Best Performance Practices - Top Tips 1 - 4

I have been posting quick one minute videos lately about performance tips I’ve been wrestling with as I embark on a large project that not only requires hard graft but has a tonne of learning too. So what better way to practice what I preach and add a bit more strength to my performance techniques, plus pass the goodness on. Here are the first four top tips to ponder and try out for yourself.

Top Tip #1

“If you say YES to something new, you will have to say NO to something old.”

Most of us have heard about this one before and for sure I’ve brought it up with my coaching clients from time to time. But there's no escaping from the reality we all have to come to terms with when we drop something new and big into our lives. You’d love to keep everything going as normal but unless you want to burn out or dish up less than your standard quality, you need to make a decision on what you will stop doing or at least cut back on for a while. You need to find the space for this work so there is every chance it will be done well. The consequences are drifting back into what you have always done, are good at or deferring responsibility to other people that hit you up for work, then say yes to that work when you know it should be a no. Like all good strategies, you need to be ready to make tradeoffs. You cannot be everything to everyone or in this case continue doing all the old work and new work too.

Top Tip #2

“Pressure Box your work”

If you want to ensure you deliver a piece of work, faster and with acceptable quality, then use what I’ve coined as "Pressure Box" your effort. This is not to be confused with “Time boxing” where you block out an amount of time in your calendar for specific work or a task but not require the job to be completed. You’ve spent the time, focused on agreed work and made progress, all great and exactly as Time boxing requires. With Pressure Boxing, similar to pressure fighting in the sport of boxing, you go on the offensive with continuous effort looking to overpower the opponent and ultimately achieve a result, a win. A great example of pressure boxing in action is in the program “Landscape artist of the year”. The contestants have four hours to complete their masterpiece with the hope of winning the heat and progressing to the next round. Some of their contest submissions could take up to a week to complete but no matter, on the day they all have four hours to finish and more often the output is a wonderful piece of art. Their natural skill, competitiveness to do great work, and forced time pressure push contestants' minds to visualise and complete an end product within the allotted time.  

Top Tip #3

“Successful outcomes require successful organisation”

It doesn't matter if you are a “doer type” personality—-----------last minute dot com, who likes to work under pressure and not prone to planning up front or a “planner type” personality—---------plan way up front with the T’s crossed and I’s dotted. You can't expect to open your laptop or your notepad and for wonderful work to show up in front of your eyes. You need some level of organisation, even if it's only a touch. For example if you’ve Pressure Boxed an hour for a task and you are a “Doer type” then it helps to ask yourself; where do I need to start? What is the outcome I am looking for? And most importantly, how am I going to go about it within this hour? The “how” question should kick off answers like; I will shut the door of my office, take no calls, work to the outline I prepared, keep moving on even if I am missing items and return to it later if still important etc. Planning paralysis is never good and is the opposite end of what I’m suggesting, but a sprinkle of up front consideration so you start well and use your time in the most efficient manner possible is always important.    

Top Tip #4 

“Don't drown in details with a Big picture buoyancy”

As you take on a large piece of work you soon find you're stuck in the quagmire of details, slowing you down, wearing away at your motivation and all leading to possibly a paused or stopped project. This can happen so easily as overwhelm kicks in and you worry you’ve bitten off too much and will never finish. This happened to me recently and could have derailed if it wasn't for having a big picture view already in the bag. I knew where the plan was going, that there was more work to move onto even if the current work was not completed and I can come back to these details. I had enough high level detail in place to keep me afloat and moving. I parked new details and the new to-do's and if they are important enough they will come back into the picture again and I will address them. Yes the devil is in the detail but wrongly timed, your project or your dream will sink and be lost. You have to keep it moving. You have to see the wider project coming together because only then you’ll finally realise what is important. 

And yes I “Pressure Boxed” the writing of this article and it works for me.