tom believes his team members are competent and responsi-ble enough to take care of their own tasks so he doesnrsquot mind sharing some planning power with them -) After all a little trust can pay off and bring great results
During the planning phase he lets his team members set their own action items based on the defined goals Their ex-pertise will help them establish the possible roadblocks op-portunities and develop a realistic schedule And as a bonus this will increase their sense of responsibility and will let them know Tom trusts and believes in them and thatrsquos price-less
Replace micromanagement with self-organizing
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
21
Tim and Tom have gone a long way to fight the most notorious pro-ductivity killers Itrsquos up to you to decide whorsquos done better -) How-ever staying productive throughout the day is easier than it may seem With these proven techniques and a little help from the right task management software your team can finish more work in less time and easily become productivity superheroes
Be victorious in your battle over productivity killers and have the most productive day
CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION
With love your Wrike Team
Add your projectrsquos milestones to the Gantt chart and make sure to plan the first one in detail Once your project progresses yoursquoll be able to add new tasks to the chart And if therere any changes along the way you can easily adjust the schedule with a simple drag-and-drop
Encourage your team members to ldquopickrdquo and assign tasks to themselves Meanwhile yoursquoll be able to keep an eye on the tasksrsquo progress in the Activity Stream and be ready to step in if needed
Task management software that makes your life easier
Start free trial
Share this book
Meet Tim an ldquoaveragerdquo manager who has been recently assigned to run a marketing team Though he has their best interests at heart Tim doesnrsquot seem to use his team to their fullest potential
To get the knack of each productivity killer yoursquoll see it through two stories Timrsquos and Tomrsquos By the end of each chap-ter yoursquoll find a useful tip box that will help you make the Tomrsquos insights even more practical So without further ado let us introduce you to the first of the three most notorious pro-ductivity killers
Now letrsquos imagine therersquos a ldquobetter ver-sionrdquo of him who happens to know a couple of useful tricks and scientifically proven techniques that help him trans-form the way his new team operates and thinks Letrsquos call him Tom
IT WILL ONLY TAKE A MINUTEChapter 1
Problem InterruptionsProblem Interruptions
Itrsquos half past one Tim needs to finish a presentation for his client meet-ing by 3 pm
At this moment his colleague Rachel a designer comes to his desk to show the brochure shersquos been working on and ask Timrsquos opinion on the general color scheme Surely it will only take a minute Fifteen minutes later Tim is trying to get back to his presentation when Josh from the business intelligence team rushes in to him to share how frustrated he is with the necessity to add the extra graphs to the monthly report Trying to continue working on the presentation in the background Tim ensures Josh that itrsquos a forced necessity and will pay off After a while Josh leaves and just when Tim manages to get his focus back the phone rings and it takes Tim ten more minutes to give his telecommuting col-league some clarifications on the latest assignment Frustrated by the call Tim checks his e-mail inbox and finds himself answering a journal-ist who asks to send her a couple of promo pics from his latest ad cam-paign
Some minutes later Tim looks at the clock Itrsquos half past two and he still has at least half way to go with the presentation
tick-tock
In Wrikersquos recent survey we asked almost 2000 men and women what they consider to be the biggest threat to their daily pro-ductivity Interruptions were a clear winner with more than 80 of the votes Anyonersquos groove can be easily ruined by another task or even a non-working issue and studies show that it takes 20 minutes on average to get your focus back
Guess how often interruptions typical lyhappen
During the day you are distracted 60 t imes
Be it a disturbing noise a phone call or a colleagues question your concentrations is under threat to be
broken every 8 minutes
9 am 5 pm
So what can be done to deal with this sneaky productivity killer
1 Filter interruptions as they arise
Tom knows that the ability to inhibit the possible distractions helps to save focus and time He is well familiar with Coveyrsquos time management matrix and uses it to divide the potential interruptions into four ldquoboxesrdquo based on their importance and urgency
Important
Not important
Last-minute fixes for the feature release sending the statistics for the presentation in progress
Professional training activities update list of potential clients draft marketing plan
Off topic phone calls and e-mails Results of the yesterdayrsquos game reading through RSS feeds
Urgent Not urgent
These are the easiest ones so Tom saves them for lunch and scheduled ldquowatercoolerrdquo
breaks He also encourages his team mates to do the same
Not important + not urgent
Urgent + not important
Important + not urgent
Important + urgent
Therersquos time for collaboration and therersquos time for staying fully focused on your task
Tom knows it So instead of answering the ringing phone he lets an administrative
assistant pick it up and ask the telecommuting teammate to call back in a couple of
hours To keep his ldquoflowrdquo Tom puts on his Beats and listens to his favorite music He
knows that if something really important happens his teammates would reach him
directly via his personal phone or drop by his desk
Realizing that these matters affect his teamrsquos long-term goals and success Tom leaves
sufficient time for their completion He creates a task in the task management system
he uses so that it doesnrsquot slip out of his sight Then he sets time the next week to deal
with it
Yes this deserves Tomrsquos attention Armed with knowledge about dual-task interfer-
ence he knows that his brain can successfully deal with only one issue at a time so
he tackles the arising issues one by one
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Before yelling try telling
DONOTDISTURB
His teammates are no psychics and Tom knows it So he makes sure they are aware of the pressing presentation hersquos working on at the moment Following the example of nurses who wore special vests to let their colleagues and patients know they are busy preparing medication and canrsquot be dis-tracted Tom puts a ldquodo not disturbrdquo sign on his desk and in his Skype status He also lets his colleagues know in the grouprsquos chat that hersquoll be busy for the next couple of hours
Mention your colleaguersquos name in the taskrsquos com-
ments to draw their atten-tion to your question with-out interrupting them Your colleague will later notice
the mention and will answer as soon as they have time
Mark the important but not urgent tasks as ldquobackloggedrdquo
without the need to set a strict due date Yoursquoll be able
to prioritize them and set time to deal with them
Use the timer in the task to let your colleagues know
about the importanturgent matter you are currently
working on Once you click ldquoplayrdquo the task you are work-
ing on is automatically broad-casted to the Activity Stream (real-time project news feed)
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31
Compare Tim and Tom when the clock strikes three Tim who was con-stantly distracted has only 20 out of 30 slides ready keeps working on the presentation until the very last moment and as a result is late to the meeting and stressed This becomes a mental distraction and Tim doesnrsquot have his best to give during the presentation As you can imag-ine the client isnrsquot very impressed
Tom on the contrary finishes the presentation 15 minutes early and has time to drink a cup of coffee and get in the right mood for the meeting Confident and ready his verbal and body language communicate confi-dence presence and charisma As a result of the meeting Tom gets a fruitful contract for his company
The productivity killer Tim is facing in this chapter came as the second most dangerous one in our survey No wonder Statistics show that as much as 95 of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally And for 20 of us itrsquos a chronic problem
DUE TOMORROW DO TOMORROWChapter 2
Problem ProcrastinationProblem Procrastination
of us are chronic procrastinators
20
95of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally
Tim has two tasks he canrsquot make himself start working on First is a global financial conference he has to plan Itrsquos been hanging over his head for the last two weeks But every time he opens the document to start planning he just stares at the blank page and then switches to another less pressing task He also needs to sort through all the busi-ness cards he brought home from the recent conference The task seems simple but Tim keeps postponing it andnow it has become almost awkward to act on them
The first question you need to answer is ldquoWhyrdquo
Why do we keep postponing a task till the very last minute and create for ourselves a whole bunch of extra problems To say nothing of stress and panic Once you figure out why you are procrastinating you can decide how to deal with it
Tom knows that it will be easier to manage a task if he splits it into several small actionable items that he can handle right away So he starts with making a guest list and then assigns his assistant to look for the conference venue He also creates a task ldquoSend out the invitesrdquo in his task management software He now feels that the conference monster is not that scary any more
Split it into several small actionable items
Try using the ldquo3+2rdquo rule
Tom follows the advice of developer Jakub Stastny and com-pletes 3 big and 2 small tasks and calls it a day Today world domination can wait
The reason why Tim canrsquot make himself sort through the busi-ness cards is that the task seems too boring and meaningless to him What can Tom do about it
