9 Tips on Leading With Integrity And Building Trust

Integrity in the workplace is foundational for building a trusting and productive team that can function during good times and bad times. Why is this? Because integrity involves honesty, respect, and vulnerability. These three traits are essential ingredients in maximizing engagement and productivity.

When you choose to lead with integrity, you intentionally set yourself up for success by allowing yourself to be open to change and feedback.

As a result, you expose your actual state of thinking and facilitate others to do the same. When leaders can actively engage their team, they instill purpose in their mission and outcomes.

Here are some tips on building trust and leading with integrity.

How to Lead With Integrity

Leading with integrity isn’t for the faint of heart. It involves emotion, critical thinking, and the willingness to be exposed to the opinions of others for the benefit of the team.

High-level leaders with integrity understand these fundamental ingredients for success and actively choose to use them in their day-to-day communications.

To lead with integrity, today’s leaders must be aware of their actions and respect their team members’ perspectives. It isn’t rocket science, but it does take intention and follow-through to make it happen.

1. Have Hard Conversations Early

Set the tone early to establish trust and, more importantly, show respect. Hard conversations are inevitable in the workplace, so good luck trying to escape them.

They’re essential because businesses solve problems, and where there are problems, human emotions and feelings get involved.

Those who lead with integrity understand this concept and choose to own it every single step along the way. They frame discussions by asking questions, taking inventory of the importance of the conversation, and trying to approach the topic from a neutral perspective.^[1]

As they work through the discussion, they utilize emotional intelligence to understand both viewpoints and create solutions to move forward. Keeping it simple is the recipe for success, especially when it’s a conversation that you don’t want to have but need to.

2. Clear is Kind When It Comes to Communication

Whether cultivating a relationship in the office or with your partner, this concept can pay dividends for a lifetime.

In Kim Scott’s book, Radical Candor, she describes the concept of using “clear is kind” in communication with peers and colleagues.^[2] In her experience, muddled communication and a lack of clarity caused more problems. This is why she supports the phrase “caring personally and challenging directly.”

Specifically, when most leaders attempt to provide feedback, they try to be kind and shelter the individual receiving feedback to soften the blow.

The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t help either party and, in the long run, could cause more problems. If peers don’t receive the necessary feedback about their job performance or expectations, they will continue to operate at the same level of inefficiency.

Furthermore, this could hurt the team or inhibit their chances of making the needed improvements to enhance their ability to execute. There’s a difference between being a jerk and being clear. Those with integrity in their leadership know the difference and confidently walk this line.

3. Be Transparent

Your peers and colleagues pick up a lot more than just your words. Body language, subtle nuances, and processing things you didn’t say can significantly affect your ability to lead with integrity and build trust with your team.

To lead with integrity, you must be aware of your actions and be transparent with your motives. If you don’t know the answer to a question, be honest.

For example, are you having a bad day because of external factors outside the office? Tell your colleagues within reason. Or maybe you’re struggling with a new role and don’t feel fully equipped to tackle it on your own? Ask for help.

This transparency can be crucial for success and team building because it shows that you’re human, open to feedback, and willing to be vulnerable to improve. Your team will be able to relate to these aspects and be more open to doing the same.^[3]

Being transparent is worth the investment!

4. Recognize Mistakes, Then Move On

We all make mistakes. It’s just whether or not you choose to acknowledge them. Businesses exist to solve problems, and where there are problems, there will be miscalculations.

But a mistake is only a label; what matters is what you do with it. Many of the greatest inventions throughout the world came about as mistakes and turned into massively successful companies and initiatives.^[4]

Trial and error is a beautiful thing, especially in the business world. Unfortunately, traditional schools teach us that making mistakes is wrong, so we rarely challenge this dogma. But in business, taking calculated risks and making mistakes is the secret to success because it allows a company to learn quickly.

Mistakes are a part of the journey, so embrace them. Regardless of who makes a mistake, be open about it and the subsequent learning opportunities that arise from it.

Embracing this philosophy will destigmatize the mistake-making process and create a trustworthy haven for trying new things. Innovation doesn’t happen in an echo chamber; It happens with intentional and repeated trial and error. Learning from those mistakes is where the actual value is created.

5. Show Vulnerability

Perfection is a fallacy. Yet, those who try to portray it usually shoot themselves in the foot.

Vulnerability doesn’t mean being weak or predictive. It merely means being your genuine self, with no strings attached. Brene Brown’s research has shown that vulnerability and being your authentic self is the underlying root of human connection.^[5]

Forming authentic relationships with your peers can create ripple effects that could last far longer than your tenure. Plus, when you get to know someone, you will get the best out of them, as both parties are willing to work harder to help the team grow and prosper.

Being honest and genuine won’t cost you any money, but it could make you a fortune in the long run.

6. Say “I Don’t Know” When You Don’t

The “fake it til you make it” mentality may work in some situations, but not when you’re working within a team and having to make decisions.

Saying “I don’t know” can be one of the most empowering phrases in your playbook because it shows that you’re open and willing to hear other perspectives. It also shows that you’re human. And while that may seem scary, it’s the reality.

