You arrive at the office to find an inbox bursting with unopened emails. Person after person interrupts you with questions or problems. Piles of documents litter your desk. You find yourself with too much to do and too little time to get those things done. Forget productivity. You hope you survive the day.

Productivity is only effective if you put it into practice. One of the most effective ways to increase your productivity is to reverse engineer it. What does this mean? Follow the 5 steps below to discover this practical and helpful way to increase your productivity!

As simple as this sounds, many people lack clarity about their roles or responsibilities. They have never really taken time to ask themselves what they are seeking to accomplish. They jump from one task to another. They complete easy tasks but not necessarily the important ones.

Until you have clarity about what you are attempting to accomplish, you can never achieve it. Instead, narrow your roles to the top 3-5 areas of responsibility. This doesn’t mean you will never work at other responsibilities, but it is very important to determine your major roles first.

You cannot do everything, but you must do what’s really important. List your responsibilities in order of importance.

Think like this: “What are my primary roles or responsibilities in this organization?” “Although I may do many things, what are the really important ones?” Place your roles or responsibilities in order of importance. Once you determine these choices, move to Step 3.

Look at your major 3-5 roles. Break down your work week in hours, then assign the hours according to your prioritized roles.  

Let’s assume you work 40 hours per week. Let’s assume you have 4 major areas of responsibility. Based on weight of responsibility, you assign area #1 (15 hours), area #2 (10 hours), area #3 (7 hours), area #4 (5 hours) and miscellaneous tasks (3 hours).  

Assign time commitments based on their level of importance. This forces you to give the most time to what’s really important.

Build out a weekly time schedule based on your pre-assigned hours. For example, you might assign the hours of 8am-11am (Monday through Friday) to area #1. This assures that you will give 15 prime hours to your most important role. Work through the rest of your week by assigning the pre-prioritized number of hours to specific time slots in your schedule.

Establishing a schedule is the easiest part. Sticking to that schedule is the hard part. You must develop the ability to hold yourself accountable or ask someone else to hold you accountable.

If you consistently work your pre-determined schedule, you will be amazed at how your productivity will improve. You simply determine what you need to do and schedule time to fulfill those roles and accomplish your responsibilities. 

You may not always stick to your schedule but developing and working at doing so will increase your productivity beyond what you might believe. Give it a try and see what happens! Shoot me a quick email ([email protected]) and let me know your results.