The Personal Productivity Pyramid - When Daily Planning Holds The Key !

At times, so many of us struggle to achieve productivity, inspite of taking actions, which we assume to be appropriate. In hindsight, something appears missing and a closer scrutiny reveals that it's not the lack of effort that has undone us but instead, it's putting effort on the wrong priorities that has brought us at crossroads. Missing out on identifying the right set of priorities to work upon resulted in wasting our effort on attempting/ doing the "non-vital" tasks, and this effort of ours did not had any bearing on our productivity. 

When tasks define productivity, the biggest challenge turns out to be identifying the right tasks to focus on. The scenario becomes more complicated in the absence of a means by which to determine the right set of priorities that align with our whole personality, chiefly comprising of our belief system and values. A holistic approach to task prioritization is the key to productivity.

Sharing in this post about a simple yet comprehensive tool/ framework that eases our job of task prioritization, and puts us enroute super productivity. The tool is known as "The Personal Productivity Pyramid", and was introduced by the author Hyrum Smith, in his book "The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management". The tool (Personal Productivity Pyramid) provides a very comprehensive approach to address the dilemma of "Daily Planning", which is about creating the right "to-do" list for the day by identifying the tasks based on right priorities. Lets delve deep into the Pyramid.

The "Personal Productivity Pyramid" operates on the premise that "inner peace", exemplified by harmony and balance is the true determinant of productivity and an indication of right prioritization (more on this later in the post). The Pyramid comprises of 4 levels, namely "Governing Values",

"Long-Term Goals", "Short-Term Goals" and "Daily Tasks". Considering the fact that the tasks we undertake impact our productivity, the pyramid is used with the objective of identifying the tasks that match our governing values, i.e. the virtues/ principles of our life. Once identified, the tasks are then prioritized to be worked upon. Let's discuss about each level of the Pyramid

• Governing Values -  Values are the foundation on which the entire pyramid is built and so becomes the most crucial. The "governing values" refer to the things that guide us in our lives. they could also be thought of as principles of our life based on which we tend to live. These may be different for everyone and is an outcome of our belief system (to an extent). Few examples of Governing Values could be Punctuality, Honesty, Family, Health, Self-Respect, Empowerment, etc.

• Long-Term Goals - Corresponding to each of your identified governing values, what is it that we would like to achieve in our life. Broadly speaking it may refer to our Purpose in life. For example, if "Empowerment" is one of my governing values, i can safely identify becoming a globally renowned Life Coach as my Long-Term Goal.

• Short-Term Goals - For each of the long-term goals, what projects/ assignments we could pursue or engage in. For example, continuing with the same example of becoming a Life Coach, my short-term goals could be getting certified through a credible institution and start practicing.

• Daily Tasks - These refer to the actions that are taken/ need to be taken on the day. 

Let's now look at the Steps for using the Pyramid

With the objective of identifying the right set of daily tasks based on the identified values, following are the key steps for using the Personal Productivity Pyramid

• Identifying the "governing values" - One way to do so is to think - "what are those things for which i am willing to sacrifice everything else ?" .We may also ask ourselves - "What do i value most in my life or assume to be important in my life?". There are other ways also. The model is greatly inspired by Ben Franklin, and this first step resembles very closely to Franklin 13 Virtues. Here's a link that gives insight into Ben Franklin's 13 Virtues and also about methods to identify our own set of "governing values". Check it out here  https://blog.franklinplanner.com/organized-october-values/ . A PDF document to help us with identifying the governing values is also provided. 

• Prioritize the identified set of values - We can identify a lot of priorities (values) but we need to ask ourselves "what are my highest priorities ?" or "what do i value most ?". Based on these, we need to prepare a prioritized list of "governing values".

• Establish the long-term goal, corresponding to each of the governing values or at least for the top most priority items in the "governing values" list

• Identify the short-term goals, for each of the long-term goals established by us

• Identify the list of daily tasks corresponding to the goals established. The items may be categorised as Vital, Important and Trivial and then within each of the identified categories, we can further assign numeric values to set the right priority to work on. 

"Inner Peace" will be achieved only when we will work on the right priorities within our "daily tasks" list.  So, get going and fill your productivity pyramid !

Related Article : Beating the Productivity Paradox

Action Priority Matrix (APM) - When Prioritisation defines Productivity (Part 4) !