The reason why Tim keeps postponing planning the confer-ence is that the task is too big and complex When we are faced with such a task we just donrsquot know where to start so we never do So how would Tom handle it
Keying in business cards from the conference can be repetitive and boring But often tasks like that are necessary So to get through this task Tom promises himself a hot cup of his favor-ite coffee in the nearby coffee shop You just need to find your own trigger
Reward yourself
Sometimes taking a short break is more rewarding than making yourself work through with gritted teeth and Tom knows it Instead he takes a 5 and recharges his productivity
Take short breaks
Spice the things up a little A quick piece of advice from Tom why not compete with a colleague on who finishes the monthly report first You can also compete with yourself and do the same task 3x faster with no harm to quality
Create a competition
Rock productivity with music
Music with an upbeat rhythmcan reduce stress by as much
as 41
Charge your brain with a quick snack
79 of workers believe coffee breakes make them more
productive
Get away from your deskRegular short exercise helps
53 of employees to feel more active throughout the day
Tomrsquos choice
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31Nothing motivates like the actual look of the well-done job Break down your big and complex project into action-able tasks and mark them ldquocompleterdquo one by one You can then visualize your progress on the Gantt chart and see what else you have left to accomplish
Use time-tracking to see how fast you can complete a not-so-exciting but recurring task next time (with no harm to the quality of course)
If you have several tasks to complete prioritize them in your to-do list and avoid mul-titasking
Share this book
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Itrsquos impossible to foresee all the emergencies and details from the very beginning
So Tom starts with creating a ldquoframeworkrdquo for the project He opens the task management software and sets the major goals and milestones He knows that a fixed time frame is important for the teamrsquos motivation as it creates the needed level of posi-tive stress So he sets due dates for every milestone However Tom understands that along the way hersquoll be able to adjust the schedule and add more spe-cific due dates based on the project details he gets
Take it one step at a time
It should be done byhellipYESTERDAYChapter 3
Problem Inaccurate planningProblem Inaccurate planning
Itrsquos not the first time when Tim encounters a task that took him twice the amount of time to complete as he had planned This time it was a clientrsquos product launch He canrsquot understand when ldquoDonrsquot worry we still have time to deal with itrdquo turned into ldquoHow can this task be two weeks overduerdquo
Tom believes his team members are competent and responsi-ble enough to take care of their own tasks so he doesnrsquot mind sharing some planning power with them -) After all a little trust can pay off and bring great results
During the planning phase he lets his team members set their own action items based on the defined goals Their ex-pertise will help them establish the possible roadblocks op-portunities and develop a realistic schedule And as a bonus this will increase their sense of responsibility and will let them know Tom trusts and believes in them and thatrsquos price-less
Replace micromanagement with self-organizing
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
21
Tim and Tom have gone a long way to fight the most notorious pro-ductivity killers Itrsquos up to you to decide whorsquos done better -) How-ever staying productive throughout the day is easier than it may seem With these proven techniques and a little help from the right task management software your team can finish more work in less time and easily become productivity superheroes
Be victorious in your battle over productivity killers and have the most productive day
CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION
With love your Wrike Team
Add your projectrsquos milestones to the Gantt chart and make sure to plan the first one in detail Once your project progresses yoursquoll be able to add new tasks to the chart And if therere any changes along the way you can easily adjust the schedule with a simple drag-and-drop
Encourage your team members to ldquopickrdquo and assign tasks to themselves Meanwhile yoursquoll be able to keep an eye on the tasksrsquo progress in the Activity Stream and be ready to step in if needed
Task management software that makes your life easier
Start free trial
IT WILL ONLY TAKE A MINUTEChapter 1
Problem InterruptionsProblem Interruptions
Itrsquos half past one Tim needs to finish a presentation for his client meet-ing by 3 pm
At this moment his colleague Rachel a designer comes to his desk to show the brochure shersquos been working on and ask Timrsquos opinion on the general color scheme Surely it will only take a minute Fifteen minutes later Tim is trying to get back to his presentation when Josh from the business intelligence team rushes in to him to share how frustrated he is with the necessity to add the extra graphs to the monthly report Trying to continue working on the presentation in the background Tim ensures Josh that itrsquos a forced necessity and will pay off After a while Josh leaves and just when Tim manages to get his focus back the phone rings and it takes Tim ten more minutes to give his telecommuting col-league some clarifications on the latest assignment Frustrated by the call Tim checks his e-mail inbox and finds himself answering a journal-ist who asks to send her a couple of promo pics from his latest ad cam-paign
Some minutes later Tim looks at the clock Itrsquos half past two and he still has at least half way to go with the presentation
tick-tock
In Wrikersquos recent survey we asked almost 2000 men and women what they consider to be the biggest threat to their daily pro-ductivity Interruptions were a clear winner with more than 80 of the votes Anyonersquos groove can be easily ruined by another task or even a non-working issue and studies show that it takes 20 minutes on average to get your focus back
Guess how often interruptions typical lyhappen
During the day you are distracted 60 t imes
Be it a disturbing noise a phone call or a colleagues question your concentrations is under threat to be
broken every 8 minutes
9 am 5 pm
So what can be done to deal with this sneaky productivity killer
1 Filter interruptions as they arise
Tom knows that the ability to inhibit the possible distractions helps to save focus and time He is well familiar with Coveyrsquos time management matrix and uses it to divide the potential interruptions into four ldquoboxesrdquo based on their importance and urgency
Important
Not important
Last-minute fixes for the feature release sending the statistics for the presentation in progress
Professional training activities update list of potential clients draft marketing plan
Off topic phone calls and e-mails Results of the yesterdayrsquos game reading through RSS feeds
Urgent Not urgent
These are the easiest ones so Tom saves them for lunch and scheduled ldquowatercoolerrdquo
breaks He also encourages his team mates to do the same
Not important + not urgent
Urgent + not important
Important + not urgent
Important + urgent
Therersquos time for collaboration and therersquos time for staying fully focused on your task
Tom knows it So instead of answering the ringing phone he lets an administrative
assistant pick it up and ask the telecommuting teammate to call back in a couple of
hours To keep his ldquoflowrdquo Tom puts on his Beats and listens to his favorite music He
knows that if something really important happens his teammates would reach him
directly via his personal phone or drop by his desk
Realizing that these matters affect his teamrsquos long-term goals and success Tom leaves
sufficient time for their completion He creates a task in the task management system
he uses so that it doesnrsquot slip out of his sight Then he sets time the next week to deal
with it
Yes this deserves Tomrsquos attention Armed with knowledge about dual-task interfer-
ence he knows that his brain can successfully deal with only one issue at a time so
he tackles the arising issues one by one
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Before yelling try telling
DONOTDISTURB
His teammates are no psychics and Tom knows it So he makes sure they are aware of the pressing presentation hersquos working on at the moment Following the example of nurses who wore special vests to let their colleagues and patients know they are busy preparing medication and canrsquot be dis-tracted Tom puts a ldquodo not disturbrdquo sign on his desk and in his Skype status He also lets his colleagues know in the grouprsquos chat that hersquoll be busy for the next couple of hours
Mention your colleaguersquos name in the taskrsquos com-
ments to draw their atten-tion to your question with-out interrupting them Your colleague will later notice
the mention and will answer as soon as they have time
Mark the important but not urgent tasks as ldquobackloggedrdquo
without the need to set a strict due date Yoursquoll be able
to prioritize them and set time to deal with them
Use the timer in the task to let your colleagues know
about the importanturgent matter you are currently
working on Once you click ldquoplayrdquo the task you are work-
ing on is automatically broad-casted to the Activity Stream (real-time project news feed)
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31
Compare Tim and Tom when the clock strikes three Tim who was con-stantly distracted has only 20 out of 30 slides ready keeps working on the presentation until the very last moment and as a result is late to the meeting and stressed This becomes a mental distraction and Tim doesnrsquot have his best to give during the presentation As you can imag-ine the client isnrsquot very impressed
