This is eighth characteristic of the 9 Characteristics of a Productivity Ninja….
In our list of the characteristics to aspire to be, one that underpins and strengthens so many of the others is preparedness. Zen like calm in the heat of the battle is only possible if you’re well prepared. Agility is only possible if you’re starting from a position of being prepared and ready to react immediately. And you’re only ready to be ruthless if you’ve got the energy. Being prepared is about practical preparation as well as mental preparation.
A weapon-savvy Ninja knows the added sense of control they feel when tackling a problem or project with the right tools. There used to be a time when being organised, focussing on the stationery or the geeky apps was considered nerdy or uncool. Well, the time has come to unleash your inner geek.
It’s time to maintain practical systems that will mean you’re always prepared to tackle whatever comes your way. It may seem less cool than just ‘going with the flow’, but there is power in stocking up on stationery, power in investing time in the right systems and power in attacking your work from the position of being well prepared.
As well as being physically well prepared, we need to be mentally well prepared too. This of course means mindfulness, but it also means looking after our most precious resource: our own attention and energy. As such, we need time to be off duty too. Perhaps being off duty involves a long Facebook binge or surfing crap on the internet. Perhaps it involves going out with friends or taking time to focus your attention onto something completely different (or onto nothing at all).
Many people are pressured by their bosses to stay late in the office. I have talked to a lot of people who say that even though no one feels like there’s anything to do, let alone feels ready to do anything, they still stay – for about five minutes after the boss has gone home. If you’re in a job where you’re under this kind of peer pressure, it needs to change. We’ll work on that together. As for your boss, well, perhaps buying them a copy of this book would be a start!
‘Crunching’ is a term that means buckling down, eyes on the deadline or conscious of the busy period ahead. It means not looking after yourself and not coming up for air. Crunching is a great short-term tactic when the going gets tough. But studies show that sustained periods of ‘crunch’ only lead to diminishing returns. In the film Wall Street, Gordon Gecko, played brilliantly by Michael Douglas, uttered the now legendary phrase, “Lunch is for wimps”. It stuck in the collective consciousness and you’ll still hear it used to this day. Well, lunch is not for wimps. But preparedness is for Ninjas.
Preparedness leads to magic it’s difficult to say why taking lunch or short breaks during the working day always brings you so quickly back to ruthless focus and your ‘A’ game. It just happens that way. Periods of rest are vital for preparedness. Next time you spend any meaningful length of time during the hours of nine to five not working and move your attention onto something completely different, just watch what happens; I’ll bet that on that day, you’ll get more done, not less. It’s like a magical little secret.
Different shifts in gear seem to work for different people, but it’s as much in the body as in the mind. A five-minute blast of fresh air is infinitely more effective than ten minutes screwing about on the internet with your work still open in the background. The trick is to find the thing that works for you. As we look more at managing your attention and momentum later in the book, we will revisit this very unusual but startlingly effective secret.
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This is characteristic 7 of the 9 characteristics of becoming a Productivity Ninja….
Our minds are our most important tool. Being emotionally intelligent and self-aware are important for so many reasons, not least because they equip you to take action. For instance, a lot of the things that make up the Ninja mindset, such as remaining calm, being ruthless and pushing the boundaries by being unorthodox, aren’t easy. In fact, in many ways they go against our evolutionary design.
Our brains have evolved a lot since we were monkeys, but one thing has hardly changed: the lizard brain. A term popularised by Seth Godin in his brilliant book Linchpin, this part of our brain still remembers what it was like to need to survive, to blend in, to not make a fuss. In fact, the worst thing for the lizard brain to think would be that whatever we’re doing makes us stand out. Standing out from the crowd in evolutionary terms meant you’d get picked off by a predator and this is exactly how the lizard brain still thinks!
Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art is a revealing and personal account of his battles as a writer against what he calls ‘the resistance’. The resistance is a mindset, usually developed by the lizard brain, but characterised by stress, anxiety, fear of failure, fear of success and a whole host of other emotions that whir around our brains and tell us to stand still. “Stop. Don’t do it. It’s risky. Do it how others do it because that’s what we know is already accepted behaviour. Innovation and unorthodoxy is a crazy idea. Creativity is just wrong.” Your job as a Ninja is to silence those thought processes as much as possible.
This sounds easy but it’s not – mainly because they’re often so quiet that you don’t even realise they need silencing at all. Pay close attention to yourself and your gut instincts, but also objectively observe your productivity, noticing which tasks you’re drawn to and repelled by. You don’t need to be a psychologist or a counsellor to understand your own thinking, but you do need to pay close attention to it.
Many people will tell you that allowing time and space to listen to your emotions, listen to your heart and just be mindful is either a waste of time or somehow ‘hippy psychobabble’. The Ninja knows differently – knows that it’s all about perception and there’s a greater force inside of us that we can channel towards fulfilment, success and changing the world.
A bad day can be as much about what’s going on in your head as what’s going on in the office. Those that regularly practice or have even tried some form of mediation will know of its benefits. In fact, meditation can help sharpen all of the other aspects of the Ninja mindset we’ve just discussed.
