Refine Your Productivity

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the saying, that ‘no one will see how much you rowed your boat, but rather the fish that you caught'. The whole point of the argument here is about the end result and productivity.

Productivity is a subject almost everyone has something to say about. Like most people, I tend to believe that I have to work hard to achieve great results.

Boy, was I right! I worked a bit harder and a little longer, I am proud to say now, that the extra hard work and the endless overtimes has resulted to my successful career in the hotel industry.

But then again, is there a better way to be successful? What can we do to achieve a competitive edge; that little extra lead over your competitor?

In the race for success, we often tend to overlook the process, and focus on the goal. We don’t realize that the flaws in the process will hamper our best collective efforts. One of the best example is how Dave Brailsford used this concept on the British Cycling team after taking over the team in 2010. As of then, no British cyclist had ever won the most revered cycling race, Tour de France.

Using the concept of aggregation of marginal gains, he pushed to gain just 1% on tiny areas, throughout the process. Starting with the most common areas of fitness and nutrition to the team, to the design of the bike seats and tires and to the things like the pillows that the team would sleep on, to very little details like hand washing processes to avoid infection.

All these marginal gains throughout the process eventually provided the team with the wins that Mr. Brailsford expected.

While we are on our quest to achieve our wonderful goals, we need to streamline ourselves and the process. We could start simply by keeping focus, avoiding distraction and timekeeping. This would help us balance our work and personal life. We would not be too busy for our family and friends, we will have time to exercise and get sufficient rest too.

After all, what is the point of work, if we don’t get to enjoy the benefits?