Tom on the contrary finishes the presentation 15 minutes early and has time to drink a cup of coffee and get in the right mood for the meeting Confident and ready his verbal and body language communicate confi-dence presence and charisma As a result of the meeting Tom gets a fruitful contract for his company
The productivity killer Tim is facing in this chapter came as the second most dangerous one in our survey No wonder Statistics show that as much as 95 of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally And for 20 of us itrsquos a chronic problem
DUE TOMORROW DO TOMORROWChapter 2
Problem ProcrastinationProblem Procrastination
of us are chronic procrastinators
20
95of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally
Tim has two tasks he canrsquot make himself start working on First is a global financial conference he has to plan Itrsquos been hanging over his head for the last two weeks But every time he opens the document to start planning he just stares at the blank page and then switches to another less pressing task He also needs to sort through all the busi-ness cards he brought home from the recent conference The task seems simple but Tim keeps postponing it andnow it has become almost awkward to act on them
The first question you need to answer is ldquoWhyrdquo
Why do we keep postponing a task till the very last minute and create for ourselves a whole bunch of extra problems To say nothing of stress and panic Once you figure out why you are procrastinating you can decide how to deal with it
Tom knows that it will be easier to manage a task if he splits it into several small actionable items that he can handle right away So he starts with making a guest list and then assigns his assistant to look for the conference venue He also creates a task ldquoSend out the invitesrdquo in his task management software He now feels that the conference monster is not that scary any more
Split it into several small actionable items
Try using the ldquo3+2rdquo rule
Tom follows the advice of developer Jakub Stastny and com-pletes 3 big and 2 small tasks and calls it a day Today world domination can wait
The reason why Tim canrsquot make himself sort through the busi-ness cards is that the task seems too boring and meaningless to him What can Tom do about it
The reason why Tim keeps postponing planning the confer-ence is that the task is too big and complex When we are faced with such a task we just donrsquot know where to start so we never do So how would Tom handle it
Keying in business cards from the conference can be repetitive and boring But often tasks like that are necessary So to get through this task Tom promises himself a hot cup of his favor-ite coffee in the nearby coffee shop You just need to find your own trigger
Reward yourself
Sometimes taking a short break is more rewarding than making yourself work through with gritted teeth and Tom knows it Instead he takes a 5 and recharges his productivity
Take short breaks
Spice the things up a little A quick piece of advice from Tom why not compete with a colleague on who finishes the monthly report first You can also compete with yourself and do the same task 3x faster with no harm to quality
Create a competition
Rock productivity with music
Music with an upbeat rhythmcan reduce stress by as much
as 41
Charge your brain with a quick snack
79 of workers believe coffee breakes make them more
productive
Get away from your deskRegular short exercise helps
53 of employees to feel more active throughout the day
Tomrsquos choice
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31Nothing motivates like the actual look of the well-done job Break down your big and complex project into action-able tasks and mark them ldquocompleterdquo one by one You can then visualize your progress on the Gantt chart and see what else you have left to accomplish
Use time-tracking to see how fast you can complete a not-so-exciting but recurring task next time (with no harm to the quality of course)
If you have several tasks to complete prioritize them in your to-do list and avoid mul-titasking
Share this book
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Itrsquos impossible to foresee all the emergencies and details from the very beginning
So Tom starts with creating a ldquoframeworkrdquo for the project He opens the task management software and sets the major goals and milestones He knows that a fixed time frame is important for the teamrsquos motivation as it creates the needed level of posi-tive stress So he sets due dates for every milestone However Tom understands that along the way hersquoll be able to adjust the schedule and add more spe-cific due dates based on the project details he gets
Take it one step at a time
It should be done byhellipYESTERDAYChapter 3
Problem Inaccurate planningProblem Inaccurate planning
Itrsquos not the first time when Tim encounters a task that took him twice the amount of time to complete as he had planned This time it was a clientrsquos product launch He canrsquot understand when ldquoDonrsquot worry we still have time to deal with itrdquo turned into ldquoHow can this task be two weeks overduerdquo
Tom believes his team members are competent and responsi-ble enough to take care of their own tasks so he doesnrsquot mind sharing some planning power with them -) After all a little trust can pay off and bring great results
During the planning phase he lets his team members set their own action items based on the defined goals Their ex-pertise will help them establish the possible roadblocks op-portunities and develop a realistic schedule And as a bonus this will increase their sense of responsibility and will let them know Tom trusts and believes in them and thatrsquos price-less
Replace micromanagement with self-organizing
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
21
Tim and Tom have gone a long way to fight the most notorious pro-ductivity killers Itrsquos up to you to decide whorsquos done better -) How-ever staying productive throughout the day is easier than it may seem With these proven techniques and a little help from the right task management software your team can finish more work in less time and easily become productivity superheroes
Be victorious in your battle over productivity killers and have the most productive day
CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION
With love your Wrike Team
Add your projectrsquos milestones to the Gantt chart and make sure to plan the first one in detail Once your project progresses yoursquoll be able to add new tasks to the chart And if therere any changes along the way you can easily adjust the schedule with a simple drag-and-drop
Encourage your team members to ldquopickrdquo and assign tasks to themselves Meanwhile yoursquoll be able to keep an eye on the tasksrsquo progress in the Activity Stream and be ready to step in if needed
Task management software that makes your life easier
Start free trial
In Wrikersquos recent survey we asked almost 2000 men and women what they consider to be the biggest threat to their daily pro-ductivity Interruptions were a clear winner with more than 80 of the votes Anyonersquos groove can be easily ruined by another task or even a non-working issue and studies show that it takes 20 minutes on average to get your focus back
Guess how often interruptions typical lyhappen
During the day you are distracted 60 t imes
Be it a disturbing noise a phone call or a colleagues question your concentrations is under threat to be
broken every 8 minutes
9 am 5 pm
So what can be done to deal with this sneaky productivity killer
1 Filter interruptions as they arise
Tom knows that the ability to inhibit the possible distractions helps to save focus and time He is well familiar with Coveyrsquos time management matrix and uses it to divide the potential interruptions into four ldquoboxesrdquo based on their importance and urgency
Important
Not important
Last-minute fixes for the feature release sending the statistics for the presentation in progress
Professional training activities update list of potential clients draft marketing plan
Off topic phone calls and e-mails Results of the yesterdayrsquos game reading through RSS feeds
Urgent Not urgent
These are the easiest ones so Tom saves them for lunch and scheduled ldquowatercoolerrdquo
breaks He also encourages his team mates to do the same
Not important + not urgent
Urgent + not important
Important + not urgent
Important + urgent
Therersquos time for collaboration and therersquos time for staying fully focused on your task
Tom knows it So instead of answering the ringing phone he lets an administrative
assistant pick it up and ask the telecommuting teammate to call back in a couple of
hours To keep his ldquoflowrdquo Tom puts on his Beats and listens to his favorite music He
knows that if something really important happens his teammates would reach him
directly via his personal phone or drop by his desk
Realizing that these matters affect his teamrsquos long-term goals and success Tom leaves
sufficient time for their completion He creates a task in the task management system
he uses so that it doesnrsquot slip out of his sight Then he sets time the next week to deal
with it
Yes this deserves Tomrsquos attention Armed with knowledge about dual-task interfer-
ence he knows that his brain can successfully deal with only one issue at a time so
he tackles the arising issues one by one
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Before yelling try telling
DONOTDISTURB
His teammates are no psychics and Tom knows it So he makes sure they are aware of the pressing presentation hersquos working on at the moment Following the example of nurses who wore special vests to let their colleagues and patients know they are busy preparing medication and canrsquot be dis-tracted Tom puts a ldquodo not disturbrdquo sign on his desk and in his Skype status He also lets his colleagues know in the grouprsquos chat that hersquoll be busy for the next couple of hours
Mention your colleaguersquos name in the taskrsquos com-
ments to draw their atten-tion to your question with-out interrupting them Your colleague will later notice
the mention and will answer as soon as they have time
Mark the important but not urgent tasks as ldquobackloggedrdquo
