'Multi-tasking is not a holy grail'

Is there a trick to be more efficient or is that in our genes? Are we innate lazy or do we develop a habit of procrastination? After reading his book, one would think Graham Allcott would know all the secrets of talent and time management, but he says that it's about routine and disciple. Excerpts from an interview...

What does Ninja means in 'How to be a Productivity Ninja'? And how can you be one?

Being a Productivity Ninja means replacing the stress and information overload that we often face with a playful, productive momentum-based mindset. Anyone can be a Productivity Ninja, by adopting the mindset and developing the practical skills to be organised, clear and effective in your work. The book is really about saying that you don’t need to struggle and feel stressed, and that there’s a better way to live and work.

What are Ninja traits?

In the book I talk about nine ninja traits that describe the Productivity Ninja. A Productivity Ninja develops Zen-like Calm, which means being present with your attention and focus on what you’re trying to do in that moment, instead of being stressed and having your mind either on what you have to do in the future or on what you’ve done wrong in the past. A Productivity Ninja also practises Ruthlessness – in particular being ruthless with your decisions and your attention. It’s about being Weapon-savvy – recognising the value that the right tools can bring, and then several other traits like Agility, Unorthodoxy and Preparedness. The final trait of the Productivity Ninja is that a Ninja is a human, not a superhero. Whilst a Ninja may often appear like they have special powers, they’re still a human being, still flawed and never perfect. Realising that perfection is a myth helps us approach productivity from a more practical and realistic perspective.

What made you get attracted to productivity?

I needed it! I was a chief executive, surrounded by a great team and then I went freelance. I realised I was on my own, without a team around me to help me get everything done. And I realised that my own skills were in the ideas and the leadership and not so much in being a completer-finisher kind of person. So I read books and blogs, experimented with my own productivity and started to make a lot of progress. And as a result, I fell into teaching other people I knew about it, because they could see how far I’d developed my own skills. I think struggling with productivity is what allowed me to relate to the people I was teaching. And I’m a firm believer that no one gets it perfect, and that we all have stuff to learn and stuff to teach when it comes to productivity.

There are so many apps on productivity these days. Which are you favourite?

I recommend at the very least getting yourself a good web-based to-do list app. There are lots like Toodledo and Todoist that are quite cheap. I use one called Nozbe that is a bit more expensive, but it’s worth it to me because it’s so user-friendly and it saves me a lot of stress – a Ninja needs a Second Brain because we know our own brains aren’t great at holding onto all that information. And of course there are loads of other cool tools. A couple of my favourites? Headspace for meditation, Scrivener for my writing, Jot to capture ideas really fast, Hootsuite to manage all my social media in one place and Xero to manage all my finances.

Do you also make adjustments for personal productivity?

I don’t believe in perfection when it comes to productivity, so I am constantly tinkering with my own systems and processes, making things better and recognising my own weaknesses and mistakes. I see productivity as a constant adjustment process. The best way to do this is to regularly reflect – I have a Weekly Checklist which asks me questions about my own productivity and I also see a coach once a month who helps me link my productivity and business goals to what’s happening in the rest of my life.

Do you measure your productivity? If so, how do you do it?

Not really. Ultimately, productivity is about impact, so I’m more interested in measuring the profit of my company or the social impact of my social enterprise projects that I’m involved in. That tells me much more about my productivity! But that doesn’t mean to say I’m not interested in improving my own productivity, I just think you can waste a lot of time creating measurements like “number of emails sent” which actually tell you very little about what’s been achieved by those emails.

Whilst I don’t measure it in that way too much, I do experiment quite a lot. I did a year of experiments where I tested the impact of things like working 5-9 instead of 9-5, making decisions by dice, meditating every hour for ten minutes and eating an optimum productivity diet. I learned loads of things through those experiments, and changed lots of my routines as a result. I work a permanent four day week, I only process my emails on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which gives me a huge amount of focus the rest of the time, and introduced a meditation time in the office every day for my company, Think Productive.
I’d recommend everyone try ‘extreme’ productivity experiments – you learn more from extreme scenarios, and then you can apply to same logic to more ‘normal’ circumstances: for example, going without email from a whole day or week is a great way to see how best to use your attention and energy, and then you can set times to turn email on or off depending on what you learn.

What are your thought on multi-tasking?

It used to be the holy grail, multi-tasking. But in reality, it means constant refocus from one thing to another, and you’re asking your brain to hold a lot more information in your short term memory than is necessary. That’s just inefficient. I recommend ‘monotasking’: Working on one thing until you reach a conclusion point, then moving to the next thing. I practice this by only keeping on my desk the paperwork that relates to that particular project or action that I’m working on, and I do the same for the windows on my computer desktop. The rest is hidden in the drawer, or the windows closed. It’s amazing how making simple changes like that can focus your attention.

How does our daily routine affect our work? How can we improve that?

I think productivity is all about habits and routines. In particular, how we start our days can have a big impact. And developing strong and deliberate routines throughout the day can help you to make better choices. Otherwise it can be easy to drift through the day without thinking too much about your habits or what’s needed.

Personally, I have a couple of things that I know really help me to structure my days well, and make optimum use of my time and attention. First, I try to go for a run every morning, just for ten or fifteen minutes. There is some great research that shows that even a short burst of exercise like this can improve the brain’s performance and boost your metabolism. I’m a Ninja not a superhero, so there are days that I don’t get out and run, but I’ve really started to notice now the days that I don’t manage it, my productivity definitely suffers. And the more I see this, the more it motivates me to make sure I run tomorrow!

Secondly, when I’m not travelling, I split my day into two: I spend the morning working in my home office, focussed on ‘creation’, so writing, ideas generation for the business, developing new things. Then in the afternoon I make the short trip to the office and my focus turns to ‘collaboration’, so answering other peoples’ queries, doing my emails, attending meetings and talking to others. By splitting my day in two like that, everyone knows the best times to contact me. I see it like the mornings are about me clearing the stuff from my own to-do list, whereas the afternoons is about me helping everyone else clearing what’s on theirs.

Anything else you would like to tell our readers...

Well, just that I’m a huge fan of India. I love the people, the ingenuity, the food, the excitement of seeing a country on the rise and the mix of the modern with the spiritual and cultural traditions… it’s one of my favourite countries in the world, actually. I’ve visited Goa almost every year for about fifteen years and it’s where I get away to do most of my business-planning and reading each year. I also spent my honeymoon in Kerala, and I’ve travelled around Rajasthan and the north and have some great friends in Mumbai. So it’s always a pleasure to be here and to talk to you guys!