How to be more productive – Veronica Stenberg

Book review: The One Thing By Gary Keller & Jay Papasan

Veronica — Mon, 18 May 2020 07:38:42 +0000

This book came highly recommended by a colleague. Prior to that, I’ve also heard about this book, I think it was through the Tim Ferris podcast if I’m not mistaken. Not highly unlikely as he is the Achiever with a big A and a self-proclaimed productivity geek.

As a strategist and someone who is a firm believer in that laser focus generates extraordinary results I knew this was a book for me

I completely agree that in order to be a professional and take your job (and career) seriously you both allow for and protect your total focus on achieving the results for either yourself, your client or whatever activity you have at hand. It’s all linked.

What I like with this book is that it gives simple frameworks for planning, structure days, identify the right activities to reach your short and long term goals, and protect your focus to become more productive and create more value. Amongst many other things that will help you reach your goals, no matter if its career, health or related to other important areas of your life where you want to increase both performance and productivity.

I’m also delighted that there are many references to research and other studies that completely nip that multitasking myth in its bud. If you want to be productive then you have to be brave and kill your multitasking habits.

What I also like in the book that each chapter contains a summary of its key concepts.

My summary of key takeaways

The 80/20 principle – 20% of your efforts leads to 80% of your results. (Paretho’s principle). The entire concept of the book builds on this as a foundation. It helps you identify what your 20% is.

This book completely debunks the multitasking myth – the price we pay is time and efficiency. Lose ends pile up, the more you multitask, the more loose ends you will generate. And what is worse 28% of the average workday is lost due to “multitasking”.

Multitaskers make more mistakes than non-multitaskers (supported by research)

Multitasking leads to stress and poor decisions (supported by research)

Identify the most important thing and do it well – this can also be translated into how organisational structures are set up within companies. Especially marketing departments, that often lack dedicated people and suppliers that do one thing, especially important for digital marketing where I’ve happened on a lot of messy organisations where people have so many responsibilities and split focus within the same role. Investing in an efficient and focused organisation structure will increase ROI and reduce overwhelm. Leading to a clear competitive advantage.

Willpower is a battery – therefore we all need to find time to recover to be able to ensure optimal performance when its time to do our best work. As well what the most optimal time is for oneself. To perform work that requires high cognitive abilities/strategic thinking. (Mine is mornings, I have no problem to get up at 5 AM if I have to)

Priority and purpose – you can only have one priority. Which I completely agree with. You can’t have more than one. Then it’s not a priority anymore.

To achieve results we all need to act with a purpose behind our actions. The why. These two go hand in hand.

Most important question – there is a difference between questions. The quality of a question determines the quality of the answer. (TA BILD PÅ )

Strategic thinking – requires focus and more hours does not equal success/reaching goals.

If you want to be productive and reach your goals there are four key areas you need to be able to handle:

You have to handle how to say no
Don’t fear chaos
Take care of your health and have healthy habits
Your environment needs to support your goals

Hands-on tips that you can apply today

Find your time that works best for you to focus on your most important thing/work.

Time block your calendar for the hours of the day when you focus on your most important thing.

Planning is half the job done – look over your calendar and design your days and availability accordingly. (At the end of the day it’s your job to reach goals/generate results for your company and to create the right environment that supports that from your perspective.)

Overcoming the fear of saying no – write down some scripts to have at hand to adapt if it feels scary to say no.

Who is this book for

The person who is adamant and driven to reach their goals and know that there is a way to do so without sacrificing your health. Who wants to identify how to work smarter with purpose – not more.

How to create a roadmap

Veronica — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 06:06:20 +0000

One of the easiest and simples tools for planning activities and aligning a team (including the client in the team here if you work “agency side”) is to make a roadmap. This creates focus, and puts the work in a context in terms of time needed as well as for example what other external agencies need to pitch in and deliver by when to get things done.

It makes planning a year ahead and a large quantity of task, less daunting and gives you an overview and a context to relate to in terms of distributing your activities.

If you have done a pre-study of a clients or your own company’s digital ecosystem you probably have (and should have) loads of activities and steps which you need to take to improve and key areas of focus, list them in the roadmap document, prioritise, add when, who and how much time you need for each task. Then it’s just to execute and you are already halfway there.

Who is a roadmap useful for?

For anyone who needs to prfioritize, plan and organize a lot of activities over a long stretch of time, either involving external parties, a team, or not.
Useful if you plan inhouse/client side e.g not work at an agency to map out a year in activities or a specific area or department
Can also be used solely for marketing activities or whatever else you need to plan over a long stretch of time, in this case a year
Also a beneficial tool for solving situations when “sh*t has hit the famous fan” since you can make this into an activity plan, mapping out how you will solve something in actions, by who and by when

Benefits:

Helps you plan a year, or even further a head with activities
Gives both your team and the client peace to focus on your work ahead while your day to day life can be quite hectic
Will make your workflow more effective since it helps you being organized
Gives you an overview of the work a head and makes it easier to plan activities that are dependent on and off each other
Helps you prioritise your workload
Helps you understand which team members who needs to be available by when to plan internal team resources
The client get a heads up when they need to deliver, attend a meeting or do the work on their end, to align with the team and specific deliveries
A great tools for a lead agency to use in collaboration with other agencies
Add holiday periods or team availability
Great way to log what has been done – ensure easy access to a recorded history
Adjust in a monthly or bi-monthly meeting with the team and client
Helps you communicate with a board of executives or similar to show progress and what is planned for the next coming months, or year

Download the template:

Is divided in 52 weeks, which a year usually consist of
The template is filled with some example columns and tasks, to illustrate how it can be used
Add more columns if more information is necessary in your case, and customize it to fit your specific needs

[button url=”http://www.veronicastenberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Roadmap-template.xlsx.xlsx”]DOWNLOAD[/button]

Image credit: vouge.co.uk – A picture from the wall of Louise Wilson’s office at Central Saint Martins

How to Host effective meetings

Veronica — Mon, 11 May 2015 05:46:46 +0000

Meetings can be both stressful and the single most effective way to move a project to the next level. The earlier if you have too many meetings in a row without a clear purpose, the latter to work through challenges, that may be perceived as greater than they actually are while being discussed in epic emails back and forth.

