Summer – the beach, cricket and of course barbeques. At barbeques, people always ask what they should be doing to be more productive. It goes with the territory, and with the beer! But I reckon a better question is not what you should be doing to be more productive, but what you should be doing to be less unproductive.

Many of us have acquired lots of small habits that are less than optimal and drag our productivity down. Each on its own is not a big deal, but little by little they chip away at our focus, our proactivity and our ability to get the right work done at the right time.

See if any of the following are in your repertoire of unproductive behaviours:

• Getting stuck straight into your Inbox when you get to your desk
• Starting the day without a plan
• Reacting to email alerts
• Leaving deadlines until the last minute
• Not taking time to plan your week
• Using Reply All when you can’t be bothered to think about who really needs to know
• Lazily flicking emails forward with the helpful line ‘See below…”
• Using your Inbox as a task list
• Turning up late to meetings
• Turning up unprepared to meetings
• Telling yourself stories about how reactive your role is
• Trusting your head instead of a system

I could go on. These are all unproductive behaviours. If you turned each of these into a more productive behaviour, your productivity would increase dramatically. So, next time you meet me at a BBQ, think about the better question you could ask me. I guarantee you will get a better answer!

When it comes to changing behaviours, developing new habits or adopting a new system, many people feel that they need to be incredibly disciplined. In fact, many of my training participants make this observation during training. “Gee” they will say. “You must need to be so disciplined to get your Inbox to zero regularly, or keep your task list up to date, or plan your week”.

I don’t agree. I reckon they are just using discipline as an excuse for not doing the work. Harsh but true! I don’t believe that you need to be disciplined to adopt a new productivity system. You need to be committed though. And that is a very different thing.

By using the word discipline, we are externalising the accountability, and we can hide behind the belief that the new habits required so much discipline that it was impossible for any normal human being to adopt them. If we fail, we forgive ourselves and move back to our old habits, happy in the knowledge that we tried but were not to blame for our failure.

If we reframe this by saying that you must be committed to make a behavioural change, we begin to internalise the accountability. It is not so easy to proclaim that we did not make the change because we were not committed enough. And if we are committed to reasonable actions, and we do not follow through, there is denying where the responsibility falls. At our own feet.

So, if you are aiming to adopt a new habit or behaviour in 2017, don’t hide behind discipline. If it is worthwhile, commit to it and practice it for at least a month. Give it a red hot go. If you fall off the wagon, recommit and start again.

I was a bit under the weather last weekend, but was determined to get the grass cut after two weeks of neglect. The challenge was I felt I had enough energy to cut the front lawn, or the back lawn, but not both. The front is public-facing, and on show to the whole neighbourhood. The back is private-facing, and only on show to me and the family. What to do?

Well, I cut the back lawn, pulled up a chair on the deck and had a rest, admiring my handiwork. While mowing the front lawn held more urgency, the back lawn held more importance for me. My soul is nourished by the garden that I can see from the back deck.

So, is there a parallel in the workplace? I reckon that we often prioritise in a public-facing way, dealing with the urgent requests of others rather than the potentially more important private-facing tasks that help us to achieve our goals and objectives. While I am not suggesting that you stop dealing with the truly urgent in your role, ask yourself if you could maybe sometimes resist the temptation when the urgency conflicts with what you believe to be important.

At work, our souls get nourished by doing meaningful work that makes a difference. We need to make time for this. When we do, we can then sit on our corporate decks and admire a job well done, at least for a moment.

As I come towards the end of another month, I think about the month ahead and wonder what it will bring. I know I will be busy. I already have lots of work booked into my schedule. I know that my phone will ring, my inbox will overflow and my head will think of lots of things to keep me occupied.

But what will really have an impact next month? What will I do that at the end of the month will make me stop, smile and say, “Yes, I got that done and it will make a significant difference”?

I call actions that will have a real impact ImpACTions. Get it? Impact + Actions.

Now I could wait until next month and see what comes my way, and work out if any of that reactive work is going to have an impact. Or I could take matters into my own hands and approach the month in a more intent-full way. I could make a list of things that I believe will have a significant impact over the long term, and prioritise my time around them.

