ZenHabits: Productivity 2.0

I’m a huge fan of Leo Babuta’s Zen Habits blog. I’ve mentioned it before (My quarterly office checkup), and will surely do it again. I just read an AMAZING post about productivity: Productivity 2.0: How the New Rules of Work Are Changing the Game, and I wanted desperately to not only put this stuff into action for myself, but to share it with my clients and colleagues.

The topic basically goes into “old school” versus “new school” philosophies on work and productivity, and it clears up a lot of misconceptions of what really works versus what doesn’t. They can apply to blogging, your 9-5, web design, or basically any job you can think of where you have a little bit of freedom to manage your time (which unfortunately isn’t always the case for certain professions). I’m sure with a little tweaking, you can apply these “new school” habits to your career, and I know I’m going to work hard trying to accomplish that for myself.

In brief, as quoted from the post:

Don’t crank out tasks — learn to work with a deeper focus. Don’t plan and hold meetings and form committees — just launch the software or product or service and keep improving it. Don’t spend time organizing — you’ve got more important things to worry about.

I’ve been really focusing on time management for myself, and it seems the more strict I try to get, the more frustrated I get, but still the less I accomplish than I wanted to. Rather than focusing on “Finish. Now.” I’m going to work harder at getting each task on each project done, one at a time. For ongoing stuff like copywriting or blogging projects, I’m still going to have to work on deadlines and such, but for other things, it’s just a matter of focus.

In a newsletter to clients about the change in the company (Re-branding your business.) I mentioned a new payment system I’m implementing for ongoing projects. I promised a maximum 48-hour turnaround on requests, for the sole purpose of helping me stay on top of my tasks in a more manageable way. I’m using technology (Outlook 2007) to help me with this. Rather than calendars and post-its, I check my to-do list via email requests that have come in when I check my email first thing in the morning.

Do you have any productivity challenges you’re trying to work on? What do you think of Leo’s concept of “old school” versus “new school” productivity?

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