How I became 3-4 times more efficient than my coworkers

My secret to HUGE productivity gains and how I consistently get more done than everyone else.

I’ve been told I get lot done in very little time. I remember building out a well-organized architectural stereotype for my team in one afternoon; the team had been stuck on that for days. I picked up a customer’s product architecture and handed back a dozen recommendations in less than two days, instead of the week we had planned. I created an entire event streaming prototype for another customer in one week — when they thought it would take over a month.

I’d love to think it’s because I have truly exceptional talent, but I know that’s not it. Actually I think I’m more or less average when it comes to technical talent. What I am very good at, though, is organizing and focusing my attention on what matters.

It’s not because I’m a gifted organizer. Quite the opposite, productivity has always been a struggle for me, which is probably why I’ve worked so hard at finding a workable productivity solution. What I’ve discovered over many years is a system that works for me. This system is a simple one — which is super important if I’m actually going to get work done and not get lost in some rabbit hole. This system is my secret to getting more done than anyone else around me. My secret sauce that I’ve honed over the past 10 or 20 years, until I’ve developed what seems to be a pretty bullet proof solution.

If you’re new, welcome to Customer Obsessed Engineering! Every week I publish a new article, direct to your mailbox if you’re a subscriber. As a free subscriber you can read about half of every article, plus all of my free articles.

Anytime you'd like to read more, you can upgrade to a paid subscription.

Today, it’s easy for me — but it wasn’t always. For example, one setback I encountered was going too deep building my “ultimate” productivity solution. I was going down a rabbit hole, crafting a semi-automated knowledge manager in Devonthink. I’d moved all my tasks, notes, and project files over. I felt like I was being productive because I was building something, organizing files and folders, writing scripts. I didn’t realize what a hindrance it was until it was too late. All that time “mastering my productivity” was really just taking me away from getting things done. The best advice I can give: Focus on the workflow with the least amount of friction between you, and your work.

Let’s start with my goals. They are deceptively simple:

1. Always be working on the most important thing at any given time.

2. Don’t lose sight of my overall goals in the near term.

3. Don’t lose track of anything.

I say “deceptively” simple because, well, what I’ve basically described is a “to-do list.” Maybe it’s a nice to-do list that keeps things properly prioritized — but who doesn’t have to-do lists? Everyone has them, and yet lots of people struggle to maintain focus, get things done, and outperform their peers.

Getting distracted

So why is it such a challenge to get things done consistently and efficiently? This is something I’ve struggled with my whole life. For me, it basically comes down to distraction, but here again that’s not quite as simple as it sounds. “Distraction” comes in many forms, each with its own root cause. For me, exploring those root causes and thinking about how I could develop strategies to deal with them was huge. It ultimately led me to my solution — but before we talk about how I stay productive, let’s talk about what keeps us from being productive:

1. Procrastination. Procrastination, at least for me, is just not wanting to get to work. It tricks us by pushing things into the back of our minds, so we don’t deal with them. But I’ve found that when I do start to think about a task or problem, I tend to engage on it — I want to solve it. The trick is getting that initial engagement. Creating a visible list with really clear goals for today’s work does this. Likewise, having an end-of-day ritual that lines up tomorrow’s tasks keeps things moving. Momentum seems to be the key.

2. A rabbit hole. Rabbit holes are interesting little excursions that often hide “side excursions.” Personally, I find rabbit holes a real challenge since I’m basically a tech geek — so, pro-tip, if you ever want to defeat me, just send me something really interesting that requires a lot of research or exploration. For example, if you’re a developer and use a Mac, I can pretty much guarantee that this post will time-suck at least an hour out of your day, if not the rest of the afternoon. Rabbit holes can be fun, educational, informative, and often necessary. I find that establishing time boxes and clear exit criteria, before diving down the rabbit hole, is critical. Especially having exit criteria: “If this feature or outcome isn’t supported, I’m done.”

3. Doing something (else) that’s fun. “Time flies when you’re having fun” is really true. It’s so easy to forget that there are other things to do, other priorities, and consequently spend all of your available time on just the fun bits. One way to solve this is to find the fun element in the hard tasks: Are you learning something new? Is there a way you can apply this to other interesting problems you’re working on? Another good strategy that works for me is to make the “fun thing” a reward for finishing other less fun tasks. You might also set a time box for your fun task. Personally, I find making the fun task a reward works best.

4. Forgetting things. I can forget why I walked into a room moments after deciding I needed something that is, presumably, in that room. But this is where an organized task list comes in — turns out, computers are great at remembering things. Plus, you can prioritize your task list to make sure you stay on top of what’s important.

5. Motivation. There are plenty of things we have to do that just aren’t exciting (or, maybe, are just painful — like reviewing the Eurozone’s Cybersecurity Resiliency Act, something I’ve been putting off). I’ve found that it’s really important to put daily effort into maintaining my motivation. For me, an end-of-day review helps push me forward with a feeling of accomplishment. At the same time, I line up tomorrow’s big task, just like Mark Twain wrote: “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”

6. Competing priorities. When facing competing priorities, I remind myself that the root of the word “priority” stems from the Latin “pri,” meaning “forward,” hence “in front of, before, first.” In other words, there can only be one priority at a time. If there’s a conflict, I have to deescalate it somehow and choose one. Simple as that. Maybe I have to tell someone I don’t have time right now, or tell my boss there’s too much on my plate — this is where the skill of saying “no” saves everyone a lot of headache.

7. Interruptions are another huge time suck. I’ve written extensively on how context switching will destroy productivity. To fight back, I routinely block out time on my calendar for specific tasks, I turn on “focus mode” to keep social media and Slack from interrupting me, and I intentionally check my email twice every day: At 8:00 in the morning, and at 16:00 in the afternoon. If it’s more urgent than that, they can call me.

8. Figuring out how to get started. Writer’s block, “blank page syndrome,” just figuring out where to start — this is often a real challenge. Sometimes our tasks seem insurmountable. But that’s because we’re looking at the whole frog, and thinking “there’s no way I can swallow that in one bite.” So don’t. Decompose your tasks, break them into smaller, achievable tasks that you can get started on. You don’t have to break the entire thing down — just figure out where to start, and get going with that one, smaller task.

9. “I just don’t want to do it. It’s hard, it’s a pain.” Sometimes what we have to do is just hard, like going to the gym (literally painful unless you’re in great shape). Personally, I turn to rewards and thinking about accomplishment. Set that “fun task” as my reward I get to do when I’m done. I also make sure my end-of-day ritual includes a review of what I accomplished, because I know it’ll feel good.

Finding what works

Whatever solution you find, it needs to work for you. I’ve experimented with a lot of different tools and productivity methods. What I’ve discovered is that a simple system works best for me, but you may have a higher tolerance for something else.

Even so, I’d recommend starting with something simple. I had a boss years back that said something that really stuck with me. I was focused on making our entire department more productive. And true to form, I was going pretty deep on “systems,” looking at different project and program management tools, trying to see how we could give our team a solution that pushed them forward.

At one point, my boss said, “Having a system is great but it’s really a human issue. You don’t need tech. You can probably solve this with a pen and pad of paper.”

That really stuck with me. It made me challenge some of my assumptions, to the point that I stepped back and started to look more closely at human factors, team dynamics, and where inefficiency was actually coming from.

After discussing it with a few of my peers a few things really stood out.

If you use the referral button below, you’ll earn free premium access to Customer Obsessed Engineering. Just three referrals will earn a free month!