without the need to set a strict due date Yoursquoll be able
to prioritize them and set time to deal with them
Use the timer in the task to let your colleagues know
about the importanturgent matter you are currently
working on Once you click ldquoplayrdquo the task you are work-
ing on is automatically broad-casted to the Activity Stream (real-time project news feed)
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31
Compare Tim and Tom when the clock strikes three Tim who was con-stantly distracted has only 20 out of 30 slides ready keeps working on the presentation until the very last moment and as a result is late to the meeting and stressed This becomes a mental distraction and Tim doesnrsquot have his best to give during the presentation As you can imag-ine the client isnrsquot very impressed
Tom on the contrary finishes the presentation 15 minutes early and has time to drink a cup of coffee and get in the right mood for the meeting Confident and ready his verbal and body language communicate confi-dence presence and charisma As a result of the meeting Tom gets a fruitful contract for his company
The productivity killer Tim is facing in this chapter came as the second most dangerous one in our survey No wonder Statistics show that as much as 95 of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally And for 20 of us itrsquos a chronic problem
DUE TOMORROW DO TOMORROWChapter 2
Problem ProcrastinationProblem Procrastination
of us are chronic procrastinators
20
95of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally
Tim has two tasks he canrsquot make himself start working on First is a global financial conference he has to plan Itrsquos been hanging over his head for the last two weeks But every time he opens the document to start planning he just stares at the blank page and then switches to another less pressing task He also needs to sort through all the busi-ness cards he brought home from the recent conference The task seems simple but Tim keeps postponing it andnow it has become almost awkward to act on them
The first question you need to answer is ldquoWhyrdquo
Why do we keep postponing a task till the very last minute and create for ourselves a whole bunch of extra problems To say nothing of stress and panic Once you figure out why you are procrastinating you can decide how to deal with it
Tom knows that it will be easier to manage a task if he splits it into several small actionable items that he can handle right away So he starts with making a guest list and then assigns his assistant to look for the conference venue He also creates a task ldquoSend out the invitesrdquo in his task management software He now feels that the conference monster is not that scary any more
Split it into several small actionable items
Try using the ldquo3+2rdquo rule
Tom follows the advice of developer Jakub Stastny and com-pletes 3 big and 2 small tasks and calls it a day Today world domination can wait
The reason why Tim canrsquot make himself sort through the busi-ness cards is that the task seems too boring and meaningless to him What can Tom do about it
The reason why Tim keeps postponing planning the confer-ence is that the task is too big and complex When we are faced with such a task we just donrsquot know where to start so we never do So how would Tom handle it
Keying in business cards from the conference can be repetitive and boring But often tasks like that are necessary So to get through this task Tom promises himself a hot cup of his favor-ite coffee in the nearby coffee shop You just need to find your own trigger
Reward yourself
Sometimes taking a short break is more rewarding than making yourself work through with gritted teeth and Tom knows it Instead he takes a 5 and recharges his productivity
Take short breaks
Spice the things up a little A quick piece of advice from Tom why not compete with a colleague on who finishes the monthly report first You can also compete with yourself and do the same task 3x faster with no harm to quality
Create a competition
Rock productivity with music
Music with an upbeat rhythmcan reduce stress by as much
as 41
Charge your brain with a quick snack
79 of workers believe coffee breakes make them more
productive
Get away from your deskRegular short exercise helps
53 of employees to feel more active throughout the day
Tomrsquos choice
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31Nothing motivates like the actual look of the well-done job Break down your big and complex project into action-able tasks and mark them ldquocompleterdquo one by one You can then visualize your progress on the Gantt chart and see what else you have left to accomplish
Use time-tracking to see how fast you can complete a not-so-exciting but recurring task next time (with no harm to the quality of course)
If you have several tasks to complete prioritize them in your to-do list and avoid mul-titasking
Share this book
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Itrsquos impossible to foresee all the emergencies and details from the very beginning
So Tom starts with creating a ldquoframeworkrdquo for the project He opens the task management software and sets the major goals and milestones He knows that a fixed time frame is important for the teamrsquos motivation as it creates the needed level of posi-tive stress So he sets due dates for every milestone However Tom understands that along the way hersquoll be able to adjust the schedule and add more spe-cific due dates based on the project details he gets
Take it one step at a time
It should be done byhellipYESTERDAYChapter 3
Problem Inaccurate planningProblem Inaccurate planning
Itrsquos not the first time when Tim encounters a task that took him twice the amount of time to complete as he had planned This time it was a clientrsquos product launch He canrsquot understand when ldquoDonrsquot worry we still have time to deal with itrdquo turned into ldquoHow can this task be two weeks overduerdquo
Tom believes his team members are competent and responsi-ble enough to take care of their own tasks so he doesnrsquot mind sharing some planning power with them -) After all a little trust can pay off and bring great results
During the planning phase he lets his team members set their own action items based on the defined goals Their ex-pertise will help them establish the possible roadblocks op-portunities and develop a realistic schedule And as a bonus this will increase their sense of responsibility and will let them know Tom trusts and believes in them and thatrsquos price-less
Replace micromanagement with self-organizing
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
21
Tim and Tom have gone a long way to fight the most notorious pro-ductivity killers Itrsquos up to you to decide whorsquos done better -) How-ever staying productive throughout the day is easier than it may seem With these proven techniques and a little help from the right task management software your team can finish more work in less time and easily become productivity superheroes
Be victorious in your battle over productivity killers and have the most productive day
CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION
With love your Wrike Team
Add your projectrsquos milestones to the Gantt chart and make sure to plan the first one in detail Once your project progresses yoursquoll be able to add new tasks to the chart And if therere any changes along the way you can easily adjust the schedule with a simple drag-and-drop
Encourage your team members to ldquopickrdquo and assign tasks to themselves Meanwhile yoursquoll be able to keep an eye on the tasksrsquo progress in the Activity Stream and be ready to step in if needed
Task management software that makes your life easier
Start free trial
1 Filter interruptions as they arise
Tom knows that the ability to inhibit the possible distractions helps to save focus and time He is well familiar with Coveyrsquos time management matrix and uses it to divide the potential interruptions into four ldquoboxesrdquo based on their importance and urgency
Important
Not important
Last-minute fixes for the feature release sending the statistics for the presentation in progress
Professional training activities update list of potential clients draft marketing plan
Off topic phone calls and e-mails Results of the yesterdayrsquos game reading through RSS feeds
Urgent Not urgent
These are the easiest ones so Tom saves them for lunch and scheduled ldquowatercoolerrdquo
breaks He also encourages his team mates to do the same
Not important + not urgent
Urgent + not important
Important + not urgent
Important + urgent
Therersquos time for collaboration and therersquos time for staying fully focused on your task
Tom knows it So instead of answering the ringing phone he lets an administrative
assistant pick it up and ask the telecommuting teammate to call back in a couple of
hours To keep his ldquoflowrdquo Tom puts on his Beats and listens to his favorite music He
knows that if something really important happens his teammates would reach him
directly via his personal phone or drop by his desk
Realizing that these matters affect his teamrsquos long-term goals and success Tom leaves
sufficient time for their completion He creates a task in the task management system
he uses so that it doesnrsquot slip out of his sight Then he sets time the next week to deal
with it
Yes this deserves Tomrsquos attention Armed with knowledge about dual-task interfer-
ence he knows that his brain can successfully deal with only one issue at a time so
he tackles the arising issues one by one
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Before yelling try telling
DONOTDISTURB
His teammates are no psychics and Tom knows it So he makes sure they are aware of the pressing presentation hersquos working on at the moment Following the example of nurses who wore special vests to let their colleagues and patients know they are busy preparing medication and canrsquot be dis-tracted Tom puts a ldquodo not disturbrdquo sign on his desk and in his Skype status He also lets his colleagues know in the grouprsquos chat that hersquoll be busy for the next couple of hours
