Productivity Planner

Synopsis

Sharp focus is elusive, that is why you need a solid productivity routine. As you work from home or share tasks across the team, our Productivity Planner deck helps to keep your schedule disciplined and progress in check. Use this resource in light or dark color themes and find advice (we included in the presentation highlights below) from productivity experts at Asana and Vox Media.

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Slide highlights

Use this slide to communicate your plan for a productivity improvement strategy. You may include: taking regular breaks, holding standing meetings, working in 90-minute intervals, minimizing interruptions and avoiding multitasking.

With this slide, share your project management calendarwith the team. This way, it'll be easier for everybody to visualize the schedule and understand the deadlines, and for you – to monitor and keep track of the progress.

Notice that our deck offers slides for daily, weekly and monthlyproductivity planners. Take advantage of each one of them to optimize workflow 27/7. And for the yearly productivity planning, use our newest 2021 Calendar.

Statistics

Here are some important stats about productivity to keep in kind or even include in your presentation:

• Productivity improves by 20-25% in organizations with connected employees, say consultants from McKinsey & Company
• High-performing employees have three things in common: talent, high engagement and over 10-plus years of experience within the company, according to Gallup
• Engaged employees are 27% more likely to show "excellent" performance, according to Gallupr
• 95% of HR leaders say that employee burnout is "sabotaging workforce retention," per Kronos Incorporated and Future Workplace report
• Employees who exercise their strengths daily are 8% more productive and six times more likely to be engaged, according to Gallup
• Organizations with a strong onboarding process improve productivity by over 70%, Glassdoor reports

Application

Jim Whitehurst, the President and CEO of Red Hat, a successful open-source software provider, shared his tips for maximum productivity in his article for "Inc."

• Map out your week – "Sunday evenings, I sit down with my list of important objectives for the year and for each month. Those goals inform every week and help keep me on track," Whitehurst shares.
• Block out task time – block out time to complete specific tasks. For example, slot periods for "Write new proposal," or "Craft presentation" or "Review and approve marketing materials."
• Follow a realistic to-do list – assign times to each task. If you have six hours of meetings scheduled today and eight hours worth of tasks, chances are those tasks won't get done.
• Default to 30-minute meetings – "Whoever invented the one-hour default in calendar software wasted millions of people-hours. [...] Don't be a slave to calendar tool defaults. Only schedule an hour if you absolutely know you need it," Whitehurst says.
• Quit multitasking – the problem with multitasking is that a split focus makes you less productive. Even though you're only doing mindless stuff, still – you're not 100% present.
• Leverage edge time – Whitehurst says: "My biggest downtimes during the workday come when I drive to work, when I drive home, and when I'm in airports. So I focus really hard on how to use that time. I almost always schedule calls for my drive to work. It's easy: I take the kids to school and drop them off at a specific time; then I can do an 8:00 to 8:30 call. I typically don't schedule calls for the drive home so I can return calls, especially to people on the West Coast."
• Keep track of your time – track your time and you'll be amazed by how much of it you spend doing stuff that isn't productive. Note: the info you log can be directional, not precise.
• Be thoughtful about lunch – whatever time you take for lunch, be thoughtful about how you spend it. "If you like to eat at your desk and keep chugging, fine. But if you benefit from using the break to recharge, lunch is one time where multitasking can be great: You can network, socialize, and help build your company's culture--but not if you're going out to lunch with the same people every day," Whitehurst says.
• Start every day right – exercise first thing in the morning because exercise is energizing. Research shows that moderate aerobic exercise can improve your mood for up to 12 hours.

Expert advice

Experts at Asana – a project management tool, put together a list of quotes from the gurus of productivity management that business managers, producers, project managers, and other professionals can employ.

Kerry Anne Hoffman, Senior Product Manager, Marketing Operations at Classpass

"My number one work management tip is to always reflect after a project. Then you can take everything you learned and create a playbook so you're ready the next time you need to plan and manage a similar project."

Joshua Zerkel, Head of Community at Asana

"Treat your calendar like a game of Tetris: Remove anything non-urgent and unnecessary from your to-do list. Are there things you can revisit at a later date or is there something that can be removed entirely? Don't be afraid to take it a step further by blocking out some "busy" time in your calendar for work."

Jamie Berger, Executive Assistant to the President at Mercy for Animals

Tie everything to organizational goals. The first question to always ask is, "Will this project help us move towards our organization goals? Is this the best use of our time right now?"

Dana Barrett, Head of Product Marketing at Asana

"When your team is working hard toward a goal, the last thing they need is to get bogged down by another status update meeting. Of course, sometimes meetings are needed, but where possible I recommend sharing updates via your project's Progress tab. "

Corri Skinner, Senior Director of Creative Operations at Vox Media

"To successfully manage a project, you need to prioritize. You'll never have as much time and resources as we'd all hope for, so to do it all you need to focus on the items that will have the most impact. Then make sure those priorities are clear to stakeholders so you can set expectations and to your team so they focus on the right work."