One of the most common dilemma that we face daily in our life is to accomodate the ever growing number of activities within the limited amount of time that we possess. Our "wish list" never tends to cease and is always brimming with ideas, projects, goals, dreams, opportunities and possibilities. We reach a point when every "task" in our "wish list" starts to shout for our attention and our inability to build "priority" leaves us overwhelmed and exhausted !  

This is when we may get tempted at ask ourselves - Is there a way to deal with this and find out which item to focus on and which one to discard, because every item in the "wish list" may not be worth our attention/ time / effort ?

Playing with plentiful (of ideas/ tasks) is playful only when we know how to "prioritise" them. We may generate plenty of ideas through Brainstorming, Brain Dump, and other techniques but unless we are able to filter the wanted from the unwanted, we will always be struggling to be productive. In our daily life, it's not difficult to find instances when we struggle to focus and prioritise the tasks on our "to-do" list / "wish" list. To quote a real-life personal example, i find it really challenging when i have to decide which new ideas pertaining to writing, blogging, training or coaching do i work upon because you need to be creative and innovative all the time. During earlier times, i used to randomly pick up the idea and work on it but with not so satisfactory results. There wasn't any logic/ reasoning to my prioritisation of the tasks. But adding few "prioritisation based" productivity tools has really helped me be in better control of things i need to work on . During my previous posts, i have covered a few important "prioritisation focused" productivity tools - Eisenhower Matrix, Pareto Principle, Warrent Buffet 5/ 25 Rule. Here, in this post, i am sharing about another productivity tool from the same category (Prioritisation) that has helped me immensely in making optimum use of my time and other resources. The tool is known as Action Priority Matrix (APM).

Related Article: Beating the Productivity Paradox (A compilation of tools for Super Productivity)

Action Priority Matrix (APM)      

It's a very simple tool/ technique, more of a visual representation to help us define priority for the tasks at hand. As the name suggests, it's a matrix to help us decide which tasks to act upon and which ones to discard. The other two terms are also self-explanatory - Action stands for Execution and Priority refers to Preference. So, the APM tool/ matrix helps us in deciding the preference for acting on tasks at hand. The tool is also known as Impact-Effort Matrix. Let's study it in detail

APM (Action Priority Matrix) is a 2x2 Matrix with 2 scales - "Effort" on the horizontal axis and "Impact" on the vertical axis. The Matrix is divided into 4 quadrants and based on the scores obtained by each task/ activity on theses 2 scales of Effort and Impact, the activities are plotted in the Matrix and fall in one of the 4 quadrants. The objective is to identify the tasks that give the maximum return with the minimum effort. Let's look at what these 4 quadrants represent -

• Quick Wins (High Impact, Low Effort) - These are the low hanging fruits and provide the best value for little effort. The tasks falling in these activities should be focused upon as much as possible and should always be the priority.   

• Major Projects (High Impact, High Effort) -  These tasks provide good value/ return but consume lot of time/ effort/ resource. The tasks in these quadrant are second in priority. The strategy for these tasks should be to finish them as early and efficiently so that they do not consume all our energy, time and resources. The key idea is to not let one "Major Project" crowd out too many "Quick Wins" tasks. As soon we finish these tasks, we should release all the effort and resources associated to make them available for the "Quick Wins". 

• Fill Ins (Low Impact, Low Effort) - Since these tasks do not create any big value or provide any major return, these could be taken only when some spare time is available else they should be delegated or dropped.

• Thankless Tasks (Low Impact, High Effort) -  Because of the little value they provide and high resources they consume, these tasks should be completely dropped to make time available for something better (in terms of tasks).

Steps for using the Action Priority Matrix

• Identify the tasks/ activities to be completed, which could be your "to-do" list, wish list or any other similar list comprising of your tasks/ activities

• Score the identified tasks on scales of Impact and Effort. The scale could be 1-10 (1 standing for lowest and 10 standing for highest)

• Based on the scores obtained, plot the activities in appropriate quadrant in the Matrix

• Prioritize the activities with "Quick Wins" tasks getting the highest priority in terms of time/ effort, followed by "Major Projects". The "Fill Ins" fall in priority only when there's scope for more (after Quick Wins and Major Projects) and "Thankless Tasks" get eliminated.

Few Tips to Remember

• Though "Impact-Effort" scale is used in the original format, a different variant of the scale could also be used, if need be. The "Impact" could be replaced with "Revenue", "Development of certain Skills or Knowledge" or any other measurable entity. Similarly, "Effort" could refer to Time, Money, Man-hours, etc. 

