From the course: Time Management Fundamentals

Understanding the three principles of productivity

From the course: Time Management Fundamentals

Understanding the three principles of productivity

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- Three principles of productivity influence your success and wellbeing: space, mind, and time. Space refers to your physical and digital workspaces. When you reduce workspace chaos, you improve your focus and gain more free time. Most people experience a lot of chaos and lose a great deal of time because they have too many gathering points, places where incomplete stuff gathers. Gathering points can be physical, such as piles of paper or messy drawers, or digital, such as an overflowing email inbox. We're going to reduce your number of gathering points. Mind refers to your ability to stay focused. When you reduce distracting thoughts and interruptions, you're free to do your best work. Many people experience near continual distraction throughout their day. Unresolved tasks and projects create a lot of self-inflicted switchtasking. Don't use your mind as a gathering point. Think about the last hour. How many times did you mentally interrupt yourself? This is inefficient and it's stressful, and a recipe for mistakes. Reducing interruptive thoughts will save time and improve the quality of your life. Some of my clients have even said it's helped them sleep better. And time refers to the schedule you create for self. When your calendar is focused on what's most valuable, you'll grow in your career and feel greater balance. Ideas and opportunities compete for your time every day. Those who are most productive make conscious choices about where they will focus their time. They focus on their most valuable activities, or what I call MVAs. They also create boundaries that protect their attention. The more you focus your schedule on these MVAs, the more valuable you become in your career, and that leads to greater freedom. At this moment, which of these three principles, space, mind and time, is your strongest? Which is your weakest? As you go through the course, focus your attention on the greatest opportunity for growth.

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