Tag Archives: time management

Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of January 2024

Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of January 2024Drum roll please…

At the beginning of each month, we will profile the ten articles from the previous month that generated the most traffic to Human-Centered Change & Innovation. Did your favorite make the cut?

But enough delay, here are January’s ten most popular innovation posts:

  1. Top 40 Innovation Bloggers of 2023 — Curated by Braden Kelley
  2. Creating Organizational Agility — by Howard Tiersky
  3. 5 Simple Steps to Team Alignment — by David Burkus
  4. 5 Essential Customer Experience Tools to Master — by Braden Kelley
  5. Four Ways To Empower Change In Your Organization — by Greg Satell
  6. AI as an Innovation Tool – How to Work with a Deeply Flawed Genius! — by Pete Foley
  7. Top 100 Innovation and Transformation Articles of 2023 — Curated by Braden Kelley
  8. 80% of Psychological Safety Has Nothing to Do With Psychology — by Robyn Bolton
  9. How will you allocate your time differently in 2024? — by Mike Shipulski
  10. Leadership Development Fundamentals – Work Products — by Mike Shipulski

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in December that continue to resonate with people:

If you’re not familiar with Human-Centered Change & Innovation, we publish 4-7 new articles every week built around innovation and transformation insights from our roster of contributing authors and ad hoc submissions from community members. Get the articles right in your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin feeds too!

Have something to contribute?

Human-Centered Change & Innovation is open to contributions from any and all innovation and transformation professionals out there (practitioners, professors, researchers, consultants, authors, etc.) who have valuable human-centered change and innovation insights to share with everyone for the greater good. If you’d like to contribute, please contact me.

P.S. Here are our Top 40 Innovation Bloggers lists from the last four years:

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of February 2023

Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of February 2023Drum roll please…

At the beginning of each month, we will profile the ten articles from the previous month that generated the most traffic to Human-Centered Change & Innovation. Did your favorite make the cut?

But enough delay, here are February’s ten most popular innovation posts:

  1. Latest Innovation Management Research Revealed — by Braden Kelley
  2. Apple Watch Must Die (At least temporarily, because it’s proven bad for innovation) — by Braden Kelley
  3. Unlock Hundreds of Ideas by Doing This One Thing (Inspired by Hollywood) — by Robyn Bolton
  4. Using Limits to Become Limitless — by Rachel Audige
  5. Kickstarting Change and Innovation in Uncertain Times — by Janet Sernack
  6. Five Challenges All Teams Face — by David Burkus
  7. A Guide to Harnessing the Power of Foresight (Unlock Your Company’s Full Potential) — by Teresa Spangler
  8. Creating Great Change, Transformation and Innovation Teams — by Stefan Lindegaard
  9. The Ultimate Guide to the Phase-Gate Process — by Dainora Jociute
  10. Delivering Innovation (How the History of Mail Order Can Help Us Manage Innovation at Scale) — by John Bessant

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in January that continue to resonate with people:

If you’re not familiar with Human-Centered Change & Innovation, we publish 4-7 new articles every week built around innovation and transformation insights from our roster of contributing authors and ad hoc submissions from community members. Get the articles right in your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin feeds too!

Have something to contribute?

Human-Centered Change & Innovation is open to contributions from any and all innovation and transformation professionals out there (practitioners, professors, researchers, consultants, authors, etc.) who have valuable human-centered change and innovation insights to share with everyone for the greater good. If you’d like to contribute, please contact me.

P.S. Here are our Top 40 Innovation Bloggers lists from the last three years:

Subscribe to Human-Centered Change & Innovation WeeklySign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.

Ten Ways to Make Time for Innovation

Ten Ways to Make Time for Innovation

GUEST POST from Nick Jain

Although the average American works 8.8 hours per day, most employees deliver peak productivity just 3 to 4 hours a day. Knowing this, you and your team can experiment with different time management strategies to maximize your peak hours. This will elevate ideation and the quality of work completed on your latest projects.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to time management, so each team member must identify what works best for them. A mix of the tips below will help.

1. Know Your Most Productive Times of Day

In addition to delivering peak performance in just 3 to 4 hours per day, you also have a time of day that you are the most productive. For some people this is first thing in the morning, for others it’s mid-day, and for some, it’s late in the day.

So, schedule your most pressing tasks, most creative tasks, or most challenging tasks during this time.

2. Create a Daily To-Do List

Even if it’s not an everyday occurrence, unexpected obligations will arise. So, knowing that you will deliver your essential to-do list items within a maximum of 4 hours—schedule your time accordingly.

This is easier said than done, as your to-do list may be lengthy, which takes us to the next time management tip.

3. Know Your Priorities

Once you create your to-do list, prioritize the items on the list. Utilizing the Franklin Covey A, B, C system may be helpful. Or utilize another planner system.

Assign a letter next to each task to indicate its level of priority:

  • A = Must be done—Critical
  • B = Should be done—Important
  • C = Could be done—low value
  • D = Waste—No value—delegate

At the end of each day, assess whether you have completed all of your “A-list” items. Don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t, as the objective is to learn what you can realistically achieve during your high-productivity times.

4. Delegate

The “D” above is delegate and most leaders could be doing a much better job of delegating. If it can be done by someone else, let it go. Or delegate portions of a project. For example, gathering research and data.

Who do you delegate to? Ideally, someone who excels at the task you are taking off your plate. Also, consider delegating to external experts. When everyone does what they do best, everyone is more fulfilled—and the outcomes are elevated.

