What To Do When There's Too Much To Do (14 page)

So it was rather disconcerting to run across a recent working paper called “Performance Persistence in Entrepreneur-ship” that takes the opposite tack.
²³
The authors scrutinized a large sample of venture capital–backed IPOs and discovered that brand-new entrepreneurs succeeded about as often as those who had tried before and failed (18 percent vs. 20 percent, respectively). The most successful entrepreneurs were those who had already succeeded: serial entrepreneurs, as they called them. But even serial entrepreneurs succeeded only about 30 percent of the time.

At the risk of oversimplification, the authors basically pointed out that statistically, failure doesn't necessarily result in eventual success—a common-sense “no duh” conclusion, frankly. Furthermore, the authors admitted they looked at a relatively narrow business segment. They failed to control for a number of factors that might skew the results. So normally, I'd take something like this with a grain of salt.

However, the paper actually tested the assumption that failure is positive in the long run. Commentators who have written about the paper are quick to point out that there's no real scholarly work that proves that failure is good for the soul;
we just assume that it is. On the other hand, there's now research that suggests that failure doesn't necessarily contribute to later success.

While I do believe you should focus on things you're good at, I also believe failure can be helpful in defining the things you're bad at and should
never
do again because they are a waste of time. In general, then, the concept of failure helping you succeed in the long run is a truism and therefore doesn't require scholarly proof. For example, my high-school daughter dislikes science immensely; she doesn't do well at it without a lot of effort. She's a 4.0 student and wants to go to business school, so it makes sense for her to take as little science as she needs to get into the university she wants to attend. Why would she purposefully take a class that's difficult, that she hates, and that she has no interest in in the future? To me, that's counter-productive.

I'm convinced failure
can
help you succeed, but it won't do so automatically. Failure does not anoint you with the oil of future success. Some of my colleagues have gone a little too far in suggesting it does … or in outright saying so.

There's nothing special about failure itself; it's what you
do
with failure that matters. So be willing to risk failure while fine-tuning your workflow process. Don't be afraid of it. Failure is just another opportunity to learn; this allows you to rise phoenix-like from the ashes, to take another grab at the brass ring. Maybe you'll get it this time; maybe you won't. But if not, don't take the failure itself too personally, because it kills your confidence and destroys your chances to learn from your mistakes. Make every effort to take something instructive away from your failure, or you've just wasted your time.

Don't fear failure, but don't assume it's inevitable. Fortune favors the bold, so once you've made your basic preparations, dive right in, and deal with the details as they arise.

The truth is, as long as you can survive a failure, there's almost always some tidbit you can pull from the wreckage and take to heart. There may be a few intact bricks left standing—successful aspects or ideas within the broader failure—that can serve as a foundation for building a new edifice.

I'm not going to tell you there's no such thing as a failure; of course there is. But don't ignore failure, refusing to learn anything, and hope to luck into success. Failure to learn from failure will inevitably lead to more failure, in a vicious downward spiral. Refuse to allow it to happen to you!

Once your new workflow process is up and running, keep a high-level eye on its operation and tweak your systems toward perfection at every opportunity. Effectively closing the loop requires tight organization and a willingness to jump in immediately and fix what isn't working optimally. Constant reevaluation is critical for continued progress, so scrutinize all your tasks regularly, looking for easier, faster ways to do them.

Respond to external feedback quickly, pinpoint any recurring problems, and work toward eliminating them. Smooth over rough patches. Replace missing pieces or “worn” parts that no longer work properly. Immediately purge and replace anything wasting your time. If you need to institute a major change, or something just isn't working out, you may want to take a little time off to retool all or part of your system. If you find yourself in over your head, then by all means, seek help! In any case, learn from your mistakes along the way … and then let them go.

No matter how difficult it may seem, don't give up. Any effort to maintain peak performance will inevitably require trial and error. As you try new strategies, some will work well, and others will fall short. Things may go awry and grind to a halt occasionally, because you can't account for everything; but again, don't let that stop you from trying. Learning to reduce your commitments to a manageable level, and building your daily time savings to a full ninety minutes will take time, and even the most well-tuned machine needs maintenance occasionally. The Productivity Workflow Formula will require ongoing refinement, and occasionally, some larger-scale reworking.

Keep an eye on your productivity metrics. The numbers will tell you what works and what you need to fix.

Keep your motivation high by remembering your goal. If you persevere, you
will
succeed, and you
will
find time for yourself and skyrocket your results. You'll soon start to notice the difference these changes are making in your life. You'll have more time and more energy, because you won't be wasting your day on unneeded tasks. Those ninety minutes or more per day that you'll be able to set aside for yourself will make a huge difference in all aspects of your life.