Mention your colleaguersquos name in the taskrsquos com-
ments to draw their atten-tion to your question with-out interrupting them Your colleague will later notice
the mention and will answer as soon as they have time
Mark the important but not urgent tasks as ldquobackloggedrdquo
without the need to set a strict due date Yoursquoll be able
to prioritize them and set time to deal with them
Use the timer in the task to let your colleagues know
about the importanturgent matter you are currently
working on Once you click ldquoplayrdquo the task you are work-
ing on is automatically broad-casted to the Activity Stream (real-time project news feed)
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31
Compare Tim and Tom when the clock strikes three Tim who was con-stantly distracted has only 20 out of 30 slides ready keeps working on the presentation until the very last moment and as a result is late to the meeting and stressed This becomes a mental distraction and Tim doesnrsquot have his best to give during the presentation As you can imag-ine the client isnrsquot very impressed
Tom on the contrary finishes the presentation 15 minutes early and has time to drink a cup of coffee and get in the right mood for the meeting Confident and ready his verbal and body language communicate confi-dence presence and charisma As a result of the meeting Tom gets a fruitful contract for his company
The productivity killer Tim is facing in this chapter came as the second most dangerous one in our survey No wonder Statistics show that as much as 95 of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally And for 20 of us itrsquos a chronic problem
DUE TOMORROW DO TOMORROWChapter 2
Problem ProcrastinationProblem Procrastination
of us are chronic procrastinators
20
95of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally
Tim has two tasks he canrsquot make himself start working on First is a global financial conference he has to plan Itrsquos been hanging over his head for the last two weeks But every time he opens the document to start planning he just stares at the blank page and then switches to another less pressing task He also needs to sort through all the busi-ness cards he brought home from the recent conference The task seems simple but Tim keeps postponing it andnow it has become almost awkward to act on them
The first question you need to answer is ldquoWhyrdquo
Why do we keep postponing a task till the very last minute and create for ourselves a whole bunch of extra problems To say nothing of stress and panic Once you figure out why you are procrastinating you can decide how to deal with it
Tom knows that it will be easier to manage a task if he splits it into several small actionable items that he can handle right away So he starts with making a guest list and then assigns his assistant to look for the conference venue He also creates a task ldquoSend out the invitesrdquo in his task management software He now feels that the conference monster is not that scary any more
Split it into several small actionable items
Try using the ldquo3+2rdquo rule
Tom follows the advice of developer Jakub Stastny and com-pletes 3 big and 2 small tasks and calls it a day Today world domination can wait
The reason why Tim canrsquot make himself sort through the busi-ness cards is that the task seems too boring and meaningless to him What can Tom do about it
The reason why Tim keeps postponing planning the confer-ence is that the task is too big and complex When we are faced with such a task we just donrsquot know where to start so we never do So how would Tom handle it
Keying in business cards from the conference can be repetitive and boring But often tasks like that are necessary So to get through this task Tom promises himself a hot cup of his favor-ite coffee in the nearby coffee shop You just need to find your own trigger
Reward yourself
Sometimes taking a short break is more rewarding than making yourself work through with gritted teeth and Tom knows it Instead he takes a 5 and recharges his productivity
Take short breaks
Spice the things up a little A quick piece of advice from Tom why not compete with a colleague on who finishes the monthly report first You can also compete with yourself and do the same task 3x faster with no harm to quality
Create a competition
Rock productivity with music
Music with an upbeat rhythmcan reduce stress by as much
as 41
Charge your brain with a quick snack
79 of workers believe coffee breakes make them more
productive
Get away from your deskRegular short exercise helps
53 of employees to feel more active throughout the day
Tomrsquos choice
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31Nothing motivates like the actual look of the well-done job Break down your big and complex project into action-able tasks and mark them ldquocompleterdquo one by one You can then visualize your progress on the Gantt chart and see what else you have left to accomplish
Use time-tracking to see how fast you can complete a not-so-exciting but recurring task next time (with no harm to the quality of course)
If you have several tasks to complete prioritize them in your to-do list and avoid mul-titasking
Share this book
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Itrsquos impossible to foresee all the emergencies and details from the very beginning
So Tom starts with creating a ldquoframeworkrdquo for the project He opens the task management software and sets the major goals and milestones He knows that a fixed time frame is important for the teamrsquos motivation as it creates the needed level of posi-tive stress So he sets due dates for every milestone However Tom understands that along the way hersquoll be able to adjust the schedule and add more spe-cific due dates based on the project details he gets
Take it one step at a time
It should be done byhellipYESTERDAYChapter 3
Problem Inaccurate planningProblem Inaccurate planning
Itrsquos not the first time when Tim encounters a task that took him twice the amount of time to complete as he had planned This time it was a clientrsquos product launch He canrsquot understand when ldquoDonrsquot worry we still have time to deal with itrdquo turned into ldquoHow can this task be two weeks overduerdquo
Tom believes his team members are competent and responsi-ble enough to take care of their own tasks so he doesnrsquot mind sharing some planning power with them -) After all a little trust can pay off and bring great results
During the planning phase he lets his team members set their own action items based on the defined goals Their ex-pertise will help them establish the possible roadblocks op-portunities and develop a realistic schedule And as a bonus this will increase their sense of responsibility and will let them know Tom trusts and believes in them and thatrsquos price-less
Replace micromanagement with self-organizing
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
21
Tim and Tom have gone a long way to fight the most notorious pro-ductivity killers Itrsquos up to you to decide whorsquos done better -) How-ever staying productive throughout the day is easier than it may seem With these proven techniques and a little help from the right task management software your team can finish more work in less time and easily become productivity superheroes
Be victorious in your battle over productivity killers and have the most productive day
CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION
With love your Wrike Team
Add your projectrsquos milestones to the Gantt chart and make sure to plan the first one in detail Once your project progresses yoursquoll be able to add new tasks to the chart And if therere any changes along the way you can easily adjust the schedule with a simple drag-and-drop
Encourage your team members to ldquopickrdquo and assign tasks to themselves Meanwhile yoursquoll be able to keep an eye on the tasksrsquo progress in the Activity Stream and be ready to step in if needed
Task management software that makes your life easier
Start free trial
Before yelling try telling
DONOTDISTURB
His teammates are no psychics and Tom knows it So he makes sure they are aware of the pressing presentation hersquos working on at the moment Following the example of nurses who wore special vests to let their colleagues and patients know they are busy preparing medication and canrsquot be dis-tracted Tom puts a ldquodo not disturbrdquo sign on his desk and in his Skype status He also lets his colleagues know in the grouprsquos chat that hersquoll be busy for the next couple of hours
Mention your colleaguersquos name in the taskrsquos com-
ments to draw their atten-tion to your question with-out interrupting them Your colleague will later notice
the mention and will answer as soon as they have time
Mark the important but not urgent tasks as ldquobackloggedrdquo
without the need to set a strict due date Yoursquoll be able
to prioritize them and set time to deal with them
Use the timer in the task to let your colleagues know
about the importanturgent matter you are currently
working on Once you click ldquoplayrdquo the task you are work-
ing on is automatically broad-casted to the Activity Stream (real-time project news feed)
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31
Compare Tim and Tom when the clock strikes three Tim who was con-stantly distracted has only 20 out of 30 slides ready keeps working on the presentation until the very last moment and as a result is late to the meeting and stressed This becomes a mental distraction and Tim doesnrsquot have his best to give during the presentation As you can imag-ine the client isnrsquot very impressed
Tom on the contrary finishes the presentation 15 minutes early and has time to drink a cup of coffee and get in the right mood for the meeting Confident and ready his verbal and body language communicate confi-dence presence and charisma As a result of the meeting Tom gets a fruitful contract for his company
The productivity killer Tim is facing in this chapter came as the second most dangerous one in our survey No wonder Statistics show that as much as 95 of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally And for 20 of us itrsquos a chronic problem