We’re imperfect beings, so why do we work so hard to act like we’re not? This whole movement of perfection throughout social media and glorifying those who either aesthetically or financially accomplish significant tasks is overrated.

Influencers post their best photos, not their worst.A nd those who brag about their finances rarely post their checking or savings accounts, so how can we take them for face value?

Actively deciding to lead with integrity involves the willingness to know. And that will allow you to know who to trust and seek answers from in the future.

7. Ask For Feedback; Then Give It

When you actively ask for honest feedback from a coworker, you open up a dialogue of discussion that can facilitate high-level conversations and discussions. By asking first for feedback, you allow reciprocity for your colleague to be open to feedback, creating a give-and-take relationship.

Feedback is inevitable, especially in business. Businesses solve problems, which is why continuous and authentic feedback is crucial for success. Those who can receive feedback but also give it are the ones who accomplish incredible feats. They’re able to work together with others to achieve goals that are greater than themselves.

And when the ego is involved, we must find ways to work around our emotions. Integrity in a leader is shown when you are willing to put your ego on the line to create a stronger bond. These bonds can make or break a team.

8. Listen to Understand, Not to Respond

How many of us make this mistake over and over again? We find ourselves sitting next to someone, engaged in a conversation, when they suddenly ask us, “what do you think?” and we have no response. It’s embarrassing and, more importantly, downright disrespectful.

Sadly, this happens more often than most of us admit. A majority of our population is distracted. And even when we’re engaged, we’re not that engaged.^[6]

Being physically present looks and feels very different than being mentally and emotionally present. Choosing to lead with integrity involves active listening and understanding.

It requires intention and cognitive processing behind the words and phrases we communicate with colleagues, and it is needed to create trusting relationships.

Active listening comes through our body language and lack of interruptions. To seek to understand, you should be able to repeat to them what they stated, with a thoughtful response that answers the question or problem they posed.

Building trust takes time, just like a thoughtful conversation. Choose your actions wisely and watch your relationships flourish through active listening.

9. Begin With the End in Mind

Leadership is an ever-evolving wheel of investing time, energy, and resources into a relationship. But if you don’t know where you want to go, you will have no idea whether or not you will get there.

When Stephen Covey wrote his NY Times Bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he laid out the foundation for success and achievement in life.^[7]

Interestingly, the second of the seven habits was “begin with the end in mind.”

Not because it sounded cool but because he realized it was essential for success.

As you choose to lead with integrity, you will realize that your actions today have consequences tomorrow. Every day matters. And when you decide to begin with the end in mind, you can reverse engineer what you want the final result to be and work backward to create it.

Success looks different for everyone. It doesn’t always come down to financial goals for each individual.

For example, each person might require a different approach to getting there, which is why individuality matters. Using this approach, you can facilitate a high-level success roadmap and ensure the path to getting there.

How to Build Trust and Lead With Integrity

6 Actions

Have hard conversations early to avoid mistakes in the long run. Frame discussions by asking questions, take inventory of the importance of the conversation, and trying to approach the topic from a neutral perspective.

Be transparent and ask for help when needed, and be transparent about not knowing everything. 

Recognize mistakes, then move on. There will always be problems along the way, and we learn and grow from them.

Show vulnerability. There’s no such thing as perfect, and being vulnerable doesn’t mean you’re weak. It just means that you’re like everyone else – human.

Listen to understand, not to respond. Just as you are human, so are those around you. Actively listen to them so that you can form better connections.

Begin with the end in mind. It’s just good sense. If you know where you’re going, more often than not, you’ll get there!

Final Thoughts

Leading with integrity starts with small daily habits. They will eventually turn into tremendous outcomes and the accomplishment of lofty goals. And Barry O’Reilly states “think big, but start small.”

This process will allow you to lead with integrity and create trusting relationships with your colleagues and peers. Those who have been successful in business or life will tell you that it’s all about the people. So as you establish your dream team, make sure you intentionally invest in them.

It’s the best investment you can make in business.

Featured photo credit: Amy Hirschi via unsplash.com

Reference

[1]	^	Center for Creative Leadership: 5 Steps for Tackling Difficult Conversations
[2]	^	RadicalCandor.com: Radical Candor
[3]	^	University of Florida HR: Creating a Culture of Transparency
[4]	^	Business Collective: Why Making Mistakes Is Actually Good for Business
[5]	^	Harvard Business Review: What Bosses Gain by Being Vulnerable
[6]	^	Forbes: 10 Are You Really Listening Or Just Waiting To Talk? There’s A Difference
[7]	^	Franklin Covey: Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind

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How A Proactive Management Style Can Influence a Workplace

Have you ever been unable to find a manager to assist you when shopping? Or have you ever experienced poor customer service while purchasing food at a fast food chain?

Whether in business, management, or leadership, problems often arise as they are part of life. While it’s easier to focus or blame everything on problems, this is also not a sustainable solution, especially if you’re leading a team. Part of a proactive management style is finding solutions.

Therefore, how can we apply proactive management in workplace leadership? Even though there are several different management styles, this article’s primary focus is on proactive management and how it influences the workplace.

