10 Methods I Used to be Effective

Hi, my name is Evan LeBras and I've been an office jockey for 12+ years. Here are 10 ways that I use to be effective in a work setting that is office based, although these principles are applicable to many industries. I hope these are just as helpful for you as they have been for me.

1. Eisenhower Matrix

The Eisenhower matrix is a tool that can be used to judge how to act on the things that you need to get done. The tool consists of four categories, based on the degree of urgency and the degree of importance. 

This tool is particularly beneficial when it comes to being effective, allowing us to give ourselves a real-time reality check on our current activities. At the same time, this tool is highly effective at helping us plan ahead for future activities. 

Do (Important + Urgent)

These are the fire drills that take over our day and can’t be postponed. When this happens typically the only option is to succumb to addressing these issues until they are resolved. 

Delegate (Not Important + Urgent)

Delegation can be tricky, in this context I would interpret the word loosely, to mean delegation, collaboration, reassignment of resources etc. Is your time being taken up by administrative tasks that would be more suitably performed by someone else in the company? Are you able to influence a colleague to help you on a particular task, given it’s in both of your best interests? Or how about just asking Nancy to do the TPS reports because she works directly for you. These are all various forms of what this category is about. 

Schedule (Important + Not Urgent)

I find the category for important but not urgent (schedule) to be extremely helpful. This is because it’s human nature to avoid working on important things until the last minute. Ever had a big paper to write? By scheduling important activities in advance, you are committing to working them. If you can get other people involved this trick works even better. 

Delete (Not Important + Not Urgent)

If something is not important and not urgent, consider if it even warrants pursuing at all. 

2. Time Boxing

Time boxing is the act of setting aside set amounts of time throughout the day to accomplish specific tasks. This is beneficial when the inevitable interruption [phone call / person stopping by to chat / more interesting work assignment] comes along. Having a timebox schedule allows you to be more mentally prepared to fend off and resist temptation to work on other tasks. 

I find time boxing particularly effective when I have a few critical items that are critical to accomplish within a particular day. Time boxing allows you to set aside time for each expected task, letting me know if I’m ahead of schedule or if I need to get focused. 

3. Be an Effective Communicator

You wouldn’t buy a house over a verbal agreement, nor would you drive an hour to ask someone if they’d like to go out to lunch. The fact is, different communication methods are beneficial for different applications. 

Email: 

Pros: Easy, quick, traceable. 

Cons: Easily ignored, complex or nuanced situations are difficult to work through.

Phone:

Pros: Effective way at resolving complex issues, no travel involved. 

Cons: limited or no records, call may not be at a good time. 

In Person Meetings:

Pros: Increased quality of communication such as body language, the tone of someone's voice, nuances with how things are said etc. The meeting itself is a great way to schedule high priority activities to make sure they get done.

Cons: Takes longer than some other methods, may include travel.

Remote Meetings:

Pros: Increased quality of communication without the hassle of traveling. Also a great way to get important things scheduled to make sure they get done.

Cons: Takes longer than some other methods, technical difficulties can occur.

Official Correspondence: 

Pros: Effective for official documentation, displays professionalism.

Cons: Takes time, not always appropriate.

Instant Messages:

Pros: Quick, easy, instant. Advantage over phone call as the receiving party does not have to answer immediately.

Cons: Takes time, not always appropriate.

4. Maintain a list

If you are like me, there are more things to do than you have time for. Maintaining a list helps to stay organized and prioritize which you want to work on. It is essential for making progress on long term initiatives, and can help when priorities shift day to day. A list reduces downtime between activities by allowing for a quick assessment of the “big picture” at any given time. 

5. Strategically plan your day

Mark Twain: “If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.” This quote summarizes the basic concept that typically we are more capable of difficult activities early in the day, before we’re mentally exhausted. This is why typically I try to plan my morning activities around doing the hardest activities first. Later in the afternoon, I’ll schedule the easier tasks that require less effort. It’s that simple. 

6. Strategically plan your year

In my experience, strategy is the difference between being good and great. You might be working- but are you working on the right things? Are you getting the most value out of your time? There are few things more satisfying than strategy becoming reality.

To be strategically effective we not only have to know the strategy for ourselves, but work with others so that everyone knows what irons need to be in the fire at what times. This means being able to “see” and identify the signals that matter, and coordinate available resources effectively. 

There are many different types of strategic tools, to name a few- value stream maps, SWOT analysis, and Hoshin or X Matrix are some of my favorites.  

7. Schedule the Blue Work

Separate the “red work” from the “blue work”, as author David Marquet would say in his book Leadership is Language. Blue work is the work that goes into helping the actual work be performed. This is engineering, meetings, discussions, brainstorming sessions, etc. It is important to allow ourselves to work on the process, and not just always be working in it. More importantly, it’s critical that leaders support and foster blue work within their teams. One of my favorite ways to do this is to use the A3 Process, check out my other blog post on that here. 

8. Leave breadcrumbs

In all things that I do, I try to leave some sort of notes or means of capturing some sort of progress. This could be creating detailed notes, writing an agenda prior to a meeting, jotting down and sharing meeting minutes, setting up a folder dedicated to a particular effort, if you use workflow applications like Jira it could mean building better stories with adequate detail to get the job done a bit faster when you pick it up next time- there are a million ways to capture progress. 

I find this concept also related to the topic of “standard work”, where the philosophy implies that updates to the standard work (i.e. procedures, training, guides, checklists etc.) should be updated as needed to support 

9. The 1 Minute Rule

Simply, if a new task comes up throughout the day that will take less than a minute to accomplish, just get it done on the spot. Sometimes it’s beneficial to allow some degree of interruption throughout your day, otherwise you end up having all of these issues pile up, and inevitably some will be forgotten. 

10. Follow Through

If you say you’ll do something, do it. Much of the work involved in businesses relies on others, and trust is a big part of that equation. By following through on the things that you say that you’ll do, your team and coworkers will know that you are serious and be that much more willing to help out. On the other hand, it only takes one or two instances of not following through to give people doubts. A great book called “Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin dictates this principle perfectly- instead of blaming others for your shortcomings, really ask yourself if you’ve done everything in your power to get the job done. Bottom line- be known as someone who’s word can be counted on, and those around you will take you more seriously, increasing your effectiveness when the time comes to coordinate efforts. 

I hope you've found some of these concepts helpful, please share some of your own thoughts below in the comments.