I take a wide definition of meditation here that includes sitting quietly staring at a beautiful view, praying, free writing and other creativity pursuits, Yoga, walking (if the purpose is to walk, not to arrive!) and many other things. Again, the aim is to promote Zen-like calm and be focussed and fully present in your work.
As well as taking the time to listen to our own thoughts and emotions, active and effective listening is at the heart of great meetings and collaborative work. Listening to objections and hearing only feedback and connection rather than criticism and opposition is a crucial skill, too.
Productivity and mindfulness go together like peanut butter and jelly. Yesterday is history tomorrow is a mystery and the action is in the present. Think Productive time management training courses focus on the moment enabling you to get your inbox to zero.
“Begin with the end in mind.”– Stephen Covey
This is the second in a series of posts defining the Characteristics of a Productivity Ninja….
As well as needing to make more and better decisions, we need to be choosy, processing information to sort the wheat from the chaff and the big opportunities from the even bigger ones. Ruthlessness isn’t just about how we process information, it’s also about our ability to protect our time and attention, focussing only on the things that add the greatest impact, even at the expense of other things that are ‘worth doing’.
With abundance of information such a problem, being choosy is the only way. It goes against the western, protestant work ethic culture that we’re so familiar with to decide not to do things, but that’s exactly what we must do. Being much choosier about what we say “Yes” to is an important skill – and learning to say “No” to ourselves means not biting off more than we can chew. If you do get into situations where you’ve bitten off more than you can chew (and I do this regularly,by the way!), it’s about realising that renegotiating your commitments to yourself and others is better than burning yourself out trying to meet them all.
Picture this. You’re in a meeting that you thought you were attending purely to contribute to, and the meeting discussion begins to come around to some decisions and commitments about actions people could take at the end of the
meeting. There’s a particular set of actions that you’re renowned for being good at, and just as it’s mentioned, several pairs of eyes turn and focus on you. Saying “No” to others is tricky. It requires steely resolve, a ruthless streak and some great tactics so that you come out smelling of roses.
Our attention – particularly that proactive attention when we’re most alert, in flow and on top of our game – is arguably our most precious resource. It needs to be nurtured and valued. At the same time, there are a million interruptions out there: emails, phone calls, thoughts, stress, colleagues, social media, the next big crisis, the next big thing.
We often like to be distracted because it’s the perfect excuse for procrastination and thinking less. Facebook or Twitter win over the report we’re supposed to be finishing simply because it’s easier to be in those places, having conversations, than it is to get into the difficult thinking we’re supposed to be engaged in.
Using the 80-20 rule, we can start to recognise that not all of what we do creates an equal amountof impact. 20% of what we do accounts for 80% of the impact. Often, there’s a temptation to aim for perfection. In some areas of our work, this perfection is healthy and even necessary but in other cases, it can be avoided and the impact on the final result hardly even noticed. So we need to be ruthless in our planning. What are we trying to achieve? Has someone else solved this problem before? Could we beg, borrow or steal?
I hope you enjoyed this article on increasing productivity by developing the ninja skill of ruthlessness. If you have any other time management tips, please feel free to share them below!
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Last week was the launch of “How to be a Productivity Ninja”, a culmination of the last three years of thinking and getting things done from Graham Allcott. Adopting the mind-set of a Ninja offers very useful ways to approach your work. This week we thought we’d give you a taste of the nine characteristics of a Productivity Ninja described in the book….
Do you have a system to store the information, actions, task lists, checklists and files? What could be improved to make it easier to access? Zen like calm is an ability to remain focused and not be stressed by all the things you’re not doing.
Saying ‘no’ to as many distractions as possible. Could you afford to be more ruthless in your focus?
Knowing what tools to use, but being clear that the tools are there to save you time, not provide distractions. Do you have good communication systems in place and is it easy to track who does what?
Get out of the chaos once in a while. Are there times when people working alone, away from the limelight, might be more productive.
Challenge the status quo. Think how would Nelson Mandela make it, or how would Amazon.com make it? Take inspiration from unusual (as well as usual) places.
Have good systems to help you react and respond quickly. Are there opportunities to discuss the storm during the calm before it? Plan ahead!
Ask youself good questions and avoid stress. Are you a good listener – to yourselves and to others?
Knowing that rest, relaxation and good organisation skills are important. If you’re over-stretched, can you see light at the end of the tunnel? If not, change it!
Last but no means least, one of the loudest messages in the book is that in order to be a Productivity Ninja, you don’t have to magically become a superhero. Superheroes only exist in the movies and you’ve got real work to do, back here on planet Earth.
You might be surprised to learn that to be a productivity ninja is not like being a superhuman. Essentially we are human beings not human doings. Humans make mistakes and we shouldn’t try to be perfect.
Aiming for perfection is often the quickest way to get stuck. The important thing is to finish, not to be perfect. Celebrate your mistakes – use them for good. Adopting a Productivity Ninja mind-set is a great way to create a safe space to innovate and ultimately, to change the world!
“How to be a Productivity Ninja” is available on Amazon buy your copy today. The e-book is being sold in aid of READ International.
This is Part 1 of a series of posts describing the characteristics that will help you to become a Productivity Ninja. Look out for new posts everyday this week. How many characteristics do you relate to? Please leave your comments below…