Proactive Management Style Is Incredibly Important

As a manager, constantly hearing about other people’s problems comes with the role. One of the most challenging issues with these conversations is the fatigue that it causes.

Being a manager, you have a series of tasks to complete. Achieving each item on your to-do list requires a certain amount of time and energy. Each conversation that isn’t focused on completing the task is a conversation that will derail you from the goal. An old saying goes,

“If you entertain people’s problems, they will continually give them to you.”

At this point, your management style will be the most significant factor in how you influence the workplace. The conversations you have, how you manage these conversations, and how you interact with the staff are all relative to the type of management style you use.

In essence, the effectiveness and success of the team are based on the style you decide to manage the workplace. One cannot stress the importance of this enough. In leadership, we know that everything rises and falls on the leader. This must be emphasized because your workplace’s culture depends on the leader.^[1]

If the manager is proactive, the culture will flourish. However, if the manager is reactive, the culture will be filled with stagnation and low morale.

That is why you, as the manager, have to decide whether or not you want to be a proactive manager or a manager who only reacts when there are problems.

Proactive Management Vs. Reactive Management

It is essential to make a note of reactive management and how it affects the workplace as well.

Both management styles are active styles of management. Yet, when we take a deeper look at the different types, we can see that one of these styles leads to growth and positive outcomes while the other is stressful and stagnant. Becoming self-aware of where you are and need to be is the first step to either increasing the positive workplace culture or completely changing it to be proactive.^[2]

Signs Of Reactive Management

• Reactive management style is assumption-based over evidence-based.^[3]
• Changes are swift and unplanned.
• There are no processes or systems in place.
• Expectations are in the manager’s head, and people are expected to “know them.”
• Lack of communication or poor communication.
• Any action taken is reactive and not proactive.
• The entire system is based on a person, and everything falls apart if that person is absent.
• Management makes decisions based on short-term feelings and not long-term vision.
• The team does what’s easiest or quickest, not what’s best.
• When things go wrong, no one takes responsibility.

Signs of Proactive Management

• The management style is evidence-based and process-oriented.
• There are systems in place, and the team knows and uses them.
• Changes are based on discussion and vision planning.
• Communication is a core value and is utilized often.
• The manager is solution oriented.
• The management team is focused on what is best over what is fastest – quality first.
• When things go wrong, management takes responsibility and then takes steps to ensure that it won’t happen again.
• Management leads through vision and not feeling.
• Management develops training programs based on the most significant challenges that “could” happen.
• Management allows the team to bring problems to them but focuses on finding solutions with the team member.

Proactive Management and Workplace Influence

After reading the above lists, ask yourself where you fall. Do you think that you are more proactive or reactive? If you believe yourself to be a proactive manager, what can you do to increase your ability to manage more proactively? If you think of yourself as a reactive manager, what do you need to change to become more proactive?

Remember, the goal is to grow your ability to manage consistently in a proactive way. The greatest teams have thriving and healthy managers who devote themselves to developing their proactive management style.

When you reflect on the differences, you can see how the types of management styles influence the workplace. A proactive management style brings life, while a reactive management style barely keeps the team alive.

The proactive manager’s time and energy go into the solution, not the problem. The proactive manager foresees challenges and creates systems on how to overcome them. The proactive management type thrives and then helps their team to thrive as well.

The high level of morale that flows from proactive management is infectious. Quality people are drawn to this type of manager. They want to be part of the proactive management team.^[4] 

When a leader is unwilling to do anything about the problem, people are unwilling to follow him as a leader. The biggest challenge for reactive managers is being unprepared. Being unprepared shows that you do not care about others’ time.

People can give you room and space to work on yourself. Or accept a change in direction to refocus an issue. However, people take it differently if they perceive you don’t care. That’s why morale is so low and why quality people jump ship when they realize that the manager isn’t able to fulfill their role as a leader.

Gasoline and Water: An Illustration of Influence

Imagine that there is a fire. Near the fire, there are two buckets. The first bucket contains water. The second bucket has gasoline. What you realize is that both buckets have the power to influence the fire. If your goal is to stoke the fire, which bucket would you use, and which bucket would you avoid?

As you already surmised, the fire is the workplace, while the buckets are the different management styles. The gasoline represents a proactive management style, and the water represents a reactive management style. The workplace is influenced by the style we use.

If you want to influence the workplace in a positive way that creates energy and momentum, then you will use a proactive management style. In contrast, you would use a reactive management style if you desired to stifle the power and slow the momentum down.

Given the benefit of the doubt, many people don’t purposely want to throw water on the fire of momentum. Some individuals may wish to do this, but this is a small percentage of managers who need to check their life choices.

How to Be a Proactive Manager

When asked, Ben Cosh, CEO of Leadership Jetway, who trains managers, shares his thoughts on how to be a proactive manager.

“To be a proactive manager, you must catch them doing something right and then tell them about it. Walk the line between proactive management and micromanager. So much of leadership and management is about balancing things in tension. You have to be confident, humble, decisive, and consultative. You have to learn the art of being proactive that empowers.”