Once you've learned how to triage your commitment load, schedule your tasks appropriately, focus your attention, and process new information, it's time to consolidate everything into a single, efficient, time-saving system.

Closing the loop means tinkering with your workflow until all the components work smoothly together, weeding out the unnecessary at every turn and replacing anything that doesn't work as well as it should. Begin by creating a plan of action to organize your life and workspace for maximum efficiency, clearing the clutter, and doing all you can to minimize the effort and time you spend on basic processes.

You can't avoid all the human factors that may inhibit your
workflow, but do your best to limit confusion by making sure you communicate clearly and with a minimum of “noise.” Get straight to the point, avoid hedging, make your needs plain, and require acknowledgment in all directions.

If you find yourself faced with micromanagers, do what you can to work around or accommodate them, so they don't completely ruin your productivity. If necessary, confront them politely but directly with your inability to work under the conditions they impose; they may back off.

You'll inevitably face workflow inefficiencies and bottlenecks, some of which derive from inefficient processes you can either upgrade or replace. Again, however, people often cause such blockages. Whatever the case, step in immediately, and do your best to put them right. If you can't clear a bottleneck, don't obsess over it; maneuver around it and move on to what you
can
fix.

In the modern workplace, teamwork is especially important; so like it or not, you may find yourself depending on others to keep your workflow steady. Strive to make it easy for everyone involved. Start by clarifying the group workflow process, providing milestones and deadlines, and assigning tasks to particular individuals. Set up contingency plans for handling crises and emergencies, especially when dealing with people in other organizations.

All in all, you must continually tighten your workflow loop, making consistent efforts to maximize your efficiency. Constantly evaluate what works and what doesn't, learn from your mistakes, fill in the gaps as they occur, and keep reaching toward the brass ring of doing less and achieving greater results.

This sixth and final step appears at the center of the PWF for a simple but powerful reason: It's the hub holding everything together. If you can't manage your capacity, your workflow will eventually stall or fall apart. Step Six is the most critical aspect of the entire process, because it underlies, supports, and influences all the other steps. Without it, nothing else is possible.

Many things can affect your ability to manage your capacity, but the most important factor is
you
: your health, your determination, and your energy level. So in this chapter, I'll focus on the physical and mental factors directly affecting your capacity to remain productive throughout the day.

This final stage in the PWF makes everything else worth the effort. Throughout this book, you've learned to scale back and reduce, reduce, reduce. You've found ways to reduce your to-do list, your calendar commitments, distractions, information overload, and inefficiencies. Each reduction will increase your results and save you time. Learning to do less but to accomplish more will bring many benefits to you, your family, and your organization. And isn't that what all that energy and activity is about?

Energy is capacity: the potential to do work, to enjoy life, and to achieve your goals. Energy affects everything—it's the very axis on which your productivity spins.

Fortunately, you have the potential to dramatically affect your personal energy levels, and hence your productivity, simply by paying close attention to your health. When you feel well, you can accomplish more. But many people eat too much, drink too much, work too much, don't exercise enough, and don't sleep enough. It's not surprising they're less than fully productive when tired or ill: It's hard to remain productive if you feel like putting your head down on your desk and taking a nap.

So never lose sight of this fact: If you don't practice good self-care, you won't be able to muster the energy required to practice the PWF on a daily basis. Therefore, take care of yourself in every way you can. Learn to reduce your energy expenditure, take breaks as you need them, get enough rest, eat properly, exercise regularly, and manage your mental health.

Imagine how much you could accomplish if at the end of your day, you still had extra energy. Would boosting your productivity boost your profits? How would the time you spend with your friends and family change? Instead of collapsing on the couch the instant you got home, what would it be like if you had the ability to focus on your loved ones? What if there was a way to accelerate your efficiency at work so you could devote more time to making memories with the people you love?

Are you allowing exhaustion to cripple you? Are you burning more energy than you can spare? In the American workplace, we've finally managed to overcome the idea of burning the candle at both ends … but only by replacing it with the idea of burning the candle at both ends
and
in the middle. While
lauded by managers as a way of squeezing a few more minutes of work out of their employees, all this is really doing is making their employees tired. Too many people are trying to achieve success by working longer, when really they're just spending more hours doing the same amount of work. Their productivity isn't going up—work quality is going down as energy levels plummet.

I've seen the devastating effects of plunging energy levels. I've watched and listened to clients and friends pour out their hearts in private about the anxiety, the guilt, the fatigue, the shame, and yes, even the serious depression they've privately felt for spinning aimlessly on the “hamster wheel of life.”