One topic that keeps catching my attention is the distinction between habits and workflows.
When most people talk about personal productivity, they tend to focus on improving the habits they deploy to wrangle their work. For example, batching email, or deploying time blocking to control the flow of their day (which, as longtime readers know, I highly recommend).
There is, however, another relevant layer: the underlying workflows that dictate what you work on and how this work is executed.
… Workflows are arguably more important than your high-level habits when it comes to impacting how effectively you produce valuable things (my preferred definition of "productivity"), but they're a topic that's often ignored.
… This fall, in other words, consider spending some serious time evaluating your workflows before turning your attention to the habits that help you deal with the obligations these flows generate.
(Via Blog - Cal Newport)
My professional role changed again, triggering me to reevaluate how I'm spending my resources: time, energy, and focus. I've looked at my habits in a top-down approach. Maybe a more bottom-up tack with my workflows, digital and analog, would yield faster results. Changing habits can take a while to do right.
Have you tackled this? How are you retooling?
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