1. Celebrate the Wins

Over the years, his words have played out. As a proactive manager, who wants to influence your team, you must catch people doing the right things and doing things right.

As a proactive manager, you need to take the next step and celebrate the good things you have discovered and honor them publicly.^[5] People stay where they are celebrated but leave when they are criticized. In a world where managers are great at telling people what they are doing wrong, your words of encouragement and celebration will bring life.

2. Be Proactive and Micromanage Effectively

This is really challenging. It takes one to sit for a while and reflect on this statement. Most managers want everyone to walk freely and enjoy work. Isn’t that how proactive management should be? Then why micromanage?

John Maxwell once said,

“People do what you inspect, not what you expect.”

Be a manager of character who motivates and empowers your people, but also be a manager who inspects everything for excellence.

To close out with Ben’s statement,

“Set the intent and direction as proactively and clearly as you can but then ask your team to be proactive in pursuing that agenda. You want their ideas. You’ll let them try things. Also, ensure you ask lots of questions and genuinely listen to the answers. Let your team decide how to proceed as much as you can. Because you want to build a culture of proactivity that causes your productivity to skyrocket.”

Choosing the Right Path

You must refer to this statement when asked how proactive management influences the workplace. Since everything rises and falls on leadership, the manager’s responsibility is to develop themselves into a leader who operates proactively and with character. When the leader gets this right, the team will follow. The leadership team’s job is to create the culture that drives the organization.

Final Thoughts

As a proactive manager, you must continually promote, equip, and empower proactive team members. As a proactive manager, you are the gasoline on their fire. However, you can’t give what you do not have. So if you are not consistently developing yourself towards higher levels, you will be unable to move your team towards the goal. Leadership teams are symbiotic in that the leader, manager, and team members must work together towards a common goal.

If any of that is out of sync, expect failure and lower morale. However, when in sync, the proactive manager wields an incredible influence that directs the entire workplace.

So, the question is, will you be your team’s gasoline or their water? Will you use your Influence to stoke the fires of momentum or put it out? The choice is entirely in your hands. What you do next could forever influence the trajectory of the team.

Choose wisely.

TL;DR

Don't have time for the full article? Read this.

❯

As a proactive manager, you must continually promote, equip, and empower proactive team members.

❯

Reactive management style is assumption-based over evidence-based. A proactive management style is evidence-based and process-oriented.

❯

The high level of morale that flows from proactive management is infectious. Quality people are drawn to this type of manager.

❯

When a leader is unwilling to do anything about the problem, people are unwilling to follow him as a leader. The biggest challenge for reactive managers is being unprepared.

❯

To be the best proactive manager, constantly work on developing yourself.

Reference

[1]	^	Invista: The Importance of Workplace Culture
[2]	^	Indeed.com: Reactive vs. Proactive Behavior: What’s the Difference?
[3]	^	The Balance Careers: Predictive and Not Reactive Management
[4]	^	Study.com: Proactive Management: Definition, Benefits & Example
[5]	^	Harvard Business Review: Celebrate to Win

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5 Lessons on How to Be a Productive Leader by Nathan Chan

In this episode of The Lifehack Show, we have invited Nathan Chan, the CEO and Founder of Foundr to join us.

Nathan has a passion for entrepreneurship and people, which is why he created Foundr, a global media and education company that produces magazines, books and online courses for entrepreneurs.

Nathan believes life is too short to do work you hate, and is on a mission to grow Foundr into a household name that impacts tens of millions of people with its content and online business school.

In this episode, Nathan is sharing how he started Foundr, and his hacks on getting things done as a leader and entrepreneur.

Check out the full interview video here:

 

You can also listen to the interview on our podcast channel Spotify, Apple Podcast and Google Podcast:

Lessons on Leadership & Productivity from Nathan Chan

Nathan has shared a lot of his thoughts and tips on how to get things done as a productive leader and entrepreneur, here’re some of the key takeaways:

1. Be Disciplined And Stick to a Routine

I’d get up early in the morning and before I started my day job, I would get up at six in the morning, go through emails et cetera… I’m basically going to the office early and find a meeting room and do an interview or two in the morning, then I’d go to my actual job and I’d start at nine. I do interviews during my lunch break as well.

When asked about how he managed time when he was still working a full-time job and starting Foundr, Nathan told us how important it was to stick to a routine.

Despite trying to grow his business, Nathan wants to be able to invest as much time as he can with his family, friends and parents  Stricking a balance is tricky yet essential. Nathan still allows time for family and friends in his disciplined schedule for work. He’d spend time with his family every Sudany and schedule catching up with friends two weeks in advance.

2. Get Help And Focus on Doing Things That You Enjoy

When Nathan just started Foundr, he did almost everything including markeintg, the writing, and the interviews. But he did get help from others and he employed people on a contractual project basis.

When you want to get ahead, sometimes there’s just things you hate that you’re really bad of and you dread it… If you can afford it, find somebody on a contractual project basis and get them to do it. Then you will focus on the things that you enjoy.

Nathan looked at it from the sense of what he was bad at, and that it was actually better for him and the business if he delegated it to someone else.

