PRODUCTIVITY HACKS — SOLUTION FOR EVERY PROBLEM
Make Your Team 4x More Productive With The Rule Of Three
Become a better leader with the Rule of Three
I know a massively successful guy who runs a group of companies, works closely with political leaders for the development of the city, manages a social-improvement organization, and organizes a council of CEOs. Whenever I’d meet him, he’d give me so much time that it’d seem like he doesn’t have anything to do. That is obviously not the case. Recently, he has taken up writing short stories as well.
I once asked him how he manages to put 48 hours' worth of work in a day. He has a simple process.
He chooses 4 of the most important activities per day and does just that.
The Rule of Three?
JD Meier introduced the Rule of Three in his book “Getting Results The Agile Way”. His article outlines what the rule is about and how you can use it. In short, the Rule of Three is about finding 3 wins (results) you want to achieve in a day and doing just that. JD Meier recommends planning for 3 wins for the year, which will be your overarching goal. You can then cascade those wins down to weekly (and even daily) levels. In that way, your daily wins will be connected to the bigger picture.
Three is a very powerful number. It’s not too much or too little. It’s just enough. Three provides a complete combination. If you can accomplish 3 results in a day, you can achieve up to 1095 results in a year.
Wasting time? Never again
One of the biggest traps in productivity is productive procrastination. It’s the act of staying busy with unimportant tasks. We end a day feeling accomplished but actually don’t achieve anything significant. The rule of three eradicates that possibility. It will gradually remove all insignificant activities from your list.
How Rule of Three can make you a better leader
Last year, I asked my teammates to write down 3 of the most important tasks they do every day. They continued to do so for 2 weeks. After a couple of weeks, I checked the lists and found the following —
- One of them had trouble putting 3 activities per day. She always seemed busy. But that gave me the idea that either she was wasting time on unimportant activities or she was not taking the work seriously. That finding helped me manage her better and make her more productive.
- Two of them listed too many results. Every day they were writing 4–5 activities in that file. I asked why and they said they couldn’t decide which one was more important. That finding informed me that those two needed to learn how to prioritize.
- The others kept on slipping in activities. They were not being able to differentiate between activities and results. That finding made me realize that they need to understand how to set goals.
- Another of my teammates was putting in results in qualitative terms. The results should be measurable, whenever possible. That finding allowed me to introduce the concept of S.M.A.R.T. goals to the team.
To summarize
By using the Rule of Three, I could identify four areas of improvement for my team. I realized they needed to become more productive, prioritize better, learn to set goals, and define measurable goals.
If you are moving onto a leadership position, this can be a great starting point for you too.
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