# Performance Enhancing Work Methods ## This is for everyone 1. [[GOTBook/1. Ready For Final/Personal Philosophy|Yourself]] 2. Your Team 3. Especially for the fast track of your executives ## Key Principles ### Incremental Improvement (1% Every Day) Consistency plays a large role in the success of day to day life. A big indication of that is incremental improvements. This will allow you to perform better every day, inching you closer to your goal slowly, but steadily. **** By making the decision to improve yourself daily, even if you just improve with 1%, that will account for over 3200% improvement over the course of a year. This manner of improvement will leave you feeling less overwhelmed by daunting tasks, feeling more like a brisk walk rather than a full marathon. By deciding to steadily improve your performance, you make an active decision to identify your strengths and weaknesses, improve your skills, and equip yourself with a better arsenal for your sphere of life. Understanding the concept of self and self-improvement systems gives you the ability to learn and hone new skills exponentially. [[GOTBook/3. Rewrites/Learning|Knowledge is free, which makes it one of the most profitable forms of personal betterment. We’ll talk about that later, but learning to learn is a powerful thing.]] ### Sprints/Paced Work Paced work speed is vital. You have a certain amount of time available, along with a list of tasks that need to be done. Each period you try to complete as much as possible, then reassign and review accordingly. This is your daily working hours. It allows you to work through large amounts of tasks with consistent pulses of activity. The careful planning of your work for the day can make all the difference in an overall project. By setting out and planning your work for the day you remove the need to work 14+ hour days due to poor planning, or procrastination. Longer work hours might also mean a dip in your performance, therefore, not only will your work be better laid out, but your quality of work will improve as well. Sleep deprivation will have extremely negative effects on your professional development and capacity. ### Detailed Planning Planning is an important step in any project. It helps you to identify and reduce any potential risks and failures that may come in the way of your project's success. It removes the unrealistic expectations of a project, and will also reduce the time you spend on a project. Whatever is not measured cannot be managed. Planning is simply measuring in advance. Good planning helps you determine what your goal is, how to achieve it without burning out or losing focus, and roughly how long it will take to achieve. ## My Daily Loop (60%) I adapted from Ultraworking to my current habits. It really helps with ensuring that time is not being wasted and the individual has the capacity to stay on track and can complete what is required. Our team members see a performance increase of 30-40% when they begin using a work method like this or ultraworking. This can be done as the first or last thing for the day, answer accordingly. 1. When Is This? \[MM/DD/YYYY\] + \[EOD/BOD\]\* 3. What one good thing has happened today? What one good things have you done?\* 4. What is/was your #1 for the day?\* 5. What else did you do or do you plan to do today?\* 6. Were there any issues? Is there anything that can be done to prevent them in the future?\* 7. What deliverable will you work on next? What is the first step?\* 8. What MUST you do tomorrow (if end of day) or today (if start of day)?\* 9. Any other notes for/from Today?\* ### Work Cycles/Time Blocking (60%) In particular, planning your day, blocking it, planning it out, and figuring out what you are going to be focusing on. The importance of keeping track of how you work and your work cycle is in monitoring performance and productivity levels effectively. Not having this information on hand can lead to the downfall or lack of growth in an individual's progress. It is important to establish a good sense of what you are trying to achieve within your day, and plan out how you are going to achieve your daily goals. ### *Habits - Tiny Habits* ### Marathons In my opinion, a monthly work marathon is good for the soul. They may be mentally taxing, but they reap the benefits of a more productive manner, achieving a short-term goal. There are two reasons for marathons: 1. Allows you to focus on what really matters by setting a multi-day focused run. 2. Allows you to explore your capabilities, and shows you what you are capable of doing in a focused run for multiple days. ### Pentathlons A quarter is best started on a Pentathlon, in the concept of UltraWorking, it refers to a 16 day period where you are entirely dedicated to improvements. This is in order to maximize your productivity so that you can make real strides forward on big projects. ## *A Quarter For Progress* **Needs Heavy Revision (Below)** ### *Goal Setting* Almost all your goals should be SMART goals. **** ### *Month 1: 16 Day Pentathlon* The UltraWorking Pentathlon spans over 16 days in order to reach consistency and success across the biggest areas that lead to having a good lifestyle. It should become one of your most productive times of the year, having accomplished and gained focus and effectiveness. Pentathlons will help you push your personal levels and goals, and will help with keeping your work on schedule and from falling behind as the Quarter progresses. ### *Month 2 and 3: 4 Day Marathon* A 4 day Marathon will help you to keep track of your workload and get a headstart on daunting tasks that may occur as the month progresses. It will give you a short burst of essential productivity. ### *Weekly/Monthly Review* 1. **Review Your Dashboards** 2. **Review Plan vs Reality** 3. To Do List 4. Eisenhower 5. Delegate & Delegate Automation 6. Schedule 7. DO! Looking back over what you have planned to do and what you actually accomplished, and then write down everything that you did not accomplish so that you can plan to get it done. Use an Eisenhower Matrix to help determine what holds priority. The Eisenhower Matrix breaks down your tasks in regard to four quadrants. It breaks your tasks up into what needs to be scheduled, to do, eliminated, and delegated. I often view eliminate and delegate categories as opportunities for automation or improvement. **** #### **End Of Quarter Post Mortem** This is similar to a monthly debrief but occurs at the end of a quarter. On a personal and individual level. Here you review: 1. Chart Your Path 2. Accomplishments 3. Failures 4. How you could improve and prevent those failures 5. How you could have improved and achieved those accomplishments faster 6. Scenarios adjustment at the longer and shorter terms. 7. Chart the next quarter 8. Project planning and scheduling 9. Dashboard updates and edits The End of Quarter Post Mortem is a four to eight-hour project. This is due to the fact that you have to go through an entire 90 day work period, and you need to plan another 90 days as well. Your monthly debriefs will make this task easier to complete and less time-consuming. During your Post Mortem, it is also important to schedule your work Marathons. **^Needs Revision^** ### Should I cut or Keep Ultraworking? (Below) Ultraworking I suggest a method called Ultraworking. It really helps with ensuring that time is not being wasted and the individual has the capacity to stay on track and can complete what is required. Our team members see a performance increase of 30-40% when they begin using Ultraworking Cycles at Call For Content and South Africa Talent. Work Cycles **** In particular, planning your day, blocking it, planning it out, and figuring out what you are going to be focusing on. The importance of keeping track of how you work and your work cycle is in monitoring performance and productivity levels effectively. Not having this information on hand can lead to the downfall or lack of growth in an individual's progress. It is important to establish a good sense of what you are trying to achieve within your day, and plan out how you are going to achieve your daily goals. **** Ultraworking helps you to track your energy levels, how it compared to your normal work output, what went wrong or where you were lacking. This feedback loop helps keep you on track and optimized by catching trends as they develop. ****