3. Be Clear of What You Want to Achieve

Many leaders and entrepreneurs struggle about when to step back from the operation and focus on seeing the bigger picture. Nathan has this piece of advice for them:

It comes down to really what you want and what the goals are… what’s the purpose and really how big do you want to build… It’s your job to go out if you want to build something really large and special, that you have to find the best possible people you can, and you have to be a great leader that can lead them.

If you want to achieve something really big, remember that you will need more than just YOU to achieve it.

4. Find the Right People to Help You

Nathan mentioned one thing that was truly inspiring in the interview:

There are people that are better than you at all sorts of different things, and you can’t be a master of every single trade.

So when it comes to getting help, it’s about the who instead of the what — who has done it before? Who has solve a similar problem already? How can you help your team and share with them these people who have done it before to give them the blueprints?

By providing your team with resources, education, and introducing them to people who have “been there, done that,” you can skill up the team effectively.

5. Empower Your Team Members Instead of “Managing” Them

Nathan believes that in order for a team to drive outcomes, it’s important to help the mebers to discover themselves what they could be doing to make improvements. To him, the key to communication comes down to making sure everyone knows where they’re going, what they need to do and what success looks like as a company at a company level, a team level as well as an individual level.

Like getting things done, it’s not good just saying hey do this, go do this…. because really you don’t want to be thinking for people, you want to empower them, you want to give them ownership, you want to give them autonomy, you want to give them accountability.

At Foundr, Nathan encourages and fosters and environment for continuous growth and learning, so team members are empowered to do their best work with autonomy at Foundr.

Bottom Line

Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a leader at work, these leadership lessons by Nathan will surely help you become a more productive and effective leader.

If you want to watch the full interview with Nathan, don’t forget to check out the YouTube video above. Stay tuned with us on The Lifehack Show as I will be interviewing more leaders and productivity experts!

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How To Use Day Theming For Productivity (With Examples)

In the constant quest to become more productive, many look for new concepts when it comes to improving their productivity. That’s where a specific type of workflow comes in called day theming.

Day theming is one of the greatest ways to stay focused on the task while moving forward to reach expected results. If you want to know how  – keep reading. You will not only learn new ways and have clear examples but also get action steps on your way to use day theming for a productivity boost you didn’t know you needed.

What is Day Theming?

The concept of themed days, especially for work is really simple. As the name suggests, each day is dedicated to a specific theme or task ^[1]. Instead of having a to-do list which can get overwhelming, theme work days help to stay focused on a set of certain tasks rather than constantly switching, which saves a lot of time.

If you have practiced task batching, you will love day theming as it improves your productivity that much more. With day theming, you simply devote an entire day to working on one specific initiative. So rather than setting aside smaller time blocks for each task (e.g. an hour for networking, two hours for email, etc.), each day is strategically planned in your calendar with a single task of focus. It can be working on a certain goal in your life, a personal or professional project.

If you’re running a business, day theming may be a smart way to get through important projects more quickly. But as you probably have heard – multitasking adversely affects productivity. That is where a method allowing in-depth work while still meeting deadlines is so effective.

Let’s be clear, day theming isn’t complicated. It’s not what you do but how you do it that makes day theming so incredibly effective. They are especially useful when you want to make greater progress in a short amount of time. To get the most benefit out of your work days is to keep certain hours in your schedule with zero interruptions.

5 Proven Benefits of Setting Themed Days

The benefits of day theming are plentiful, and they can be extremely significant. Here are some valid reasons why you should use this productivity power tool in your favor and take advantage of what it provides.

1. Builds Productive Workflow

When you have single-themed days without interruptions, your productivity can skyrocket, achieving far more work in less time. Without replying to emails, being pulled into meetings, or dealing with other distractions, you can stay focused on your work.

2. Prevents Attention Hopping

With a traditional daily to-do list, you’re trying to do several key things in succession. It means you’re attention hopping because you have to complete a task (or at least make progress) and then switch gears to something different.

This arbitrary change in focus requires you to constantly divert the brain’s attention, sometimes several times a day. Your attention suffers – and your productivity declines, which leads to poor performance, missing important details, and inability to complete such tasks. ^[2]

Each time I jump from task to task, I fragment my focus on shallow work, which creates decision fatigue and weakens my ability to solve complex, important problems. But when I set firm borders around a specific piece of work, I won’t feel guilty about ignoring those inevitable requests that crop up throughout the day.

3. Helps With Prioritization

We all have important goals we’re trying to achieve, whether that’s trying to write a book, launch a new website, or learn a new skill. But in our fast-paced, hyper-connected world, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s truly important and get caught up in the noise and busyness of daily life.

Being able to dedicate one day each week to a project that’s actually meaningful to us can return a powerful sense of satisfaction and means we don’t miss out on creating something that has real, tangible value.

With day theming, you can clear the ‘background noise’ of other tasks competing for your attention.

4. Reduces Start-up Time

Once you batch similar tasks together, you reduce the start-up time as you’re already in the same context. This also means that if you have to make too many decisions like what you’re going to do that day, the more you’re making decisions based on what you feel like doing, not on what you should be doing.

