Winning the productivity battle, one day at a time

Productivity has been a national question for a long time now as the country searches for meaningful economic growth.

But as much as productivity is about industry-level outputs and GDP, it is also an issue that rests with each one of us as we go about our working lives. If all of us could raise our personal productivity by 10% for example, imagine what impact that would have when aggregated across the economy.

This is something I’ve been reflecting on for some time. There is no doubt that business life has got busier and busier – but are we actually achieving more?

Post-pandemic productivity expectations

In my view, much of the issue we’re faced with stems from the time of Covid. Remember those days of pandemic lockdown when we were suddenly all working from home, Zoom and Teams seemed new, and each day was a mixture of calls and solitary working? In that time, productivity was raised because suddenly most of us had few distractions and, frankly, there wasn’t very much else to do!

Since then, we’ve kept the pandemic era productivity expectations while working patterns have returned nearer to how they used to be, with most people working a hybrid pattern of some days in the office and some working remotely.

Always on world

At the same time, the world has simply got faster. Digitisation and AI are changing the game. Our culture, both at work and at home, is ‘always on’. New communication channels have opened up – not only email and text, but WhatsApp, Slack and Teams messaging too. Expectations of responsiveness are higher than ever. How many times have you sent a WhatsApp message and then started checking, moments later, to see if the person has read your message or started to reply?

All of these factors have increased the pressures on us as individuals – but they don’t actually help us become more productive. A good analogy is cycling: we’re all pedalling harder, but the hill has got steeper so we’re not actually moving faster than before.

Practical productivity boosters

I’m not going to pretend there are easy solutions to this, but there are certain approaches that I believe really help. They may make it easier to start winning the productivity battle.

• Apply a customer lens: as service professionals, everything we do should be focused on a customer outcome. Our recent UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) found that customers are increasingly looking for value – a combination of price, quality and customer experience. So, how is what you are doing today helping meet those customer priorities? If it’s not furthering the customer agenda or how your organisation services that, do you need to reassess or recalibrate your approach?

• Prioritise: it’s a simple point, but it’s so easy to overlook. Are you prioritising what you do in terms of strategic importance – or getting caught up in the daily whirl of messages and meetings? Be very clear about what matters most. More incidental things can wait.

• Contract fairly with colleagues: another driver of the ‘too busy to stop and think’ phenomenon is the deadlines and demands we place on each other. It’s something I recognise myself given that, due to my position, I am often asking colleagues to send me an update or an outcome by a certain deadline. But are these deadlines ‘real’? There is a danger that we all increase the pressure on each other unnecessarily. If I won’t realistically get to a report for three days, is there any point in asking for it tomorrow? Contract with each other in a reasonable, balanced and fair way. What goes around comes around, after all.

• Choose your channels: communication is key to getting things done. But there is a danger of overload due to the sheer range of channels available. Nowadays, we’re not only receiving 100-200+ emails every day but scores of other messages too. Step back and think: how is it best to communicate in this particular instance? Choose one channel rather than doubling up with two. Less is more. We can all get more done if we’re not constantly looking at our phone to read the latest message!

• Plan your meetings and action points: finally, we all spend hours every day in meetings. But how many meetings have you sat in where there is only a hazy agenda and talk wanders around from topic to topic? Plan your meetings carefully, have a clear agenda, make sure there are concrete outcomes or actions at the end of it. This makes best use of everyone’s time and means that we can all be more productive.

In reading this, you yourself have taken time out of your day. Thank you! I hope it has given you some useful prompts. If we all change how we work in relatively small ways, it can make a big difference – we can start winning the productivity battle, one day at a time.