As far as meeting goes, they are also a great way to spearhead something forward, to bring a team together but also to deepen any relationships and to get to know your clients better.

I’m a firm believer in short, purposeful and effective meetings. Here’s my 11 tips on how to host an effective meeting, from beginning to end.

Purpose/Goal of meeting – decide on why you are meeting, who you really need at the meeting and what the end goal of your meeting is. What is the intention behind having this meeting?

Create a short agenda – before sending out a meeting invite, create a short bullet list of the points you like to go through so that your attendees get the opportunity to prepare in good time.

Add timings – to you agenda, if possible. I.e short introduction (5 mins), round-up of previous months activities (10 mins), etc.

Share any relevant documentation – or information which is relevant to the meeting in good time ahead of the meeting so that your attendees get the opportunity to look through, assess and be prepared to give their specific input at the meeting.

Stay on topic – if the conversation start to veer of topic. Get back on track with statements such as “As we are here to discuss” or “As we talked about earlier” etc. Pleasantries are nice, however try to get the socialising done in the beginning and in the end.

Park items – if you are unable to agree or come to a conclusion on a particular topic. Park it. Simply note it down and agree and commit to get back to it at a later date which you all agree upon.

Get everyone to participate – if someone has been quiet and not contributed, ask them in a nice way, to share their thoughts on a particular subject you are discussing. Sometimes people are shy and need an invite to join in.

Challenge topics, ideas or problems – stay away from challenging people. Focus on the topic and leave the person out of it. Everyone does not have to agree, but learn how to separate the topics from the people.

A meeting invite contains – date and start and end time, goal/purpose of meeting (if applicable), agenda and an address to the place of the meeting.

Sum it up – in the end before everyones leaves, take a few minutes to wrap up the meeting. Quickly sum up what you decided, what actions and next steps you need to take and anything else, which was noteworthy. If no one adds anything else. You all agree

Take notes – on what you agreed upon, actions with the responsible person and deadlines. Email to everyone, and ask for clarifications, corrections and input on additional thoughts after the meeting, if any.

Want more project management advice?

Head on over to my project management column.

Image source: found on Pinterest. Unsure of whom to credit. Would love to know who took the image and where its from.

4 must read business magazines

Veronica — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 05:00:02 +0000

These are 4 of my absolute favourite business magazines that I go to for solid advice on almost anything that makes my curiosity tick. A perfect Sunday morning for me, consists of a long breakfast with one of these magazines and at least two large home-made vegan lattes.

Fast Company – this is a magazine dedicated to the cutting edge of creativity and business. It’ about the daredevils, the outsiders and the creators. About innovation.

Passion for Business – this magazine is entirely dedicated to a female perspective, which is lacking since it’s still large unequally between the sexes in the workplace. This magazine gives me insight on how it is to be a female in a leadership position, what challenges and opportunities there are as well as highlighting people you may not see otherwise in “media”. This is a magazine I always read cover to cover. (only available in Swedish and in a paper edition)

Inc Magazine – advice, tools and insights on how to work better, perform better and portraits of industry and though leaders. Love that it’s available for iPad. Read about the latest in productivity tools, books, new software and how to create successful businesses in the digital “sphere”.

WSJ Magazine – maybe not solely a business magazine. However I love the glossy magazine that accompanies the Saturday issue of Wall Street Journal. The portraits, the articles. It’s always something new to discover and I love the portraits of the business owners they create, how they “encapsule” some of their life-journey in the article. From business innovators turned wine makers it’s not just about business, its about a way of life. I love to read about how other people choose to live outside the “ordinary, this is how you should live your life” box.

On intention and goal setting

Veronica — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 07:20:57 +0000

2015 is in full swing and the calm of the holiday period may or may not have given one the opportunity to go within and do some self-assessments for the new year. Nevertheless, a new year is an opportunity for a fresh start for many, therefore I thought I’d share something I recently found in a book that I started to read during my Christmas break. I found this useful for setting goals and gaining clarity on intention.

It’s five quick questions which I will take with me throughout 2015 as a tool. Not just for the start of this year, but throughout the year.

The method is called V2MOM and originates from Marc Benioff (founder and CEO of Salesforce.com) that created this method as a result of going to a Tony Robbins event. I found this in the books foreword which happened to be written by Marc Benioff:

What do I really want? (vision)
What is important about it? (values)
How will I get it? (methods)
What is preventing me from having it? (obstacles)
How will I know I am successful? (measurements)

These questions are best used as a tool for something that you re-assess on a regular basis. I’m going to try this once a month on a few key areas.

If you are interested to know more about V2MOM there is a blog post written by Marc Benioff on how he has utilised V2MOM within Salesforce to focus, align the company and reach it’s goals as an enormous organisation.