So knowing what you’re supposed to do eliminates some of this thinking power. You’re just executing the plan rather than coming up with the plan. This makes it much more likely you actually achieve your goals.

5. Helps Maintain Self-Discipline

With theme work days, you make it so much easier for yourself to stay disciplined. If you take an hour out of each day to learn a new skill, it will take you much longer and will create higher chances of you quitting along the way. One month quickly becomes two months, and soon the goal has fallen by the wayside.  Dedicating one full day to your new project will keep you focused, motivated and disciplined.

Here’s an example: let’s say you want to learn iMovie. Every day after work, when you’re already exhausted, you take one hour to learn the skill. In one month, you will have dedicated approximately 20 hours to learning and will most likely struggle with discipline and concentration.

But what if you schedule two themed days in a row, let’s say Friday and Saturday, and devote 10 focused hours to learning iMovie on both days,  you would achieve more in two days than what you can achieve in one month or possibly even longer if you struggle with self-discipline.

So, why doesn’t everyone just use day theming for productivity? The biggest problem is that it’s hard to empty the calendar. Themed days of the week for work require some shifts and a willingness to explore your abilities for progress.

4-Step Method To Designing Your Theme Work Days

1. Decide on Categories That Are Core to Your Success

You know better than anyone else which major areas of your life consistently require a lot of time and attention. Which of those things would benefit from having a specific day dedicated to them?

These categories require you to be creative and do deep work. You can set up a theme for all seven days of the week, or you could keep it to fewer days and give yourself some dedicated days off. It’s all about choosing what works for you.

2. Assign Your Themes to Specific Days of the Week

It is important to budget sufficient time for each category. When budgeting time, consider your work-life balance and allocate your work projects accordingly. Think thoroughly about all areas of your life, including your health and fitness – they too deserve your time.

3. Write Out Specific Tasks for Each Theme

This will help you evaluate the amount of work and allocate more reasonable time to each task. No matter how small, write all of them down and categorize them into daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly. You might not be able to come up with everything at once, so it might be helpful to have a list on your desk for a week and just keep adding to it till you have all of it.

Usually, the “quick” or “small” tasks take the longest simply because we have overlooked our abilities or the energy each task might actually take. By overbooking ourselves, we become less flexible and more exhausted. Writing the tasks out will give you a clear perspective of what’s to come and will help you allocate the time more properly.

4. Add Themes and Tasks to Your Calendar

If after some time of using your chosen themes you notice to be inefficient, change them. Your job is to make themed days work in your favor. So reevaluate as needed. You might find that you’ve left something out that you really need. The point is to make scheduling easy, not more complicated.

Create Your Own Themed Day (Action Plan)

It’s easy to choose themes, however, what actually goes into it? Which tasks are you supposed to complete? To help you out, I have listed ideas and tasks for your own specific situation. The best way to see what themed days can do for your productivity is to simply test the concept.

Before You Get Started:

• Clear your calendar for a day to do a practice run.
• Set your priorities. Understand that it’s not just the task that’s important – it’s the power of the method you’re applying to get it done.
• Prevent distractions. Set up your space so it keeps you easily focused on the great thing you’re about to accomplish and keep the possible interruptions to a minimum.
• Remove reasons for procrastination. A little bit of task preparation goes a long way – remove any possible focus stealers from your space and prepare to do the work.
• Set specific goals and deadlines. Make sure your goals are measurable so it’s easy to see the progress that you’ve made.
• Work in balance. Take regular breaks to keep your mind sharp, and body refreshed. This will keep you excited and move the needle in the right direction.

Once you have prepared your space in all aspects, it’s time to dive in and do the work. Remember that themed days should work in your favor, so choose and adapt accordingly.

Regarding the tasks, there is a big variety to not only choose from but add anything that you find useful to have on your list. Mix and match them with your themes as you find the most fitting. These are just a few examples to give you an idea for your own unique themed day action plan.

Marketing Day

• Review current marketing campaigns and metrics
• Plan out new marketing strategies and sales campaigns
• Create or consult new campaigns or promotions
• Evaluate and update all social media and client communication material
• Explore co-branding opportunities or proposals
• Pitch new partnership ideas
• Find new revenue-generating avenues like affiliate programs
• Do competitor research to find out where they’re getting the most traction and engagement

Meeting Day

• Client calls
• Discovery calls
• Coffee dates
• Podcast interviews
• Team meetings

Internal Affairs Day

• Check last week’s sales reports and respond to internal queries or issues
• Do real-time project management check-ins with team members
• Attend supplier and customer communication
• Create or update manuals or videos that could help you and your team work more effectively
• Work on client communication channels – newsletters, delivery automation, etc
• Review any current projects and find ways to improve
• Team meetings

Content Day

• Create content for the next week
• Collaborate on the creation of fresh website content, marketing campaign content, and social media content
• Oversee blog or article uploads for your website
• Work at link-building and SEO for better online visibility
• Review and update newsletter or mailing list content and objectives
• Record videos

Research and Development Day

• Experiment with new plugins or web tools to enhance website function
• Look at courses or programs for self-improvement or business building
• Tweaking 1:1 service workflows, so they give a better client experience
• Reviewing your product/ service
• Thinking through new programs
• Creating new tools for our audience

Networking

• Participate in industry groups or paid platforms
• Search for industry-related information you can share with your audience
• Connect with potential clients
• Look for podcasts or blogs where I can help their audience, and reach out to them.
• Adding new people to the CRM
• Updating CRM

Personal Growth

• Setting goals for the week
• Reviewing last week’s goals
• Reading
• Resting, rejuvenating
• Time with friends/family
• Workout
• Taking a course

What if There Are Unpredictable Changes or Challenges?