• The scale of 1-10 used to score tasks/ activities could also be replaced with any other convenient scale of your choice, such as from A (Low )- E (High).

• Key focus while "proritizing" should be on avoiding the "crowding out" effect, which means not letting the non-priority tasks eat out the resources of the priority tasks.

• Action Priority Matrix may not be the perfect solution to complex problems/ solutions but is always a good starting point 

• The Action Priority Matrix has a lot of resemblance with the Eisenhower Matrix, which is based on the Urgent - Important Scale

Application of Action Priority Matrix (APM)

The Matrix has application, not just in area of personal productivity (decision making, problem solving, time management), but also in domains of Healthcare, Product Development, Project Management and Team Building.,  Among the many benefits of APM, a consensus based approach to problem solving/ decision making is very helpful, where based on a mutually decided set of scales, the "priority" can be arrived at.

During one of the Blog writing campaigns, i used this Matrix and my Quadrants looked like this (as mentioned below)

• Quick Wins - writing a blog post
• Major Projects - writing a book
• Fill Ins - reading blogs beyond the prescribed number
• Thankless Tasks - Browsing the internet with no agenda

So, don't think too much about finding the right context for applying Action Priority Matrix (APM), just start from where you are and with whatever needs to be prioritized or worked upon in sequence.  

When "Time over Task" defines Productivity !

Source: projectmanagersuccess.com

It's easy to get lost in the maze of work (tasks) during our quest to become more productive. Little do we realise that productivity is as much about time as about tasks and merely focusing on finishing as many tasks as possible may not always be the best approach to being productive. When productivity is at stake, then both quality and quantity hold equal importance, and we can't afford to compromise on either. But maintaining the balance between quantity and quality is easier said than done !

It's not easy being productive in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world, where distractions exist in plenty and we need to try really hard to stay focused. Speed is of great essence in everything that we do but at times things may get too overwhelming for us because of the plenty that we need to work on. So, when "unlimited tasks in limited time" becomes the order of the day, then "prioritisation" is our only saviour and the focus shifts from merely accomplishing things to accomplishing the right things.

Here's sharing about a tool/ technique that could stand us in good stead when we need to balance prioritisation and speed/ time. The tool/ technique is known as TIMEBOXING, a simple way to get the best out of our every effort. Let's explore it in detail below

What is Timeboxing ?

Source:lucidchart.com

TIMEBOXING refers to allocation of a fixed length of time to an activity with the purpose of limiting the amount of time spent on each of the identified activity. This technique ensures 2 things

for us

• appropriate time is spent on each activity based on their importance (the discretion lies with us in terms of how much time we allocate to each of the identified task/ activity). 

• dedicated attention and maximum focus is put to each of the identified task/ activity

Unlike POMODORO technique, where the length of time allotted to each identified task is fixed to 25 minutes, here, in TIMEBOXING, there is a flexibility provided in terms of allotting any length of time to an activity, based on our judgement.

Read Related Article : POMODORO - The "Tick-Tock" way to Boost Productivity !

Why TimeBoxing would work ?

This technique would work for the simple reason that we live in a highly distracting world and with our attention span waning day by day, we need a technique that could deliver us results without demanding our prolonged attention.  

What are the benefits of Timeboxing ?

Source: litemind.com

Among the many benefits of timeboxing, few of the important ones are as mentioned below:

• Better control over 
• time
• task and 
• prioritisation of tasks

• Opportunity to reassess the task in terms of complexity and effort and accordingly modify time allotted, if need be

• Focus our energy and effort on important items and render us more productive

• Avoid burnout as we only spend a defined time-length on any activity/ task, irrespective of whether the task gets completed wholly or partially

• Builds concentration as we devote our full attention to a task for that time-duration.

• Flexibility in defining different time-lengths for different activities/ tasks

• Helps avoid procrastination as important things get precedence over less important ones 

What are the steps for applying Timeboxing ?

• Identify the goal to be accomplished and the objectives to be met

• List down all the tasks/ activities required for accomplishing the goal/ meeting the laid down objective(s)

• Calculate and set time-length for each of the identified task/ activity

• Prioritise the tasks, in alignment with the goal/ objective, in terms of sequence/ order, length and breadth pertinent to each activity

• Evaluate the progress against the goal/ objective 

• Reassess the time-length if desired results are not obtained 

Few precautions to take 

• Before applying the timeboxing technique, ensure to establish the goal first 

• Set short and realistic timeboxes, keeping in mind the average human attention span and the individual attention span too

• Have in place a dedicated timer. If using a smartphone or any other gadget for use as a timer, ensure the data is off to avoid any distracting prompts or pokes

• Build in relevant breaks during timeboxing

• If not required/ needed, avoid the temptation to finish the entire activity/ task in one go 

Remember, timeboxing is the way to go when you want to be in flow !

