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Haiku Productivity

03 Jan 2009
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I’ve just been inspired by the Haiku Productivity post on Zen Habits. The basic idea is to focus on doing fewer things, but doing them better and getting more out of them. But this is also steeped in the principle of freeing up your brain for useful stuff by making decisions about what to do in advance.

So, this is how I’m going to implement Haiku Productivity for myself in 2009. As Leo from Zen Habits says, everyone’s going to be different, so my list is a bit different to his.

I’ll start with a bit of background, which might explain my priorities here:

  • I’m a freelance web developer, working partly from home and partly with my clients.
  • I am married with two children.
  • I need to grow my business quite a lot this year, in an environment of economic recession.
  • I need to get healthy.
  • I want to spend less time working (I currently work 50+ hours a week).
  • I want to practice music regularly.
  • I want get back into woodworking and instrument making.

I’m also going to interpret this exercise slightly differently to Leo. I have a problem making time for some things, as well as spending too long on others. So my list includes targets as well as limits. I believe the things which are targets—e.g. minimum time spent with family—are going to have a big impact on productivity. After all, productivity is not just about doing, but also about preparing for and recovering from doing. When I have quality time away from work, I think I will get more done in less time when I am at work.

So, My Haiku Productivity limits/targets for 2009 are going to be:

  • One…
    • One big task (of about 4 hours) to complete each day.
    • One medium task (of about an hour) to complete each day.
    • One hour for me (learning, research, personal project, etc) at the end of each day.
  • Two…
    • Two times to process email each day.
    • Two times to practice music each day.
    • Two bouts of exercise each day (about 30 minutes each).
  • Five…
    • No more than five sentences in emails I write.
    • Read no more than 5 RSS posts a day. And delete another five without reading.
    • Take five minutes break in every hour of work.
    • Organise at least five sessions of quality time with family each week.
  • Eight…
    • No more than eight hours work in any working day.