What's Your Productivity Type?

How to Get More Done by Knowing Yourself!

Productivity, especially when working from home, has its challenges. There are constant distractions from family members, TVs, refrigerators, and pets.

• Do you find yourself struggling to focus?
• Are you finding it challenging to get things done?
• Or maybe you've become a workaholic with your fingers clicking on your keyboard all day long?

Productivity is not merely doing something for the sake of getting it done. It's about doing the right things at the right time to achieve maximum efficiency for your effort. Believe it or not, productivity is sometimes about doing nothing at all, taking a break to recharge your batteries, and mentally preparing for what comes next.

The real key to remember is that everyone has unique needs when it comes to maximizing efficiency for optimal productivity. If your goal is to accomplish more in less time, then you need to make the following seven steps the foundation of your workweek.

1. Know your productivity type.
2. Discover your peak energy time.
3. Get yourself a simple kitchen timer.
4. Make friends with your calendar.
5. Batch your tasks, theme your weeks.
6. Schedule your downtime.
7. Review, reconsider, rework.

Each step is essential for helping you learn to manage your time rather than being held hostage by the lengthy list of items on your to-do list.

Those never-ending lists seem to grow overnight. Doesn't it feel like you cross off one item then add three more things in its place? This kind of rat race makes it seem like you will never catch up and never have time to relax. But as you learn more about your personal productivity needs, you will find that you are not only able to improve the quantity of work you accomplish in your day, but also the quality of work you complete.

How does this happen? You will learn how to make small tweaks to your work habits to improve your mood and your productivity. We will focus on learning to do specific tasks during the hours when you are most productive.

For me, it helps to focus my attention in short bursts of time. And it's ultra-important to schedule downtime on the calendar, so I have an opportunity to enhance creativity and boost my energy.

Everything starts with step one, knowing yourself, so that's where we'll begin.

Identify Your Productivity Type

Are you the type of task-driven person who hates seeing unchecked boxes on your "to-do" list? Or are you the type of person who struggles to get started until a hard deadline is fast approaching? Knowing your productivity type can help you prioritize your work so you can accomplish more in your day.

The Four Productivity Types

There are four different productivity styles. You will most likely lean towards one style more than the others. Identifying your productivity style will help you to find ways to stay on task and get your projects finished.

The Prioritizer

Prioritizers prefer to stick to the facts. They like data, logic, and are exceptional at critical thinking. They are so focused on their tasks that they may not invest much attention or effort on determining how the task is accomplished. They are ultra-efficient and love to meet deadlines. They make decisions quickly.

On the flip side, some of their pet peeves may include daydreaming, idle office gossip, missing or incomplete data, inefficient use of time, vague instructions, or water cooler conversations.

Prioritizers typically prefer to work alone, although they can be an exceptional part of a team. However, they don't like to be the person-in-charge. Give them their directions and their deadline and let them go to town.

Prioritizers who work alone may benefit from hiring a business coach to map out a business plan and talk out their goals. Once they set their goals, prioritizers can focus on the smaller tasks leading to the finish line.

The Planner

Planners love lists and making detailed plans. They seem to have been born "naturally organized." Deadlines are at the top of their awareness, and they are the type of people to always make a to-do list at the end of their business day.

Planners are not very spontaneous, however, and may think they're not good at creative thinking or working outside the box. They may also find it difficult to contribute in a team environment because they like to ponder about a topic before sharing ideas and solutions. I have a couple of planners in my family, and they have difficulty switching tasks, and they don't embrace last-minute changes as easily as the other productivity types.

Planners can be an unstoppable force when they figure out how to maximize their time. Stand back and let them go. They'll make sure the other productivity types stay on task and meet their deadlines. If you're looking for an accountability buddy, a planner is a great one to have!

“Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent return on energy!”

Brian Tracy, author and motivational speaker

The Collaborator

Collaborators are emotional people who thrive in group settings. They are excellent at managing meetings, creating, and selling others on their ideas because of their bubbly personality. They struggle to work alone. Collaborators are some of the best "cheerleaders" you'll ever come across, and they feel energized by personal interaction.

A weakness of the collaborator is that they may get distracted by chit-chat and they may struggle to focus on their tasks. They love encouraging others and getting everyone on the "same page." Collaborators do an excellent job of getting a project going and delegating tasks to the team.

Implementing the Pomodoro technique can significantly help Collaborators focus. It helps them to know that in a short amount of time, they can reward themselves by chatting with others in person or on social media.

The Visualizer

Visualizers love to juggle multiple projects at any given time to keep their life exciting. They are full of ideas and energy to begin projects but often struggle to complete them. Their offices are "organized chaos." They know where everything is, but their desk will appear messy to anyone else, but they love it and feel more creative in the space.

Visualizers are spontaneous, imaginative thinkers. They can easily switch gears on a project and welcome change. Visualizers also see the big picture and tend to focus on the end result as opposed to the smaller tasks which lead to that end result. They often have brilliant ideas to enhance any project and are quick to share ideas in a meeting.

Working on a team, Visualizers can easily get detoured. It helps them to have team-members with complimentary productivity styles to keep them on track. They get bored when stuck on the same project for too long, so keep things moving for them.

Visualizers who work solo may find that batching their tasks can help them be more productive. They may also enjoy picking a "theme" for the day or week to stay focused without getting bored.

What’s Your Productivity Type?

The better you understand your productivity type, the more tools you can utilize to maximize your potential and that of your business! Circle the bullets in the boxes below that sound most like you. Most people are a blend of more than one style, but the box with the most circled bullets is your primary productivity style.

Knowing your type is step one, and it's the one that makes all the others easier. Once you understand how you naturally work best, you can stop fighting yourself and start working with your own grain instead of against it. Not sure which type sounds most like you? Take the quiz and find out in a couple of minutes.