Productivity and the Three Ps

Quick Summary of the Three Ps

• Parkinson's Law states, " Work expands to fill the time available for its completion." When given too much time to finish a task, we can easily procrastinate or fill it in with trivial activities.
• Pomodoro Technique is a popular time management method that breaks work into blocks of 25 minutes. This can help overcome Parkinson's Law by creating a sense of limited time and encouraging focused work.
• Pareto Principle is the 80/20 rule and observes that 80% of the results will come from 20% of the activities. To get more out of our limited time, identify what activities generate the most results and prioritise these.

An Unproductive Productive Day

I generally consider myself pretty productive. On top of 9-5 work, I can squeeze in about 2-3 hrs of studies and personal endeavours each workday. So when I decided to take an entire day off work to study for the "Professional Scrum Master" certification, I thought I would have plenty of time and might even finish it before lunch.

Plan

• Wake up at 7 am as usual and have breakfast.
• Study for the exam.
• Lunch break.
• Continue studying and do some practice tests.
• Finish work around 5 pm.

What actually happened

• The alarm when off at 7 am, but I slept in. I had the whole day and could afford a bit of extra sleep.
• I eventually got up after 8 am and got a coffee and breakfast.
• I checked my email. It's pretty cluttered. I better be productive and clean it up.
• The weather looked pretty good, and it would rain the next few days. So I took this opportunity to do the laundry.
• My desk was pretty messy. I can't concentrate with all these things on the table. Let's clean it up first.
• It's a weekday, so the shopping centre should be quiet with fewer people. It's more efficient to do groceries today than Saturday. And as a bonus, I get the weekend to do other things.
• Lunch Break.
• It was a busy morning, and I feel a little tired now. I made another coffee and chilled a bit.
• I started a Udemy course on the Scrum Exam.
• The Udemy course was getting a little tedious. I took another break and watched some random youtube videos.
• It's late afternoon, caught myself not focused on the task. I switched to watching short Scrum tutorials on youtube.
• 5pm already.

The day ended with me feeling a little frustrated. It felt like a productive day, yet it was unproductive, as I didn't do much on what I needed to get done. In the following 2 days, I did some study before 9-5 work and completed a practice exam after. And in the next week, I took and passed the official exam.

Reflecting on it afterwards, even though I had less time during a workday and am busier and more tired, why can I still get things done?

Parkinson's Law

Those who have heard of Parkinson's Law can probably see the trap I fell into.

"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." - Parkinson's Law, C. Northcote Parkinson.

For those unfamiliar with the term, it was first described by C. Northcote Parkinson in the 1955 essay in The Economist. In the article, he shares a story of an elderly woman whose single task for the day was to write and send a postcard. She spends the first hour finding the postcard, then the next hour finding her glasses. After that, 1.5 hours were spent finding the address and about 1.25 hours writing the message. Another 20 minutes were spent deciding whether to take an umbrella with her to the postbox. What usually takes a person 15 minutes to write a postcard and send it - took her a whole day.

While the above example is quite extreme, we've probably all experienced it to some degree. For example, when given a month to complete a task at work, you finish it more slowly than needed. When your teacher gives you 2 weeks to write an essay, you procrastinate and only start it in the last few days. These are all examples of Parkinson's Law at play.

In my case, I had the entire day and wasted most of it by finding trivial things to keep myself feeling productive. This is a striking difference from my typical workday, where there's little time. Instead, I strive to not waste it and focus on getting things done.

Pomodoro Technique

Using the Pomodoro Technique is an excellent approach to creating that "sense of urgency" and encouraging "focused work". It's a time management methodology developed by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s. The time management methodology involves using a timer to break up your work into smaller intervals.

Steps:

• Plan your work into the small tasks of 25 minutes
• Work for 25 minutes to complete the job, then take a break for 5 minutes.
• Repeat 4 times, then take a more extended 15-30 minutes break.

This method is effective because it's much easier to stay focused for 25 minutes blocks, 10 times in a row, than working without breaks for 4 hours. In each 25 minutes block, commit to working on that single task. Don't reach for the phone, read email, check social media, or multitask. The 25 minutes is enough to get meaningful work done but not so long as to feel tired or overwhelmed. In addition, the short breaks help us get a breather and refresh our minds.

On weekdays, I usually do 1 hour of studies before heading to the office, another 30 minutes after work, and finally 1 hour after dinner. So I had always unintentionally worked in blocks of time. However, I've since started following the Pomodoro Technique, splitting my time into 25 minutes intervals and finding I can concentrate better and get more things done.

Pareto Principle

Finally, perhaps a not-so-obvious but equally important mention is how I studied for the exam. I didn't think much of it then. I just began my Scrum preparations by doing a Udemy course, watching various youtube videos, and reading content on the internet. All of which wasn't the best use of my time.

"For many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes" - Pareto Principle, Vilfredo Pareto.

The Pareto Principle (also known as the 80/20 rules) was conceived by Italian Economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed a consistent uneven distribution in many aspects of life.

Examples:

• 20% of the pea plants in his garden created 80% of the healthy pea pods.
• 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the people.
• 80% of the production came from 20% of the companies.

You might have seen the axiom in your own life. For example, 80% of the time, you wear 20% of your clothes. In the context of productivity, 80% of results come from 20% of your effort. So it's important to identify what activities generate the most results and focus there.

For the Scrum exam, reviewing the official Scrum Guide, which contains all the information being tested, and doing practice exams were more than enough. When I returned to my typical workday, given I had so little time, I didn't bother studying anything other than those.

The Pareto Principle works perfectly with the Pomodoro Technique. When planning your next project, identify the most essential tasks that generate the most significant values. Then split those tasks into units of work that can be completed within 25 minutes, and focus on the most important task first.

Productivity and the Three Ps

Finishing individual projects or achieving personal goals are really hard. No one is monitoring your progress or checking if you're even working. It's extra challenging when we have many more exciting and fun distractions.

While we might occasionally finish our project by working really hard, it's difficult to consistently do this. Following a system or process can be a more reliable way to get things done. This is because a system is a repeatable process. Focusing on doing one small task well and consistently. And regardless of how small each progress is, you will eventually reach your goal as long as you continue to do it.