The Earth spins every 24 hours: I wonder if some people’s natural body clock is 23 hours - we’d call those morning people. Others might have a natural 25 hour day - we’d call those evening people…

1) Hit snooze button repeatedly, stumble to desk now feeling guilty

2) Ignore well planned, prioritised to-do list

3) Meander between Facebook, Outlook and iPhone, rereading old messages in the hope that some low-hanging fruit remains

4) Wait til the guilt/stress peaks before frantically trying to nail the one due in an hour…

Or is that just me?

On a more serious note, I wonder if there are indeed a range of “zones” for different tasks:

- I can write code much better/faster with some good banging dance music on

- I can think strategy best with a big pad, an near empty bar and a cappuccino

- I solve problems (Inc big pictures!) best by alternating between reading source content / joting notes / scribbling theories and pondering whilst walking

- I still review documents best on paper. Annoys the hell out of me!

- I have my best “non-agenda” meetings (E.g. to meet or explore rather than review) in transit - I still remember a meeting on a punt twelve years ago! And can recommend the Green Park cafe as an escape route for IoD meetings

- I too suffer time-agrophobia and get less done than I should in a day at home. I get more done if I stop mid way and change scene

- We seem to work best as a company by having a meeting half-day - with all internal meetings happening Monday morning - leaving the rest of the week virtually free. I guess it shines a light on how many meetings you’re having

And I’ve never quite got the hang of weekends - what do normal people do with them?!?!

Tom.

Talking about Blair, what about you went AWOL, actually tribal, set off and left town to work; camping, ruck sacking, walking, trekking, witch projecting…but you worked in/with nature…with noting but your mobile phone, laptop, and blackberry for company…and maybe your PA?

Or, alternatively for instance, what if, we actually created chaos zones of work, where you might free wheel, adding note books, pencils, paper clips…all the old stuff; i saw a pencil case the other day, a strange dinosaur that only exists in Woolworths now. Gone. Sad/happy remembered days.

What if you could use this blog as a way of saying hello (or help in my case) to people you didn’t know or knew. For instance…

‘Hey Oli!’ (i know you) but also a little more daring ‘Hey Ben’ whom I know only passingly. But I could also say hello to everyone who will read this from now on, and make new connections, thus achieving Super Jet Light speed 1, 2 and 3 (the third way) simultaneously.

On Method 1, in Thunk’s new office we’ve decided to have a Disconnected Desk, that has a Mac with no phone and no internet connection. Just for GSD…!

1) Fizz up a pint of your free sample Berocca

2) Look at your to do list, and decide what can be delegated

3) Email your PA, one task per email. Ideally written SMARTly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_(project_management))

4) Cross those items off your list, and feel pretty good about that.

5) Proceed with Method 1 for a bit.

6) Delegate any ideas research generated by method 1.

7) Then repeat (5) and (6) with method 2.

If anyone would like a free trial of the Online Personal Assistant service Oli uses, just signup at http://www.onlinepersonalassistant.com and mention this blog post to claim your 2 free hours.

@Oli - excuse my freeloading! I’ll give you some free hours, too!

I also find that if i stick headphones in and listen to friskyradio (itunes radio) I gain superhuman abilities to deal with large volumes of email.

PS: Being that it is the afternoon, replying to this blog is part of my productivity strategy.

Both of these are great but you need *strong* discipline and willpower to do the first one. People hate getting disconnected now - witness the continuing crackberry mayhem - but it takes effort and a specific technique to think, develop strategies, plan and develop. Don’t know who they are but they say that it only takes a second to get distracted from planning or ‘quiet’ work but 10 minutes or more to get back in the groove.

On the second, i also like this because it helps people change the pace of their day.

I love stuff like this although I’ll never be a contented person as there’s always ways to get more out of the day (other than more hours) that I fail at.

My two faves:

1. A survey showed that execs have more ideas when travelling than in any other environment. get out of the car and on to the train or bus to get the time and stimulation.

2. I love sometimes working very early in the morning and I mean a 3am or 4am start. It’s way more productive than at the end of a tiring day and you think “If I’m here at this time I might as well be productive”

cheers, J

I like to define what I can achieve at the start of the day, rather than a whole list of things that need to be done, then ponder over them, Break it out into manageable chunks, but the trouble is, dont take breaks, stick in the office/house all day, and end up working less, as brain drain happens.

So method 1, new regime moving forward for me…

Btw - ‘Getting Things Done’ is a great book on the subject of productivity. A must read for anyone interested in ways of working more efficiently:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-free-Productivity/dp/0749922648/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220539021&sr=8-1