In our fast paced video production industry, being organised and productive is vital to keeping the studio running smoothly. There’s a constant deluge of e-mails, phone calls and deadlines not to mention coming up with creative concepts and cut through ideas. What’s more, a creative mind really needs to be at rest in order to come up with its best ideas, so having systems in place to keep your head clear is a real bonus.
That’s why the Hurricane team went back to school this week to perfect our productivity, both individually and as a company. Taught by a Productivity Ninja from Think Productive, the course helped us hone our systems to make the most of our time at work. It was also an opportunity to hang out with our friends from Dare West, Clink Clink and Spirit PR who were as determined as us to become productive geniuses.
On the day our trainer Lee talked us through Think Productives’ outlook on the world. Getting Lee in is something we would recommend to anyone, and while nothing can replicate the day in terms of effectiveness, we thought we’d share a few thoughts that we took away from the day.
We all have busy lives and many of us rely on our own minds to remember to-do lists, but the brain isn’t really the best tool at hand for remembering lots of things – it’s best left for ideas! The aim therefore should be to get everything out of your head, out of emails and even rescued from being stuffed in your bag and into a system you trust. For us this might be new ideas for a video that’s in production or some new motion graphics styles that we want to roll out. If you get into the habit of capturing your information, you can then be reassured you won’t forget to do anything again.
Having ‘captured’ your ideas, thoughts and lists somewhere safe, it’s time to organise them into something useful. It’s important to get as much information and next actions for each project written down as you can. This means you can look at it and make decisions on where time is best spent. There are many on-line tools to help us do this. Team Hurricane is now using Toodledo which allows you to make multiple lists under different projects/folders. You can also assign tasks to other colleagues (assuming of course you have agreed with them that’s ok!) which will then pop up in their tasks within their own folders. I already use a production work planner myself so that the studio knows exactly what tasks need to be carried out each day. Toodledo is still very useful for me as it allows me to break tasks down into smaller chunks which can then be fed in to other team member’s lists. Another system worth looking at is Remember The Milk.
One of the most useful things that came out of the day was the idea of doing an individual weekly review. It’s the chance to be on your own for a while without any distractions and prepare for everything that you will need during the following week. This is vital for me to do to ensure I have everything in place for what’s in-production that week.
Another good tip from Lee was to use the Pomodoro technique which helps get your mind focused and free of distractions for 25 minute chunks. It’s a time to turn off all those devices and let your colleagues know you’re out of the loop for a short while. The Pomodoro Technique is a whole world of stuff on its own and well worth looking into if you find your working day is broken up by distractions.
I’ve already seen people in the office doing their Pomodoros (minus the special Pomodoro timers) and we’re already obsessed with Toodledo. I think we’re all determined to keep up good habits!
This outline really just skims the surface of what we learnt and how helpful we found it but hopefully this has got you thinking about a few key things!!
If you’re keen to know more why not check out the Think Productive Blog.