S5E105: Productivity, Prioritisation & Focus with Nigel Creaser

In this week’s pod, we welcomed Nigel Creaser to discuss Productivity, Prioritisation, and Focus.  Nigel is a Project Manager from Shropshire in the UK. He has over 25 years in the industry, delivering multi-million-pound projects across a myriad of sectors.   He is also the host of the Sunday Lunch Project Manager Podcast and author of several books in the Project Management profession, with a couple of them poking fun at the profession.  The main topics we discussed on the podcast were as follows:   Productivity is effectively making time to allow you to do the things you want to do rather than have to do  Time management skills are often perceived as a soft skill therefore it doesn’t get the same level of attention as more technical tasks  It’s assumed you’ll find a way to do it rather than a subject that is taught at school  The difference between productivity and efficiency is down to effectiveness. Businesses can be very efficient at producing poor quality outputs  If you don’t manage yourself it is easy to get diverted to something more exciting  All meetings need to have a clear agenda and attendee list  If you choose not to decide, you have still made a choice  Calendar management is ultimately your responsibility. There may be consequences to certain decisions but you should own this as it is your time  Try to avoid context switching which leads to distractions. Plan time to do the more mundane tasks and do them effectively  There is an art to knowing what is important. Be prepared to offer feedback and training when you see other people who are struggling to prioritise  Be conscious that other people will prioritise for you if you do not take charge of your prioritise. This may not be the right thing for you   It is useful to measure the amount of time you are interrupted in your day job and assess techniques to alleviate  Use technology to stop non-productive distractions e.g. mute button on Whatsapp or rules in Outlook

Here are links to some of the concepts we discussed:   Nigel Creaser – Project Manager Productivity Hacks: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Project-Manager-Productivity-Hacks-2021-ebook/dp/B094DJ9M38 Manager Tools Podcast: https://www.manager-tools.com/all-podcasts How to Create Rules to move email messages to different folders in Outlook Office 365: How to Create Rules to move email messages to different folders in Outlook Office 365  Workplace Jazz: https://workplace-jazz.com/ Eddie Obeng – Qube: https://qube.cc/what-is-qube/  Tune in next week when we’re joined by Richard Newey to discuss Risk Management in endurance sports.  For more information, blogs or to support our charities visit www.projectchatterpodcast.com If you'd like to sponsor the podcast get in touch via our website.    You can also leave us a voice message via our anchor page and let us know if there's something or someone specific that you would like on the podcas