Why not take some time at the start of every month to proactively list down ten pieces of work that would have a worthwhile impact in your world? They could be work-related or personal. They could be projects to implement, problems to solve, or hard conversations to have. Whatever they are, they will have impact, and are worth prioritising. They may not be urgent things, but they will certainly be important.

Once you have made this list of ImpACTions, consider best possible next steps for each one.  What are the meetings you need to organise, and the tasks you need to create in order to get traction on them?  By making these pieces of work visible, and breaking them down into next steps, your chances of getting them done will rise exponentially.

I had the great honour recently in spending a weekend at Uluru in central Australia. I finally got to see the rock that was such an icon of Australia when I was a boy growing up in Dublin. When I first arrived in Australia as a backpacker, we considered diverting to Uluru as we drove from Perth to Sydney, but the distance was just too vast. Twenty-three years later I finally made it, and it did not fail to move me.

When you are out there, it is hard to look at anything else. It is huge, it is old and it is magnificent. And maybe it was just me, but the rock seems to talk to me. And what it said was “Just be. Stop doing and just be. Stop taking pictures, stop texting your friends to say that you are there, stop listening to music on your iPhone. Just be”.

You see, Uluru just is. It does not do anything. For many millions of years, the rock has sat in the desert, and for 35,000 years has watched mankind live their lives around its massive base. But I believe that if the rock had an awareness and an interest in us, it would not judge our worth by the things that we have done. It would care little for what we did, and would certainly not be interested in our inboxes, calendars and task lists. But it might care about our ability to be. Our ability to live as one with the world around us. This is a central belief of the aboriginal people who have populated this area for longer than any other culture has survived, anywhere in the world.

Don’t worry, I have not gone off the deep end here. I don’t believe that the rock spoke to me, or has an awareness. But as I looked at Uluru, I was struck by a need to stop doing and just be, and it made me think about how this translated to our workplaces. Should we practice ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’ more in our work lives?

Maybe in your next meeting, you should stop taking notes and become more present to what is being said. Maybe rather than spending the day running from meeting to Inbox, you should carve out some time to reflect and think. Maybe rather than ploughing through email after email you should sit and think about what is most important in your day. I am not suggesting that we all light incense and sit around humming all day, but we do need to slow down a bit to be more productive.

Uluru is old and wise. I reckon that it can teach us a thing or two about time. So, over the next week, why not practice ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’.

I came into work this morning to a ‘discretionary’ morning. No meetings until 3pm. It is a Friday during school holidays so it will probably be relatively quiet and interruption free. A blank canvas to get stuff done.

So, I have lots of things to do, but three things stand out in my mind. I need to draft a project outline for a client that needs a quick turnaround and is due today – my ‘must do’ priority. I am eligible for an upgrade to the new iPhone – my ‘like to do’ priority. And I have a major proposal for a training roll out with a new client. This is not urgent, but very high value – my ‘should do’ priority.

Now, my caveman brain is torn. Back in the day, in a time when fight or flight saved your life, our primitive brains learned to prioritise according to our most pressing needs. When we were hungry we hunted, and when we were tired we slept, and when we were being attacked we fought or fled. The hangover from this is that today we tend to prioritise in a similar way. We do the things we like doing, or we react to urgency more often than not. So my first instinct this morning was to order the new iPhone first. Sad, but this even looked like it would trump the urgent project overview.

But wait, stop! Somewhere down from the depths of my brain my evolved mind cried to be heard. ‘Do the right thing Dermot’, it said. It was telling me to do what I should do first, not what I felt like doing first. So I reprioritised and played a game with myself. Here was the running order in the end.

Firstly, I did the thing I should do first, I wrote and sent the project outline. I did the most important thing first. I then rewarded myself by doing the thing I really wanted to do – I ordered the iPhone. A nice little reward that reinforced this behaviour for next time. I then did the urgent priority, which might have been time-sensitive, but was not that urgent that it could not wait a couple of hours. Whew! After all that activity I needed a nap!

