Productivity Tips From Both Sides Of The Project

by Chris Blaskey / Dec 9

I lead a very small team that builds and maintains a website. Our group essentially doesn’t exist outside of the internet – we have no office, and no one has physically met everyone else on the team. As I’m both the leader of the project and one of the main programmers, I’ve gained significant experience as both a regular worker and a manager. This article is a collection of productivity and motivation strategies I’ve picked up over the years, in both roles.

As a worker

1. Use your natural cycle

Maybe you like to get up at dawn, or perhaps that’s when you’d rather go to bed. Maybe you prefer to put in a few massive work sessions every week, or perhaps you prefer a whole bunch of smaller ones. With the exception of the occasional scheduled meeting, presentation, or conference, you likely have no fixed hours at all, and you should take advantage of this. You know when you work best, and with no regular schedule or commute to worry about, nothing is stopping you from having exactly the schedule you want. (Of course, if you’re raising a family, this is less true, but you still have far more control over your schedule than you would as an office worker, and you should make use of that fact.)

2. Get enough sleep

What time you choose to sleep may not matter, but getting enough sleep most certainly does. If you end up staying up later than normal, and sleeping in seems like the best option, it’s generally best to do it. You’ll get far more work done in 4 hours while well-rested than you will in 12 hours on no sleep.

3. Minimize distractions when necessary

Sometimes you’re doing work that requires little to no concentration, and particularly if it’s something tedious, having a side distraction going can actually help you get it done faster. When you really need to focus, however, minimize your distractions as much as possible. Close your IM client (or log into a work-only screen name), turn the TV off, etc. If you need a break, take one, but when you’re trying to work hard, make sure you actually can do so.

4. Set goals

It’s quite possible that you don’t have clear deadlines, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have work. It’s a good idea to figure out what you plan to accomplish, and then see where you are at the end of the day. If you don’t meet your personal goal, figure out why. Sometimes it’s not an issue – a task you thought was 4 hours of work was really 10 for instance. If you find that procrastination or excessive breaks are stopping you from getting anything done though, then learn to limit both. Essentially, you need to be your own manager. You can be exactly the type of manager you want of course, but in the end, you’re still expected to have work done, and you need to make sure it gets done.

5. Stay in touch

No one’s work exists in a vacuum, so make sure you know what has and hasn’t been done by others, and what had to be changed – especially those that your work directly connects to. Make sure they have this same info about you, too. If someone needs to change how something is getting built, the others directly affected by the change need to know about it.

6. Take breaks intelligently

You’re not on the clock, and you’re not being watched, so you can take breaks whenever you want to. This has to be done intelligently, however, as it’s easy for a “quick break” to turn into not doing anything that day. Choose break activities that won’t take a huge amount of time, and if you’re really having trouble getting back to work, you may even want to set a timer. This can be especially hard when you’re first starting the nomadic lifestyle, but don’t worry – once you learn to take useful, but not excessive breaks, you’ll find you’re much better off than you were in the office.

7. Break out of the 8 hour mindset

In a traditional office setting, you have to be there for 8 hours, and you have to look busy if the boss checks in – never mind that there might actually only be 4 hours of work for you to do today. In that environment, procrastination isn’t just common, it may be a requirement to keep your job! As a remote worker, this is very much not the case, so learn to actually work at full speed. When the workload is heavy, you’ll have a much easier time getting through it, and when the workload is light, you’ll find yourself with a whole lot of extra free time.

As a manager:
1. Keep track of the project status, and make sure everyone else is aware of it
You can maintain a forum post, send out an email update every few days, or any of a number of options. The method you choose isn’t nearly as important as making sure you’re accurate and reliable in doing this. The simple fact is, many of your employees aren’t going to be in regular contact with each other, and if something goes wrong, they need to know about it. Likewise, make sure there’s a standard way for your employees to let people know when major changes occur. Last but not least, make sure there’s some way to contact you instantly if something goes horribly wrong.

2. Everyone needs to know who can work
If someone is on vacation or sick, this isn’t obvious like it is in an office. You know about it of course, but there’s a good chance they didn’t tell everyone else who should know about this. Make sure you get the word out, especially when it’s going to significantly hinder someone’s work. Better yet, try to get a status board up, and get your employees to update their entry themselves.

3. Plan meetings carefully
Early afternoon is usually best, as it allows for overlap – neither an early morning person nor a late night person should have to significantly alter their sleep cycle to attend. This assumes, of course, that everyone’s in the same or close time zones. If your team is scattered around the world, choosing a good time can be trickier, but still try to be as accommodating as realistically possible – meetings are lot more useful when everyone is awake!

4. Keep track of tasks

Whether you’re assigning tasks, or everyone is choosing what to work on, you should have a good understanding of who is doing what, and whether it’s actually getting done. (You really should have a record of this that everyone can see – this can be a forum, a full project management system, an email relay… etc. As with many things, the method isn’t all that important, but the content is.) It’s usually obvious pretty quickly who isn’t doing much, and don’t be afraid to ask why. If there’s a legitimate roadblock, you should work with the person to fix it. If they’re just procrastinating, you’ll find that in many cases, a gentle nudge and the knowledge that you’re aware they haven’t done anything are sufficient to get them working again. Don’t take this to the extreme, however- no one wants to be micromanaged.

5. Know your team
Regardless of what kind of work you’re doing, there’s almost certainly going to be several different skills involved, and for each skill, different people will have different levels of experience in it, and different levels of interest as well. Try to make sure your workers are usually getting the work they most enjoy, and that if something requires advanced knowledge, it’s being done by someone who has that knowledge. This is of course, basic management, but in a nomadic environment, it may require extra effort to do this well.

6. Keep everyone involved

Everyone wants to have real input on the project, and those who feel they have a voice are going to be a lot more interested in doing quality work. Make sure everyone has the chance to discuss ideas - and to debate them when necessary. Keep in mind that many of your workers have little schedule overlap and little direct contact, so make sure a means for everyone to be involved in a discussion or debate exists - forums are especially useful for this.

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