DUE TOMORROW DO TOMORROWChapter 2
Problem ProcrastinationProblem Procrastination
of us are chronic procrastinators
20
95of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally
Tim has two tasks he canrsquot make himself start working on First is a global financial conference he has to plan Itrsquos been hanging over his head for the last two weeks But every time he opens the document to start planning he just stares at the blank page and then switches to another less pressing task He also needs to sort through all the busi-ness cards he brought home from the recent conference The task seems simple but Tim keeps postponing it andnow it has become almost awkward to act on them
The first question you need to answer is ldquoWhyrdquo
Why do we keep postponing a task till the very last minute and create for ourselves a whole bunch of extra problems To say nothing of stress and panic Once you figure out why you are procrastinating you can decide how to deal with it
Tom knows that it will be easier to manage a task if he splits it into several small actionable items that he can handle right away So he starts with making a guest list and then assigns his assistant to look for the conference venue He also creates a task ldquoSend out the invitesrdquo in his task management software He now feels that the conference monster is not that scary any more
Split it into several small actionable items
Try using the ldquo3+2rdquo rule
Tom follows the advice of developer Jakub Stastny and com-pletes 3 big and 2 small tasks and calls it a day Today world domination can wait
The reason why Tim canrsquot make himself sort through the busi-ness cards is that the task seems too boring and meaningless to him What can Tom do about it
The reason why Tim keeps postponing planning the confer-ence is that the task is too big and complex When we are faced with such a task we just donrsquot know where to start so we never do So how would Tom handle it
Keying in business cards from the conference can be repetitive and boring But often tasks like that are necessary So to get through this task Tom promises himself a hot cup of his favor-ite coffee in the nearby coffee shop You just need to find your own trigger
Reward yourself
Sometimes taking a short break is more rewarding than making yourself work through with gritted teeth and Tom knows it Instead he takes a 5 and recharges his productivity
Take short breaks
Spice the things up a little A quick piece of advice from Tom why not compete with a colleague on who finishes the monthly report first You can also compete with yourself and do the same task 3x faster with no harm to quality
Create a competition
Rock productivity with music
Music with an upbeat rhythmcan reduce stress by as much
as 41
Charge your brain with a quick snack
79 of workers believe coffee breakes make them more
productive
Get away from your deskRegular short exercise helps
53 of employees to feel more active throughout the day
Tomrsquos choice
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31Nothing motivates like the actual look of the well-done job Break down your big and complex project into action-able tasks and mark them ldquocompleterdquo one by one You can then visualize your progress on the Gantt chart and see what else you have left to accomplish
Use time-tracking to see how fast you can complete a not-so-exciting but recurring task next time (with no harm to the quality of course)
If you have several tasks to complete prioritize them in your to-do list and avoid mul-titasking
Share this book
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Itrsquos impossible to foresee all the emergencies and details from the very beginning
So Tom starts with creating a ldquoframeworkrdquo for the project He opens the task management software and sets the major goals and milestones He knows that a fixed time frame is important for the teamrsquos motivation as it creates the needed level of posi-tive stress So he sets due dates for every milestone However Tom understands that along the way hersquoll be able to adjust the schedule and add more spe-cific due dates based on the project details he gets
Take it one step at a time
It should be done byhellipYESTERDAYChapter 3
Problem Inaccurate planningProblem Inaccurate planning
Itrsquos not the first time when Tim encounters a task that took him twice the amount of time to complete as he had planned This time it was a clientrsquos product launch He canrsquot understand when ldquoDonrsquot worry we still have time to deal with itrdquo turned into ldquoHow can this task be two weeks overduerdquo
Tom believes his team members are competent and responsi-ble enough to take care of their own tasks so he doesnrsquot mind sharing some planning power with them -) After all a little trust can pay off and bring great results
During the planning phase he lets his team members set their own action items based on the defined goals Their ex-pertise will help them establish the possible roadblocks op-portunities and develop a realistic schedule And as a bonus this will increase their sense of responsibility and will let them know Tom trusts and believes in them and thatrsquos price-less
Replace micromanagement with self-organizing
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
21
Tim and Tom have gone a long way to fight the most notorious pro-ductivity killers Itrsquos up to you to decide whorsquos done better -) How-ever staying productive throughout the day is easier than it may seem With these proven techniques and a little help from the right task management software your team can finish more work in less time and easily become productivity superheroes
Be victorious in your battle over productivity killers and have the most productive day
CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION
With love your Wrike Team
Add your projectrsquos milestones to the Gantt chart and make sure to plan the first one in detail Once your project progresses yoursquoll be able to add new tasks to the chart And if therere any changes along the way you can easily adjust the schedule with a simple drag-and-drop
Encourage your team members to ldquopickrdquo and assign tasks to themselves Meanwhile yoursquoll be able to keep an eye on the tasksrsquo progress in the Activity Stream and be ready to step in if needed
Task management software that makes your life easier
Start free trial
The productivity killer Tim is facing in this chapter came as the second most dangerous one in our survey No wonder Statistics show that as much as 95 of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally And for 20 of us itrsquos a chronic problem
DUE TOMORROW DO TOMORROWChapter 2
Problem ProcrastinationProblem Procrastination
of us are chronic procrastinators
20
95of people admit that they procrastinate at least occasionally
Tim has two tasks he canrsquot make himself start working on First is a global financial conference he has to plan Itrsquos been hanging over his head for the last two weeks But every time he opens the document to start planning he just stares at the blank page and then switches to another less pressing task He also needs to sort through all the busi-ness cards he brought home from the recent conference The task seems simple but Tim keeps postponing it andnow it has become almost awkward to act on them
The first question you need to answer is ldquoWhyrdquo
Why do we keep postponing a task till the very last minute and create for ourselves a whole bunch of extra problems To say nothing of stress and panic Once you figure out why you are procrastinating you can decide how to deal with it
Tom knows that it will be easier to manage a task if he splits it into several small actionable items that he can handle right away So he starts with making a guest list and then assigns his assistant to look for the conference venue He also creates a task ldquoSend out the invitesrdquo in his task management software He now feels that the conference monster is not that scary any more
Split it into several small actionable items
Try using the ldquo3+2rdquo rule
Tom follows the advice of developer Jakub Stastny and com-pletes 3 big and 2 small tasks and calls it a day Today world domination can wait
The reason why Tim canrsquot make himself sort through the busi-ness cards is that the task seems too boring and meaningless to him What can Tom do about it
The reason why Tim keeps postponing planning the confer-ence is that the task is too big and complex When we are faced with such a task we just donrsquot know where to start so we never do So how would Tom handle it
Keying in business cards from the conference can be repetitive and boring But often tasks like that are necessary So to get through this task Tom promises himself a hot cup of his favor-ite coffee in the nearby coffee shop You just need to find your own trigger
Reward yourself
Sometimes taking a short break is more rewarding than making yourself work through with gritted teeth and Tom knows it Instead he takes a 5 and recharges his productivity
Take short breaks
Spice the things up a little A quick piece of advice from Tom why not compete with a colleague on who finishes the monthly report first You can also compete with yourself and do the same task 3x faster with no harm to quality
Create a competition
Rock productivity with music
Music with an upbeat rhythmcan reduce stress by as much
as 41
Charge your brain with a quick snack
79 of workers believe coffee breakes make them more
productive
Get away from your deskRegular short exercise helps
53 of employees to feel more active throughout the day
Tomrsquos choice
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31Nothing motivates like the actual look of the well-done job Break down your big and complex project into action-able tasks and mark them ldquocompleterdquo one by one You can then visualize your progress on the Gantt chart and see what else you have left to accomplish
Use time-tracking to see how fast you can complete a not-so-exciting but recurring task next time (with no harm to the quality of course)
If you have several tasks to complete prioritize them in your to-do list and avoid mul-titasking
