IGNORE INSTA.
PHONES ARE MAJOR
PRODUCTIVITY KILLERS.BE TRANSPARENT
Remember the last time you started a job?
Remember day one? Remember that lonely,
pristine inbox – the sense of being utterly,
hopelessly disconnected from the office around
you? It’s no way to start anything, says Henderson.
“By default, emails are one to many, or many
to many. The pit that you fall into with emails is
that it’s very easy to constrain communication
between two people, where the communication
wasn’t a secret between two people – but it’s
just easier to do it that way.”
This hits at the hidden benefit of a tool like
Slack. When chats are live, archived and readable
by many, new starters can learn the intangibles
of working at a company almost by osmosis.
Basics like how decisions are made, how projects
are pulled together, and the things that would
usually chew throughyourproductiveworktime.
The days of siloed projects are numbered,
Henderson explains. When communication moves
away from the black hole of an individual’s inbox,
other people – and other teams – get the chance to
have an ambient awareness of what’s happening
around them. And they’ll often make unexpected
connections, or offer up unexpected insights.
“If there’s any philosophy that we’ve pushed, it’s
more transparency by default. It increases general
knowledge of what therestofyourteamisworking
on,” he says. “It greatly aides collaboration...
even if it’s not within your immediate team.”Five (more)
It will take longer
than you think
A study published in the
Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology confirmed what
others had long suspected: we’re
all really bad at planning work
deadlines. Start by setting
an optimistic deadline. Then
a deadline if everything goes
wrong. Science dictates that
it’ll take a little longer than that.2.
Planned breaks
work better
You’re a smart person. You know
that breaks are effective – that’s
why you stretch your legs then
recap to your deskmate your
current binge-watch. But a
Columbia Business School study
suggests you should take it a
step further: switching away
from problematic tasks is more
effective when the breaks are
regular and predetermined.3.
Don’t wait for
motivation
“Is it accurate to assume that
we must ‘overcome’ fear to
jump off the high dive, or increase
our confidence before we ask
someone our for a date?” said
psychiatrist Shoma Morita. “If
it was, most of us would still be
waiting to do these things.”
Moral of the story? Waiting for
‘motivation’ is a loser’s game.Yo u r p h o n e i s
notyour friend
ArecentstudyledbyFlorida
State University found that
students who kept a phone
ontheirdesks–evenwhen
untouched – performed
significantly worse at mental
tasksthanthosewhokeptthem
outofsight.So,pocketyour
phone, keep it on silent, and you’ll
gain valuable swiping time later.Make the most
ofyour mornings
Theperiodoftimerightafter
we’refullywakeisourmost
productive. Unfortunately, most
of us tend to use it for Instagram-
scanning and Twitter-tagging.
This insight pairs elegantly with
thosepsychologistsandcreatives
whoinsistthatweoughttobe
tackling the most difficult task
oftheday,first.Or,asMarkTwain
putit:“Eatalivefrogfirstthing
in the morning and nothing worse
will happen to you the rest of
the day.” Makes sense.HARDEN YOUR
SOFT SKILLS
As industries pivot towards
hot desking, telecommuting,
and chat-based collaboration,
emotional intelligence is
likely to become even more
importanttoteams–and
to productivity. Think of it
this way: in a world marked
by less and less face-to-
face interaction, empathy
may be the new calling
card of leadership.
“All kinds of knowledge
work is more and more
collaborative,” says
Henderson. “Whatever
discipline you’re in, being
able to collaborate with
people–andskillslike
having good empathy –
is increasingly important.”GET TO
THE POINT
“Email is the cockroach of
the internet,” said Stewart
Butterfield, Henderson’s
fellow co-founder.
“It was really just the
digitisation of the memo.
There’s all this formality
thatcomeswithit:asubject
line, a greeting, you ask how
somebody’s doing, and then
youhavethelittlenuggetofan
actual question in there,’” says
Henderson, exasperated.
“There’sallthisscaffolding
that sits on the actual message.”
Your new mantra: cut
back on information density.
Because remember: it’s not
just about the time lost reading
expendable scaffolding – it’s
alsothetimelostwritingit.PLA
BREAK
ASIT T
OU
BESTBRthis year. “It is not rude to leave –
it is rude to make someone stay
and waste their time.”
While you mightn’t be in
a position to simply walk out
on superiors – or, god forbid,
clients – Musk’s musings
present a good opportunity
to conduct a personal audit.
“It’s really easy to fall into the
trap of, ‘Well, we’ve got an hour,
so we’d better talk for an hour
even if we haven’t got anything
to talk about,’” says Henderson.
His recommendation?
Tighten the invitee list.
Stickto an agenda. And
designate a decision-maker
to limit fruitless back-and-forth
chatter. “Discipline around
meetings can really help
focus and productivity.”AUGUST 2018 GQ.COM.AU 89