When it comes to work, the most rewarding days are undoubtedly the ones during which you make good progress on your to-do list while operating in a zone of flow. But it’s a state that’s hard to achieve unless you get a few simple things right. That’s according to Amol Sarva cofounder of Knotel, a network of custom adaptable locations where companies can build their headquarters. Here are his words about the importance of mastering four simple factors when it comes to achieving high levels of productivity.
1. Be selfish with your time.
To be effective, every knowledge worker, and especially every executive, needs to be able to dispose of time in fairly large chunks,” writes management guru Peter Drucker. “To have small dribs and drabs of time at his disposal will not be sufficient even if the total is an impressive number of hours.”
This is not to say you can be a hermit. You also need dedicated office hours for structured social time. Nobody else on your team needs to know that schedule–only you do. Just go to the front of the office and make sure they can see you.
The final facet to the time management portion of productivity is developing some sort of broad outbound system that allows you to share your thoughts. Be public. Be open. Don’t bottle your progress and problems and questions and ideas up inside. The more open you are, the easier it is for both you and your team to communicate in either direction.