When Prioritisation defines Productivity (Part 3) - Warren Buffet 5/ 25 Rule

Warren Buffet's 5/25 Rule

When Prioritisation defines Productivity, it is not always about what we select but also about what we leave/ don't select. We will always have plenty on our list and it will never be easy to focus and direct our energy and effort on the things that matter most. Here's a rule/ strategy by Warren Buffet, one of the most successful investors in the world, about identifying an focusing on the important things in our life. The rule is known as 5/25 Rule. The power and impact of the rule could be gauged from the fact that it comes from one of the most successful person in the world. 

The story behind the rule goes like this - Mike Flint was Buffet's personal airplane pilot for 10 years and one day Buffet decided to help him plan out his career goals and priorities. The exercise involved Mike listing down 25 important goals of his life and then identifying the top 5 important goals to focus all his energy and effort on. The key highlight of the story is when being asked by Buffet about what he would do with the remaining 20 goals, Mike replied that he would work on these 20 goals intermittently while working on his 5 key goals. This is when Buffet corrected Mike by telling him that those 20 goals are the ones that he needs to avoid at all cost until he finishes with the top five. This is how Buffet helped Mike apply the 5/25 Rule for creating dedicated focus on his career goals and priorities. 

Let's look at the steps of applying the 5/ 25 Rule 

• Identify the area you want to focus on : Choose the area that's creating the most imbalance in your life and that has the maximum impact on your life

• Make a list of 25 goals in the area : Build a list of 25 goals, whether short-term or long-term. Make it a wish list and include every conceivable goal related to that area of your life.

• Identify the top 5 priority goals : This is the most crucial step of the process. Out of the 25 identified goals, identify the most important 5 goals that (according to you) has the maximum impact on your life. 

• Focus on the top 5 identified goals : Focus all your energy and effort on the top 5 identified goals and eliminate the rest 20 goals. Ensure you don't pay any attention to these "avoid at all cost" 20 goals till you have succeeded in the top 5 identified goals.

The 5/25 rule can be applied to any area of our life and the above exercise could even be done, in general, about life, without getting specific about any area of life.

Remember, the items 6 - 25 are also important but the rule suggests that we avoid letting them become distractions for us while we work on the topmost 5 goals.

Related Articles :

• When Prioritisation defines Productivity (Part 2 )- PARETO PRINCIPLE 

• When Priritisation defines Productivity (Part 3) - EISENHOWER MATRIX

So, get focused and go full throttle in achieving your 5 goals !       

When Prioritisation defines Productivity (Part 2)- Pareto Principle

We are living in times of big paradox, where the thing that's limited with us is the one that's demanded most. Plenty and Limited, seems to be co-existing together. All around us, we are faced with a  problem of plenty, whether about the choices we are expected to make or the information we need. There's just so much that gets bombarded at us, aimed at grabbing a part of our most precious commodity, i.e., "time", by way our attention and focus. 

Amidst this demand-supply conundrum (where supply of time for everything that demands it is restricted), try to answer the following for you and note down the answers (for later reference) : 

• Which are those goals that will help me achieve success ?
• Which are those habits that will make me productive ?
• Which are those relationships that make me feel satisfied ?
• What are those things that make me happy ?
• Which are those friends that i can rely on always ?
• On a typical day, what are those activities that consume my time ?
• On what times, do i spend my maximum money on ?

The context for the above questions could permeate into professional sphere also. Let's look at few of the other possible scenarios 

If you are a start-up entrepreneur , you may ask yourself 

• What activities take up my maximum time ?
• Which expenses/ type of expenses consume the maximum funds from the allotted budget ?
• Which ideas will contribute most to the objective of the start-up ?   
• Which market will give the maximum response ?
• Which funders will support the long-term sustainability of the project/ idea ?
• .....  

If you work from home, you may 

• Which are my most productive hours ?
• Which activities occupy my non-work hours ?
• ......

If you are a working professional, you may ask yourself 

• From among the various tasks that i perform daily/ regularly, which ones map to my job description ?
• Which of my team members give the maximum output (are most efficient) ?
• Which customers give me the most business ?
• ........