5. Time Block Instead of Multitasking

While it might sound like multitasking allows you to get more done, it actually leads to decision fatigue. Decision fatigue is one of the reasons peak performance fades. It’s the concept that you only have a limited number of high-quality decisions you can make each day. If you continue trying to innovate or make major decisions after your peak-time, the decisions may not be as sound or as creative. Over time, decision fatigue leads to exhaustion, overwhelm, stress, and anxiety.

Time blocking is the concept of optimizing your peak-time by focusing solely on one task without interruptions of any kind. This means no phone calls, emails, or smartphone use—just hyperfocus on the task at hand. Further optimize this time by limiting it to 3 to 4 hours and blocking your time at your most productive time per day.

6. Unplug Throughout the Day

Unplugging while you time block eliminates distractions. Unplugging is challenging, as the average American checks their phone 96 times per day, which is once every 10 minutes. In terms of time, this results in an average of almost 5.5 hours of smartphone use per day. Yes, much of this is for work, but it’s for personal use too.

In addition to unplugging during your peak-time and while time blocking, unplug at other strategic times during the day.

For example:

  1. During team and client meetings.
  2. During one-on-one conversations.
  3. At dinner with family and friends.
  4. An hour or so before bed.
  5. The first hour or so of the day.
  6. For blocks of time over the weekend.

Also, consider turning off all work-related notifications on the weekends or using an app to manage personal and professional contacts during your time off.

7. Task Batch

Task batching is the process of completing similar tasks at the same time, including both peak-time and off-peak time tasks. For example, many highly productive people only respond to emails 3 or 4 times per day, instead of as every email comes in. This might be first thing in the morning, at lunch, and at the end of the day.

Or a marketing professional may create all of their social media content for the next 7 days in one setting, instead of creating one post every day.

Task batching can also get you in the zone.

8. Think on It

There are always deadlines and decisions that can’t wait, but not every decision should be made in the moment. When you can, give it a day or two, particularly if it’s something that requires creativity. Then, schedule brainstorming solo or with your team during your peak productivity time.

9. Take Your Breaks

More time doesn’t always equal more productivity. While you may be able to push through to get more done, pushing through isn’t sustainable. Even a 10- or 15-minute break provides the following benefits:

  1. Value alignment
  2. Increased productivity
  3. Improved mental health
  4. Improved well-being
  5. Increased job satisfaction
  6. Restored focus and attention
  7. Minimized decision fatigue
  8. Increased creativity
  9. And more

For your break to be effective, you must unplug from work and ideally leave your desk. It’s even better if you take a walk, do something active, or have a social non-work-related lunch.

10. Utilize a Time-Management Rule

In addition to taking your daily lunch break and a 10-minute break or two, consider these scientifically proven time management strategies:

  • 30/30/30 rule — this is the concept of spending 30% of your workday working, 30% teaching and developing your team, and 30% in self-development.
  • 52/17 rule — this is the concept of working for 52-minutes, followed by a 17-minute break. Set a timer, even if it’s closer to 60/20 instead of 52/17.

Last but not least, don’t schedule every minute of your day. When you can, pre-schedule at least a few open blocks of time each week. This time can be dedicated to projects that unexpectedly take more time than designated—or to innovations that arise along the way!

Image Credit: Unsplash

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Get More Done

Get More Done

What Matters Most Management (WMMM) is the Key to Success

Most times you’ll see this posed as a question “What matters most?” as people grapple with finding the meaning of life. That is not the case here…

Instead I would like to share with you my simple management philosophy that will help you be more successful in today’s sometimes overwhelming, chaotic world of too many competing demands on your time.

I will help you succeed on a whim! (well, okay a WMMM)

Your success in this case comes from following the whim (or WMMM) of What Matters Most Management. It can be tailored for use in managing your time, a project, etc. For simplicity we’ll look at time management today by popular request (people ask me all the time how I manage to get so much done).

It involves quite simply making a quick inventory of all of the things that you could focus on today, or that you’re being asked to focus on, and identifying three key things:

1. How big of an impact will completing this task have (Hi/Med/Lo)

2. How big of an effort will it take to complete this task (Hi/Med/Lo)

3. When will my energy be the best for completing this task (Morning/Afternoon/Evening)

This daily inventory of tasks can be done in your head, or on paper, depending on how detail oriented you are. After you have your mental or written list, then plan your day, prioritizing of course any tasks with a low effort/high impact combination (often very rare).

You will also want to prioritize any tasks that involve getting others to do work. Getting others started on their work sooner rather than later, will lead to those tasks getting done faster because they are not sitting in your inbox.

Consider also whether it makes sense to start a task you can’t finish today or not. Sometimes there is no advantage to starting something today instead of tomorrow if you’ll end up finishing it tomorrow either way. Other times there will be tasks you need to finish tomorrow that you’ll have to start today to make it work. Going through this exercise is how you’ll identify What Matters Most (WMM).

I find this method to suit an organic person like me much more than a rigid system like Franklin Covey, plus systems like that don’t take into account when the ideal time might be to do a certain type of work based on the composition of your day and personal energy patterns. Save up somewhat mindless, administrative type work for when you’re brain is tired and do your more creative, intense work when your mind is fresh.

It’s also amazing how frequently the Pareto Principle proves out (where the items that deliver 80% of the value only require 20% of your effort, and vice versa). Focus on that 20% that will drive the 80% of your potential positive perception in the minds of others and in tangible impact in your life.

The WMMM approach works the same on projects, and can be super powerful when a family, project team, etc. all follow a similar philosophy.

The WMMM approach can also be used by product managers and entrepreneurs to create more successful products and services!

Go ahead! Try it! I think you’ll find that you’ll get more done, and sometimes more importantly, people will notice.

Image credit: earningmoneytoday.com

This article originally appeared on Linkedin


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