Share this book
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Itrsquos impossible to foresee all the emergencies and details from the very beginning
So Tom starts with creating a ldquoframeworkrdquo for the project He opens the task management software and sets the major goals and milestones He knows that a fixed time frame is important for the teamrsquos motivation as it creates the needed level of posi-tive stress So he sets due dates for every milestone However Tom understands that along the way hersquoll be able to adjust the schedule and add more spe-cific due dates based on the project details he gets
Take it one step at a time
It should be done byhellipYESTERDAYChapter 3
Problem Inaccurate planningProblem Inaccurate planning
Itrsquos not the first time when Tim encounters a task that took him twice the amount of time to complete as he had planned This time it was a clientrsquos product launch He canrsquot understand when ldquoDonrsquot worry we still have time to deal with itrdquo turned into ldquoHow can this task be two weeks overduerdquo
Tom believes his team members are competent and responsi-ble enough to take care of their own tasks so he doesnrsquot mind sharing some planning power with them -) After all a little trust can pay off and bring great results
During the planning phase he lets his team members set their own action items based on the defined goals Their ex-pertise will help them establish the possible roadblocks op-portunities and develop a realistic schedule And as a bonus this will increase their sense of responsibility and will let them know Tom trusts and believes in them and thatrsquos price-less
Replace micromanagement with self-organizing
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
21
Tim and Tom have gone a long way to fight the most notorious pro-ductivity killers Itrsquos up to you to decide whorsquos done better -) How-ever staying productive throughout the day is easier than it may seem With these proven techniques and a little help from the right task management software your team can finish more work in less time and easily become productivity superheroes
Be victorious in your battle over productivity killers and have the most productive day
CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION
With love your Wrike Team
Add your projectrsquos milestones to the Gantt chart and make sure to plan the first one in detail Once your project progresses yoursquoll be able to add new tasks to the chart And if therere any changes along the way you can easily adjust the schedule with a simple drag-and-drop
Encourage your team members to ldquopickrdquo and assign tasks to themselves Meanwhile yoursquoll be able to keep an eye on the tasksrsquo progress in the Activity Stream and be ready to step in if needed
Task management software that makes your life easier
Start free trial
The first question you need to answer is ldquoWhyrdquo
Why do we keep postponing a task till the very last minute and create for ourselves a whole bunch of extra problems To say nothing of stress and panic Once you figure out why you are procrastinating you can decide how to deal with it
Tom knows that it will be easier to manage a task if he splits it into several small actionable items that he can handle right away So he starts with making a guest list and then assigns his assistant to look for the conference venue He also creates a task ldquoSend out the invitesrdquo in his task management software He now feels that the conference monster is not that scary any more
Split it into several small actionable items
Try using the ldquo3+2rdquo rule
Tom follows the advice of developer Jakub Stastny and com-pletes 3 big and 2 small tasks and calls it a day Today world domination can wait
The reason why Tim canrsquot make himself sort through the busi-ness cards is that the task seems too boring and meaningless to him What can Tom do about it
The reason why Tim keeps postponing planning the confer-ence is that the task is too big and complex When we are faced with such a task we just donrsquot know where to start so we never do So how would Tom handle it
Keying in business cards from the conference can be repetitive and boring But often tasks like that are necessary So to get through this task Tom promises himself a hot cup of his favor-ite coffee in the nearby coffee shop You just need to find your own trigger
Reward yourself
Sometimes taking a short break is more rewarding than making yourself work through with gritted teeth and Tom knows it Instead he takes a 5 and recharges his productivity
Take short breaks
Spice the things up a little A quick piece of advice from Tom why not compete with a colleague on who finishes the monthly report first You can also compete with yourself and do the same task 3x faster with no harm to quality
Create a competition
Rock productivity with music
Music with an upbeat rhythmcan reduce stress by as much
as 41
Charge your brain with a quick snack
79 of workers believe coffee breakes make them more
productive
Get away from your deskRegular short exercise helps
53 of employees to feel more active throughout the day
Tomrsquos choice
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31Nothing motivates like the actual look of the well-done job Break down your big and complex project into action-able tasks and mark them ldquocompleterdquo one by one You can then visualize your progress on the Gantt chart and see what else you have left to accomplish
Use time-tracking to see how fast you can complete a not-so-exciting but recurring task next time (with no harm to the quality of course)
If you have several tasks to complete prioritize them in your to-do list and avoid mul-titasking
Share this book
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Itrsquos impossible to foresee all the emergencies and details from the very beginning
So Tom starts with creating a ldquoframeworkrdquo for the project He opens the task management software and sets the major goals and milestones He knows that a fixed time frame is important for the teamrsquos motivation as it creates the needed level of posi-tive stress So he sets due dates for every milestone However Tom understands that along the way hersquoll be able to adjust the schedule and add more spe-cific due dates based on the project details he gets
Take it one step at a time
It should be done byhellipYESTERDAYChapter 3
Problem Inaccurate planningProblem Inaccurate planning
Itrsquos not the first time when Tim encounters a task that took him twice the amount of time to complete as he had planned This time it was a clientrsquos product launch He canrsquot understand when ldquoDonrsquot worry we still have time to deal with itrdquo turned into ldquoHow can this task be two weeks overduerdquo
Tom believes his team members are competent and responsi-ble enough to take care of their own tasks so he doesnrsquot mind sharing some planning power with them -) After all a little trust can pay off and bring great results
During the planning phase he lets his team members set their own action items based on the defined goals Their ex-pertise will help them establish the possible roadblocks op-portunities and develop a realistic schedule And as a bonus this will increase their sense of responsibility and will let them know Tom trusts and believes in them and thatrsquos price-less
Replace micromanagement with self-organizing
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
21
Tim and Tom have gone a long way to fight the most notorious pro-ductivity killers Itrsquos up to you to decide whorsquos done better -) How-ever staying productive throughout the day is easier than it may seem With these proven techniques and a little help from the right task management software your team can finish more work in less time and easily become productivity superheroes
Be victorious in your battle over productivity killers and have the most productive day
CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION
With love your Wrike Team
Add your projectrsquos milestones to the Gantt chart and make sure to plan the first one in detail Once your project progresses yoursquoll be able to add new tasks to the chart And if therere any changes along the way you can easily adjust the schedule with a simple drag-and-drop
Encourage your team members to ldquopickrdquo and assign tasks to themselves Meanwhile yoursquoll be able to keep an eye on the tasksrsquo progress in the Activity Stream and be ready to step in if needed
Task management software that makes your life easier
Start free trial
Keying in business cards from the conference can be repetitive and boring But often tasks like that are necessary So to get through this task Tom promises himself a hot cup of his favor-ite coffee in the nearby coffee shop You just need to find your own trigger
Reward yourself
Sometimes taking a short break is more rewarding than making yourself work through with gritted teeth and Tom knows it Instead he takes a 5 and recharges his productivity
Take short breaks
Spice the things up a little A quick piece of advice from Tom why not compete with a colleague on who finishes the monthly report first You can also compete with yourself and do the same task 3x faster with no harm to quality
Create a competition
Rock productivity with music
Music with an upbeat rhythmcan reduce stress by as much
as 41
Charge your brain with a quick snack
79 of workers believe coffee breakes make them more
productive
Get away from your deskRegular short exercise helps
53 of employees to feel more active throughout the day
Tomrsquos choice
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31Nothing motivates like the actual look of the well-done job Break down your big and complex project into action-able tasks and mark them ldquocompleterdquo one by one You can then visualize your progress on the Gantt chart and see what else you have left to accomplish
Use time-tracking to see how fast you can complete a not-so-exciting but recurring task next time (with no harm to the quality of course)
If you have several tasks to complete prioritize them in your to-do list and avoid mul-titasking
Share this book