(The above exercise could go on for other spheres/ roles of our life but i have restricted myself to these many scenarios only for want of space and time and to move further with the topic)

This list that you created in response to the above activity could turn out to be a "Time Saviour" for you, provided you know how to "prioritise" the items in the list. And why is Prioritisation so important ?  - For the simple reason, that we only have limited/ fixed "time" at our disposal and we better know where/ on what to use it !  

Let me now introduce a simple, effective and popular tool that could help you prioritise and guide us about where to focus our efforts on. From among the myriad activities/ tasks that we do, we could be more productive if we try and focus on the ones that have the maximum impact on us and can give us maximum output for our effort. This is exactly what this wonderful tool/ technique/ principle does for us and this tool is known as "80/20 Rule" or "Pareto Principle". Lets start knowing more about this tool/ technique/ principle

What is Pareto Principle/ 80-20 Rule ?

It is a simple time management tool which states that "80 % results come from 20% actions". 

The above connotes

• majority of the effects in our life comes from minority of the causes
• biggest results in our lives are generated by few important actions
• focusing on "Vital Few" rather than "Trivial Many" gives us maximum results
• maximum results require minimum, but, focused effort

Who invented the Pareto Principle/ 80-20 Rule ?

The invention of this principle/ rule is attributed to the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who was
born in 1848 and observed the 80/20 principle/ rule in 1896. He observed that the presence of uneven distribution when he noticed that 80% of the peas in his garden came from 20% of his pea plants. Another example is when he observed that 80% of the national income of Italy came from 20% population (businessmen/ industralist).

Joseph M Juran, a Management Consultant and also known as "father" of quality conceptualised the Pareto Principle in 1937. 

Why we need Pareto Principle ?

As shared earlier, since time is a limited commodity, we need to spend it wisely, and focus on items that yield maximum output for us. This principle helps us identify the "priority items" that we should focus upon.

Where to apply/ use Pareto Principle ?

The principle/ rule has applications across our personal and professional spheres. Whether it's about our individual productivity or group/ team productivity, Pareto Principle helps immensely in identifying the right priority/ priorities. Some of the industry/ sector/ departments where we see 80-20 rule/ Pareto Principle in Action are Investment, Customer Service, Business Strategy/ Planning, Team Management, Employee Productivity, Revenue Generation, Negotiation, Sales & Marketing, Software Development, Project Management, Social Media Influencing. 

Unconsciously, we seem to use Pareto Principle in our choices or preferences. Consider your personal group of friends, where you always tend to connect with select view when you need some help/ support/ guidance. Same is the case with our professional circle as well. Now, consider your viewing habits where you tend to prefer watching a select few (20%) streaming services like Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime, etc. to make up for 80% of your viewing experience. Consider the case of apps on your smartphone, where again you use just a "vital few" that comprise a majority (80%) of your app usage on smartphone. If you look around, you will see that the market is laden with multiple brands in just about everything but it's only the 20% brand that comprise the 80% sales to consumers. You pick up any aspect of your life, such as Work, Health, Relationship, Wealth, etc.) and you would find Pareto Principle in action there. (Read Related Article: Wheel of Life )

Here's citing my own example of using Pareto Principle while blogging. While conceptualising this post, 20% of the ideas contributed to about 80% of the content/ structure for this post (for that matter, any blog post).  Isn't that amazing ! 

Steps for applying Pareto Principle 

The steps are simple and as listed below:

• Clearly define the output/ outcome you want/expect 
• Identify the inputs 
• Gauge the impact that each input can create on the output 
• Pick up the top "Vital Few" inputs 
• Take Action on the "Vital Few"

Recommended Reading : The 80/ 20 Principle by Richard Koch  (click to buy)

Additional about Pareto Principle 

The 80:20 ratio is not sacrosanct and it could be 70:30 or 75:25 or in any other similar proportion. The idea being highlighted here is that "Vital Few" gives us Maximum Output. 

Apart from making use of Pareto Principle / 80-20 Rule in our routine activities, it is useful in understanding and altering our habits and behaviour too. Whether we want to identify priorities, learn something new, work with limited time availability, Pareto Principle/ 80-20 Rule is the one to go to ! 

N.B. - The images used in this post/ article have been sourced from the internet. 

The post also contains some affiliate links and i may earn some commission for my endorsement, testimonial, and/ or link to any product or service from this post  

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