By Clare Kumar
As a productivity coach, I like to look at productivity holistically. There’s a lot more to it than just managing a to do list. To keep it easy to think about, I break productivity down into three areas in my model, Productivity CPR.
Compass: Setting your direction and defining where you’re aiming. Simply put, setting intention.
Performance: How to take care of your body and mind to make sure you have energy to get there. Think of this as managing attention.
Rituals: Choosing routines and rituals, including the tools and technology you use to efficiently and effectively accomplish what you want to do. Call this execution.
All three elements are necessary to achieve not only maximum productivity, but peace of mind. The goal is to accomplish things, yes, but more importantly to pace yourself for the long haul, and to help make sure you enjoy the ride.
Here are three examples of products which can help your both your attention and execution:
Organization
Organization plays a critical part in getting things done. We need systems to offload the burden on our brains of finding things. For optimal success, organizing systems should keep items visible – easy to spot, accessible – easy to reach and manageable – easy to manipulate. Naturally it is also important to keep things protected, as well as pleasing to interact with, so we increase the likelihood we will actually engage with them.
Often overlooked are storage areas, which when structured carefully, can make life much easier. Think of your garage, mudroom and basement.
Ideal for such spaces is the wall-mounted modular GearTrack system from Gladiator. The system helps keep your favourite sports gear, toys or even cleaning, craft or wrapping supplies easy to see and access. Mount the track on the wall of your garage or storage area then flexibly add components based on what you need to store. As kids grow or activities change, the system can be adjusted to keep up with you. And the neutral colour palette will work in any space.
Technology
Technology needs to be easy to work with as well, nowhere more so than your home office. Have you ever felt the frustration of running out of ink in the middle of a project? What if it actually took two years to run out of ink? Epson’s EcoTank Printers have been developed to offer exactly this. The printer has the capacity to print over 5,200 colour, or 6,500 black and white pages. You don’t have to think about refilling ink for a long time.
Comfort
To sustain maximum performance, comfort is critical. You’ve probably heard “sitting is the new smoking,” but let’s take a closer look. Canadian company CoreChair tackles challenges with sitting from the bottom up. Combining an aggressively contoured seat and low supportive back, the chair keeps the pelvis more vertical, preventing slumping, which in turn promotes spine extension and a balanced head and neck. The extension of the spine helps ensure vertebral joints are spaced more evenly thus reducing uneven pressure on the vertebral discs and a balance of the supportive soft tissues that stabilize the spine.
In addition, the chair design facilitates motion while you’re seated. The low profile also means it takes less space, which is a real plus in my small home office. It will tuck right under my sit/stand desk when I have it raised. You will likely find the lack of arms a plus in positioning yourself correctly to keyboard.