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Itrsquos impossible to foresee all the emergencies and details from the very beginning
So Tom starts with creating a ldquoframeworkrdquo for the project He opens the task management software and sets the major goals and milestones He knows that a fixed time frame is important for the teamrsquos motivation as it creates the needed level of posi-tive stress So he sets due dates for every milestone However Tom understands that along the way hersquoll be able to adjust the schedule and add more spe-cific due dates based on the project details he gets
Take it one step at a time
It should be done byhellipYESTERDAYChapter 3
Problem Inaccurate planningProblem Inaccurate planning
Itrsquos not the first time when Tim encounters a task that took him twice the amount of time to complete as he had planned This time it was a clientrsquos product launch He canrsquot understand when ldquoDonrsquot worry we still have time to deal with itrdquo turned into ldquoHow can this task be two weeks overduerdquo
Tom believes his team members are competent and responsi-ble enough to take care of their own tasks so he doesnrsquot mind sharing some planning power with them -) After all a little trust can pay off and bring great results
During the planning phase he lets his team members set their own action items based on the defined goals Their ex-pertise will help them establish the possible roadblocks op-portunities and develop a realistic schedule And as a bonus this will increase their sense of responsibility and will let them know Tom trusts and believes in them and thatrsquos price-less
Replace micromanagement with self-organizing
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
21
Tim and Tom have gone a long way to fight the most notorious pro-ductivity killers Itrsquos up to you to decide whorsquos done better -) How-ever staying productive throughout the day is easier than it may seem With these proven techniques and a little help from the right task management software your team can finish more work in less time and easily become productivity superheroes
Be victorious in your battle over productivity killers and have the most productive day
CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION
With love your Wrike Team
Add your projectrsquos milestones to the Gantt chart and make sure to plan the first one in detail Once your project progresses yoursquoll be able to add new tasks to the chart And if therere any changes along the way you can easily adjust the schedule with a simple drag-and-drop
Encourage your team members to ldquopickrdquo and assign tasks to themselves Meanwhile yoursquoll be able to keep an eye on the tasksrsquo progress in the Activity Stream and be ready to step in if needed
Task management software that makes your life easier
Start free trial
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
2 31Nothing motivates like the actual look of the well-done job Break down your big and complex project into action-able tasks and mark them ldquocompleterdquo one by one You can then visualize your progress on the Gantt chart and see what else you have left to accomplish
Use time-tracking to see how fast you can complete a not-so-exciting but recurring task next time (with no harm to the quality of course)
If you have several tasks to complete prioritize them in your to-do list and avoid mul-titasking
Share this book
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Itrsquos impossible to foresee all the emergencies and details from the very beginning
So Tom starts with creating a ldquoframeworkrdquo for the project He opens the task management software and sets the major goals and milestones He knows that a fixed time frame is important for the teamrsquos motivation as it creates the needed level of posi-tive stress So he sets due dates for every milestone However Tom understands that along the way hersquoll be able to adjust the schedule and add more spe-cific due dates based on the project details he gets
Take it one step at a time
It should be done byhellipYESTERDAYChapter 3
Problem Inaccurate planningProblem Inaccurate planning
Itrsquos not the first time when Tim encounters a task that took him twice the amount of time to complete as he had planned This time it was a clientrsquos product launch He canrsquot understand when ldquoDonrsquot worry we still have time to deal with itrdquo turned into ldquoHow can this task be two weeks overduerdquo
Tom believes his team members are competent and responsi-ble enough to take care of their own tasks so he doesnrsquot mind sharing some planning power with them -) After all a little trust can pay off and bring great results
During the planning phase he lets his team members set their own action items based on the defined goals Their ex-pertise will help them establish the possible roadblocks op-portunities and develop a realistic schedule And as a bonus this will increase their sense of responsibility and will let them know Tom trusts and believes in them and thatrsquos price-less
Replace micromanagement with self-organizing
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
21
Tim and Tom have gone a long way to fight the most notorious pro-ductivity killers Itrsquos up to you to decide whorsquos done better -) How-ever staying productive throughout the day is easier than it may seem With these proven techniques and a little help from the right task management software your team can finish more work in less time and easily become productivity superheroes
Be victorious in your battle over productivity killers and have the most productive day
CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION
With love your Wrike Team
Add your projectrsquos milestones to the Gantt chart and make sure to plan the first one in detail Once your project progresses yoursquoll be able to add new tasks to the chart And if therere any changes along the way you can easily adjust the schedule with a simple drag-and-drop
Encourage your team members to ldquopickrdquo and assign tasks to themselves Meanwhile yoursquoll be able to keep an eye on the tasksrsquo progress in the Activity Stream and be ready to step in if needed
Task management software that makes your life easier
Start free trial
SOLUTIONSOLUTION
Itrsquos impossible to foresee all the emergencies and details from the very beginning
So Tom starts with creating a ldquoframeworkrdquo for the project He opens the task management software and sets the major goals and milestones He knows that a fixed time frame is important for the teamrsquos motivation as it creates the needed level of posi-tive stress So he sets due dates for every milestone However Tom understands that along the way hersquoll be able to adjust the schedule and add more spe-cific due dates based on the project details he gets
Take it one step at a time
It should be done byhellipYESTERDAYChapter 3
Problem Inaccurate planningProblem Inaccurate planning
Itrsquos not the first time when Tim encounters a task that took him twice the amount of time to complete as he had planned This time it was a clientrsquos product launch He canrsquot understand when ldquoDonrsquot worry we still have time to deal with itrdquo turned into ldquoHow can this task be two weeks overduerdquo
Tom believes his team members are competent and responsi-ble enough to take care of their own tasks so he doesnrsquot mind sharing some planning power with them -) After all a little trust can pay off and bring great results
During the planning phase he lets his team members set their own action items based on the defined goals Their ex-pertise will help them establish the possible roadblocks op-portunities and develop a realistic schedule And as a bonus this will increase their sense of responsibility and will let them know Tom trusts and believes in them and thatrsquos price-less
Replace micromanagement with self-organizing
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
21
Tim and Tom have gone a long way to fight the most notorious pro-ductivity killers Itrsquos up to you to decide whorsquos done better -) How-ever staying productive throughout the day is easier than it may seem With these proven techniques and a little help from the right task management software your team can finish more work in less time and easily become productivity superheroes
Be victorious in your battle over productivity killers and have the most productive day
CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION
With love your Wrike Team
Add your projectrsquos milestones to the Gantt chart and make sure to plan the first one in detail Once your project progresses yoursquoll be able to add new tasks to the chart And if therere any changes along the way you can easily adjust the schedule with a simple drag-and-drop
Encourage your team members to ldquopickrdquo and assign tasks to themselves Meanwhile yoursquoll be able to keep an eye on the tasksrsquo progress in the Activity Stream and be ready to step in if needed
Task management software that makes your life easier
Start free trial
How Wrike can help you
httpwwwwrikecom
21
Tim and Tom have gone a long way to fight the most notorious pro-ductivity killers Itrsquos up to you to decide whorsquos done better -) How-ever staying productive throughout the day is easier than it may seem With these proven techniques and a little help from the right task management software your team can finish more work in less time and easily become productivity superheroes
Be victorious in your battle over productivity killers and have the most productive day
CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION
With love your Wrike Team
Add your projectrsquos milestones to the Gantt chart and make sure to plan the first one in detail Once your project progresses yoursquoll be able to add new tasks to the chart And if therere any changes along the way you can easily adjust the schedule with a simple drag-and-drop
Encourage your team members to ldquopickrdquo and assign tasks to themselves Meanwhile yoursquoll be able to keep an eye on the tasksrsquo progress in the Activity Stream and be ready to step in if needed
Task management software that makes your life easier
Start free trial