Back in our cave-dwelling past, humans did not have that many things to remember, think about or to do compared to today. Their prioritisation system was appropriate and ensured the survival of the fittest. But today we have too much information, and many competing priorities. We need a more evolved way of thinking to survive in this environment. I believe that people who consistently prioritise the important over the urgent not only survive, but actually thrive.

I ask you to consider, with the greatest respect, whether you are a bit of a Neanderthal sometimes?

Keep this in mind the next time you write an email. Your reader is usually busy, distracted, bored, on the run, or overwhelmed. Or all of the above. If you want to get cut-through in a world where 100+ messages a day is normal, you need to stand out by writing brief and concise communications that help the reader to understand the issue, question, request or recommendation quickly.

A friend of mine once worked in the Attorney General’s office. When she or any of the team had to meet with the Director General, they were expected to have a twenty-minute overview of the issue prepared, as well as a two-minute overview. They knew that as his schedule shifted, their meeting could be pared down to two minutes, and they were expected to be able to succinctly nail the issue and any recommendations. This was really hard, but it taught her a great skill.

I reckon the same is true in emails. If you take the time to think about what you are trying to achieve with the email, and the best way to make it easy for the reader to get the point quickly, it will benefit both them and you. It will benefit the reader because they don’t have to do as much work to understand what is needed. It will benefit you as they are more likely to action the email in a timely way. Win-win. This is an example of what I call a ‘Serving Mindset’. Working with others in a way that is productive for you, as well as being productive for the group.

Here are some ideas that will help you to write emails that serve:

• Write a relevant subject line that describes the purpose of the email
• Summarise the issue, question or recommendation in the first paragraph
• List any actions required near the top of the email
• If a decision is needed, frame the email to simply require a Yes or No response
• If more complicated, give them an A, B or C choice
• Always write with the reader in mind
• Review what you wrote before you send it. It can be tightened up even more!

Mark Twain is known to have once apologised in a letter to his brother for writing such a long letter. He suggested that he did not have time to write a short one. With that, I will listen to my own advice and will stop writing now.

I just had a fantastically productive day. I feel great – motivated, energised and on top of things. Writing this newsletter is my last big priority for the day, and when I tick it off I might just go home and cook a nice steak to go with a nice glass of wine, even though it is Monday night. Go on, I deserve it!

Now, I had protected the day so I was in the office and had no meetings. A couple of phone calls were scheduled in, but nothing out of the office. It was not luck that I had a long stretch of focus time in front of me when I arrived in this morning.

But, what was the key to making this day so productive? I made it intentional. I may not have had many meetings, but I had a very long task list. I had a heap of things that I had scheduled into today, knowing that I was in the office and had capacity. I also had more than a few tasks roll over from last week and turn up red and insistent in my list this morning.

I could have started the day with an aspirational plan, and just ploughed through the list to get as much done as possible. But I believe there is a risk here. An aspirational plan is a list of things that I could do, but probably won’t. I prefer to start a day like today with an intentional plan – a list of things that I should do, and probably will.

Setting an intentional plan means prioritising and making some decisions. What are the things that deserve my time, attention and energy today? And what are the things that don’t? Or the things that just don’t make the cut for today compared to the others? This morning I spent the first 15 minutes of the day prioritising and rescheduling tasks in my task list. I ended up with a list of about a dozen tasks, seven of which I deemed to be critical priorities.

By setting my intent, I ensured that I spent my time and energy on the most important things first. I created a realistic and achievable plan, and have achieved most 0f it. This motivates me, and in a workplace driven by never ending inboxes, we need all the motivation we can get.

By setting my intent, I was better able to manage incoming requests for my time. I did not switch my focus lightly. My plan was robust in the face of urgency. Best of all, I had real focus when it came to getting through some significant priorities. I even had time for lunch and a couple of stretch breaks.

So, when you come into work tomorrow, will you aspire or intend to a have a productive day? What could you do to turn your day into an intentionally productive day?

The decisions you make at the start of the day will make the difference.