Obviously, you can’t just ignore some issues. A crisis or urgent query can’t wait until next week. The great thing about day theming is that it’s really flexible. For example, you could stay ‘on the theme’ until 2 pm every day, with leeway after that to attend to other issues.

The important thing to remember is that day theming gives you more specific focus and time for deep work every day.

Looking for Other Ways To Use Themes?

The key to working with methods like this is understanding that it’s a framework. And the same framework does not work well for everyone. So it’s key to find what is working for you and stay flexible. Weekly themes might be an even better solution for your specific situation.

Here’s another example: if you offer a two-week copywriting service, there is not much time to work on your business. Instead of having batch days, it might be worth having dedicated weeks; two weeks of client work, one week for content creation for the following weeks, and one week to do your other important work for business growth.

If your weeks are different, it might be worth dedicating time until the end of each week to plan out and allocate themes for the week ahead.

Final Thoughts

No matter the type of work you do, daily themes can help you. I encourage you to test this approach and see if it’s good for you. The ability to focus is the most important result you get from theming your days, and that is truly priceless.

Chances are high that you will get results if you have a whole day set aside for a certain project. No interruptions, no meetings, no other tasks from other projects creeping in on you. From my point of view, the more uninterrupted time you can dedicate to a certain project, the easier it is to make progress in that project.

Start small. Evaluate what is working and what isn’t and make adjustments. Adding even one theme work day can bring huge benefits. Once you have one day sorted out, add a second theme day and keep adjusting until you find what works best for you.

Create Your Themed Day Action Plan

4 Actions

Decide on categories that are core to your success.

Assign different themes for each day of the week, write down a list of tasks, and add them to your calendar.

Test our your framework and adjust if needed.

Set specific goals and deadlines. Make sure your goals are measurable so it’s easy to see the progress that you’ve made.

Featured photo credit: Vadim Bozhko via unsplash.com

Reference

[1]	^	LinkedIn.com: Themed Days: a Hack to Skyrocket your Productivity
[2]	^	Healthline: What Are the Causes of a Short Attention Span, and How Can I Improve It?

The post How To Use Day Theming For Productivity (With Examples) appeared first on Lifehack.

7 Task Batching Techniques to Boost Your Productivity

Many people are obsessed with multitasking. It’s not uncommon to see people bounce around from their smartphone to their laptop to their iPad and back to their smartphone believing they are getting more done in less time. But multitasking is a myth. Instead of multitasking, what people are doing is simply jumping between tasks and in doing so killing their productivity.

To stop multitasking and start getting things done, you need to learn the task batching techniques.

What Is Batching?

Batching is a term used for computers. Early computers were capable of only running one task at a time. Advances in technology meant computers could run multiple jobs scheduled at times that made the most sense.

Batching is a very realistic approach to boosting productivity. It maximizes concentration and reduces distractions by grouping similar tasks that require similar resources.

Before You Start to Batch Your Tasks…

The flip side of all the incredible things technology has given us over the past few decades is the sheer number of things that can distract us from achieving our tasks and goals. On average, we get interruptions every eight minutes.^[1] Turn off silent mode on your phone, and soon you’ll be inundated with beeps and whistles. And if social media notifications, emails, and phone calls, don’t get you, the walk-in will.

Just think about how many times you’ve heard “Have you got five minutes to spare?” or “Can I get your help with something?” Most people don’t mean to interrupt you, but inevitably that’s what happens. After all, when was the last time you found yourself just doing nothing at the office?

There’s always something on our plate that needs our attention. Many people welcome interruptions as it gives them the illusion of being more productive.

However, nothing could be further from the truth. According to one study,^[2]

“It takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task.”

It’s a real productivity killer. Instead, what people need to be doing is focusing on a single task and getting it done.

To ensure that we can take full advantage of the batching techniques, we need to first limit our distractions:

• Turn on the airplane mode – Airplane mode cuts out annoying notifications on our phones and apps for computer users. They block access to websites for a certain duration.
• Ues a calendar – Open spaces will soon fill up if you’re not careful, so it’s critical you book time with yourself to focus on the tasks you need to get to. Set aside a few time slots to prevent interruptions, and you’ll be ready to rock.

Here’re more ways to help you get rid of distractions and stay focus.

Now that we have time set aside to focus on what we need to get done, let’s take a look at the different batching techniques you can use.

