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Productivity tip: Focus on outcome

Productivity tip: Focus on outcome

We have this long tail “to do list” every week. We know what we crave to carry out. And often and then we do so but we crumbled at middle without making any progress. Problem is not that, we don’t accomplish anything rather it is that, we could not make any progress. We attend offices, meetings, reply mails, inspire people and try performance appraisal but it seems that nothing works. Each day we begin with this common conviction that we will accomplish most and to support that conviction we start with too much activities to complete in our list. However, at the end, we find ourselves making very little progress, a lot is a far cry.

We ask ourselves with bombshell that, what is wrong with me? What it is, that fucked up? The culprit is nothing but the way we plan. We plan for meeting, at best on meeting agendas to discuss, not on what we want to get out of meeting. Attending meeting and getting something out of it are two different things. And I am pretty sure we don’t attend meeting to discuss agendas.

To garner an outcome we need to work, I accept, and also every action could be associated with some other tasks, like a process. It’s through doing a set of activities make something happen and we  are aware of that. That is why we do several things to make progress. But the fault is, we don’t define what we exactly want.

If you are facing this same problem then after reading this article you must be careful in making your plan. Don’t jam your schedule book with unnecessary to do things rather write on outcomes. You don’t want to read newspaper, you want news, you don’t just visit facebook but you want to communicate, connect. Plan on outcomes. Have nice day.

Over to you:
What do you do to make your days more effective or meaningful?
What do you think we can work on to make our days more fruitful?

Mohammad Ruhul Kader is a Dhaka-based entrepreneur and writer. He founded Future Startup, a digital publication covering the startup and technology scene in Dhaka with an ambition to transform Bangladesh through entrepreneurship and innovation. He writes about internet business, strategy, technology, and society. He is the author of Rethinking Failure. His writings have been published in almost all major national dailies in Bangladesh including DT, FE, etc. Prior to FS, he worked for a local conglomerate where he helped start a social enterprise. Ruhul is a 2022 winner of Emergent Ventures, a fellowship and grant program from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He can be reached at ruhul@futurestartup.com

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