I’ve always been keen to find ways to be more productive. I know this is also true of other productive people at Modlia and of the software industry more generally. Of course, productivity is not an end in itself, but most of human civilisation seem to have been in its pursuit for a good while now. We’d all like to get more done in quicker time.

I suggest that there are three factors to personal productivity.

1. Attitude

Some people might call this motivation. I suggest our attitude can have a massive impact on our overall productivity in two different ways. The first is concerned with ensuring we have a greater number of productive moments and the second is about our overall attitude towards work.

To get into the right frame of mind, some people like to listen to music whilst they work, and some prefer things a little quieter. Some are bothered by their surroundings more, having particular places they associate with good work; whilst others find that a change of scene can be as good as a rest. The length of time for which we can focus as well as the times in the day when we work best can also play their part. If you’re lucky enough to be able to identify some of these patterns then you might find that you’re more productive when you’re able to work with them rather than against them. For instance, a while ago I realised that my attention span has an absolute limit somewhere around the 2 hour mark. So I now divide may days up into 2 hour segments. I set myself a rule that I will only work on one project during the segment unless I finish the whole project. I don’t look at email, take phone calls or do anything other than work on that single project. The boost to my personal productivity through this slightly forced method of getting some focus has ben phenomenal.

The time of day can have an interesting impact on our ability to get in the zone and focus on quality work. Ever wondered why many programmers prefer to work at night? Swizec’s article raises the idea that good focus is often achieved at an optimal level of tiredness: awake enough to do justice to the task, whilst not enough to worry about all of the other things which are not being completed.

On the second point – overall attitude – there is absolutely no substitute for knowing that you are either working on something you love or towards something you love. Plenty of people work at jobs with little sense of purpose and end up unhappy and unmotivated as a result. Not rocket science, I can hear you cry. Given the apparent obviousness of this observation it is astonishing how many talented people allow themselves to end up doing things that they do not want to. It must stand to reason that if in your first waking moment of the day you feel good about the purpose of everything that follows, then you can have a much easier job of being motivated and productive.

2. Tools

You can either make your tools more effective in themselves or you can make them more attractive to you.

One of the best productivity tools I’ve discovered is Alfred; though it’s difficult to explain to those who have not experienced it. It’s a set of keystrokes and shortcuts which allow you to manipulate files, open applications and to search for information and resources on your computer with much more ease and speed than comes built-in with Mac OS. It’s the first new piece of software I’ve installed since I switched to Mac in 2002, which has genuinely improved the way I use my computer.

We all use lots of tools everyday – be they physical aids or pieces of software – so we are aware of the difference that improving or upgrading those tools can make.

I suggested that either the effectiveness or attractiveness of a tools could be altered. This is – of course – a nonsense dichotomy.  The more enlightened among you already know that, in most situations, making a tool more attractive also makes it more effective.  Rubbermaid and Method are brands which solve highly practical problems using design attractiveness to make their products more effective. It’s a point Stephen Fry reinforced in an recent  interview for the BBC about the success of Steve Jobs’ Apple. The essence of the point is simple. When we enjoy using something, we use it more often, and we often use it in a more considered and thorough way. I have never vacuumed so much since I bought my Dyson. I don’t mind telling you that it is insanely satisfying to use a piece of British engineering which so obviously improves my world with great ease and efficiency. Objects of functional and aesthetic beauty invite us to develop a relationship with them and to use them properly. So go on; invest in that lovely new Moleskine notebook or at least download Alfred – you wont regret it!

3. Techniques

For the avoidance of any doubt in the difference between tools and techniques, it might be useful to recall that phrase so often used in relation to newbie middle-aged cyclists. Indeed, no one wants to be thought of as having “all the gear and no idea”.

Technique is about how you do things as well as knowing what works best for you. Unfortunately, productivity is an area which provides rich soil for a forest of (largely unhelpful) self-help books. Despite this, there must still be value in appraising those skills which are as fundamental to a productive life as are reading and numeracy. To ask ourselves the question: how do I work best, is to appraise and make possible the fine tuning of our own personal operating system.

We have long been fans of a certain methodology when it comes to productivity technique. Though I’m loath to call it a self help book, you may disagree. Getting Things Done by David Allen is a both an entire system and a set of useful principles for personal productivity technique.

I first discovered it during the first year of my career. I recall being stressed beyond my wit at a small PR firm whose MD had (perhaps foolishly) loaded me with a rather  uncharitable number of projects and responsibilities. Getting Things Done (GTD) assisted with both the practical task of coping with the massive and disorganised workload, as well as the higher-order task of deciding that the world of PR was not for me!

GTD has yielded many helpful principles including: reviewing active projects on a weekly basis; storing each action only once; capturing thoughts and tasks for later processing and; having a list of tasks appropriate to contexts such as “flight”, “desk” or “home”.

In addition to whole systems or approaches to technique, everyone has their own good habits. Creating and sustaining good habits can be as much as most of us ever want or need.

Asking you to accept that all improvements to productivity can slot neatly into one of my three categories might be a little audacious. Let’s now extend that audacity by suggesting that really great productivity actually comes from combining all three. The three factors of attitude, tools and technique form a highly virtuous trio.

GTD delivers real benefits, but it demands a certain commitment to keep to the system, to follow its rules. So there’s no point taking it on unless you have the right attitude and are prepared to focus – at least for example – on your Weekly Review. But it’s also a two-way process. Some of the higher principles of GTD allow you to assess the bigger decisions and responsibilities you have, which can help you to solve problems of background attitude. I quit my last job and setup my own business on the strength of these processes. That was 5 years ago now, and it was one of the most important and beneficial things I ever did for myself.

Some of the ways of getting the right attitude could definitely require good technique. For you it might mean scheduling the right kind of work for the time of day or having a decent playlist of vocal-free music on standby in your iTunes for those times when you need to get back in the zone.

What have I learned in my somewhat obsessive quest for better personal productivity over the years so far? For one thing there’s no ideal method or even combination of methods. It is however, absolutely worth continuing to experiment and revise. We all need to keep working on and upgrading our personal operating system – so why not enjoy the process and do a good job of it?