7 Task Batching Techniques

When it comes to batching, there isn’t just one approach you can take:

1. Pomodoro Technique

Many people consider the Pomodoro Technique the holy grail of batching working. Developed in the 80s by Francesco Cirillo, it is a process where people break down their time into short increments of 25-minute blocks throughout the day with periodic breaks.

Each 25-minute block is called a “pomodoro.” These short boosts of focus prevent mental fatigue and allow people to get tasks done faster.

After each pomodoro, take a short five-minute break to refresh your body and eyes. After four pomodoros take an extended break of 15 to 30 minutes.

2. Flowtime Technique

Not nearly as well-known as the Pomodoro Technique, the Flowtime Technique is the brainchild of Zoe Read-Bivens who came up with it as she found pomodoros interrupted her flow too often.

The key to utilizing the Flowtime Technique is creating a timesheet that will allow you to manage your daily activities. It can be done on your iPad or by hand, each has its advantages.

Doing it digitally allows you to easily move things around and keep track of overtime. However, I prefer to go old school and write things out. The simple act of writing things down increases your chance of doing them by 42% according to Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at the Dominican University of California.^[3]

On your timesheet, you’ll want to include the following column headings:

• Task Name
• Start Time
• End Time
• Interruptions
• Work Time
• Break Time

Over time, this will allow you to develop a flow that works best for you.

When choosing a task, don’t make it too broad a statement. Instead, focus on one particular task that is easy to do. In many ways, you’re slicing and dicing your tasks up into more manageable pieces.

There is only one rule you must adhere to when working on your task: absolutely no multitasking.

Work on your chosen tasks until you need a break. Don’t let your clock determine how much time you want to devote to a task.

Instead, work until you feel fatigue setting in or the creative juices aren’t flowing. The key is to keep working if you find yourself in a groove.

The longest period of time you should be working on a single task is roughly 90 minutes.^[4] After that amount of time, you’ll get diminishing returns.

It’ll be much better to take a well-earned break at that time. Your body and mind will thank you.

Be sure to record the time you spent on your task and the length of your break.

Also, be sure to record distractions as they happen. This is a rather eye-opening exercise.

Most people have no idea who or what is eating their time away. “I don’t know where the time went” is a common thing you’ll hear people say. This will show you where your cracks are and allow you to create strategies or solutions to prevent them from affecting you regularly.

3. Eisenhower Matrix

This practical system was made famous in Steven Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, although he didn’t refer to it as such.

The goal is to create a two-by-two grid that breaks into four quadrants: urgent, not urgent, important, and not important, as you can see in the picture below illustrated by ToDoist:^[5]

The key is to redo this grid at the end of each day and certain items will have moved from one section to another due to the day’s activities. As you can see from the diagram, each box has one action assigned to it.

• Urgent and important: Do it
• Important and not urgent: Schedule it
• Urgent and not important: Delegate it
• Not urgent and not important: Delete it

Many use this for long-term planning in combination with pomodoros for daily work.

4. GTD

Getting Things Done (otherwise known as GTD) was developed by time management expert David Allen. In comparison to other batch working, it focuses on planning rather than action.

To save time, I encourage you to watch this video on the GTD method as it does a great job summarizing it.

5. Gamification

Work for many can be tedious. The daily grind does take its toll, which is why gamifying the tasks at hand can be an effective way to reduce the monotony of repetitive tasks.

The Forest app is a visual-based productivity app that shows the growth of the digital tree. It’s simple—once you plant a tree, the timer starts (and can be set for anywhere between ten minutes and two hours).

As long as you stay off your screen, be it your smartphone or laptop, the tree will finish growing and be added to your on-screen for today. If not, the tree withers and dies.

It might sound rather silly, but it’s surprisingly effective at getting people to focus as seeing your trees grow gives you a visual representation of your progress each day.

Who says you can’t have fun at work?

6. 52/17

Created by Canadian-born tech-enthusiast Julia Gifford, the 52/17 concept means breaking down each hour of the work day into 52 minutes of focused work and 17 minutes of break time.

You can make use of this timer to help you:

7. Themed Days

Another way of approaching batch work is to simply theme your days. Joel Osteen, the Christian evangelist, sets aside each day for a different task.

On Wednesday, he thinks, reads, and listens to audio programs to get ready for his Sunday sermon. Thursday, he writes his sermon word-for-word. Friday is devoted to memorization, and Saturday is his dress performance day.

Most people, though, can’t take advantage of this approach because they are employees. But for influencers or CEOs, it can revolutionize how you work.

Final Thoughts

There’s a never-ending quest for CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs, and students to find how to boost productivity. Task batching techniques do just that. The only question is which technique works best for you.

Featured photo credit: Jonathan Francisca via unsplash.com

Reference

[1]	^	The Guardian: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world
[2]	^	Daily Muse: This Is Nuts: It Takes Nearly 30 Minutes to Refocus After You Get Distracted
[3]	^	CNBC: Self-made millionaire: The simple strategy that helped increase my odds of success by 42%
[4]	^	Harvard Business Review: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less
[5]	^	todoist: The Eisenhower Matrix

The post 7 Task Batching Techniques to Boost Your Productivity appeared first on Lifehack.