A couple years ago I Googled something along the lines of “how to optimize my time” or “top ten ways to stay productive” and stumbled upon a 2015 Harvard Business Review assessment that gauged productivity styles (found here). Jackpot! I was eager for direction on how to stay productive throughout the day because what worked for me in college (go Rams!) was not working out in the professional world with real-world projects.

I read the article that proceeds the assessment (found here) and out of the four options (Prioritizer, Planner, Visualizer, and Arranger), I thought I’d for sure be an Arranger; someone who is more of a “real-time” planner who determines what activities will get the most out of current energy levels or environments. After taking the assessment twice, I came to terms with the fact that I was, at the time, a Planner. Made sense, I need organization and love organizing details.

However, I took the assessment again in early 2017 and the results said I was a Prioritizer. Again, after some consideration I agreed that a more logical, fact-based method of managing my time was my style now that I’d learned how to balance work and life on top of a new role that consisted of frequent milestones and condensed timelines. You know where this is going…last month I took the assessment again and this time it said I was a Visualizer; someone who benefits from a more “holistic” approach to tasks and thrives off flexibility with projects and schedules.

The point is that everyone has a different method for staying productive and productivity styles change based on our environments. In consulting, a majority of your day-to-day changes based on projects. The commute, work space, length of work day, team, and functional focus shifts for a semi-determined amount of time.  It makes sense that some or all of the methods utilized to stay on track may require alterations. It’s up to us to make sure we’re aware of our current state of focus and align our day-to-day practices accordingly.

Carson Tate, the author of the HBR article Match Your Productivity Approach to the Way You Work and creator of the assessment, said, “We need to personalize productivity – to employ work strategies that align with our own cognitive styles and to plan and allocate effort in a way that suits our strengths and preferences.” She also goes on to say, “There is no one-size-fits-all approach to productivity”.

In addition to Carson’s statements and suggestions, it’s essential we assess work strategies based on our current state. So, I’m sharing some questions I asked myself after my last go at the assessment (which you should definitely try out!).

These five questions helped me address and readjust some productivity practices to really make the most of my work day:

1. What times of the day are you most productive?
2. Are you working on a team or individually, at this time?
3. Does your work environment allow a consistent amount of time to focus/work or, are you frequently interrupted?
4. What do you reference to keep track of tasks?
5. What distracts you throughout the day?

Answering these questions can help you identify changes to your work environment that are either new additions or aspects that slipped under the radar.

The important thing to keep in mind is what works for you in terms of productivity may be different for those on your team and while there may be different methods at play, a happy medium can usually be met! I know it sounds cliche but open communication about various work methods can go a long way. Perhaps share this assessment with your team as a conversation starter.

Visit our blog to read more of our team’s insights or, learn more about Perficient by visiting www.perficient.com. To read more about Carson Tate and her methodology for work life management, visit www.carsontate.com.

A group of my colleagues in the Perficient Denver office took on an extremely rewarding pro-bono project in October 2017 with We Don’t Waste (WDW). The local non-profit collects excess food from venues, caterers, restaurants, and other outlets and redistributes quality items to underserved populations in Denver.

How We Got Involved

One of our Management Consulting directors, Allison Fries, is on the WDW board and shared some of their opportunities for growth. As soon as we heard about it, we volunteered and got to work. My fellow team members involved in the project so far include Chris Coffin, lead business consultant; Kaitlyn McIntyre, lead business consultant; Bob Vanek, director; Dean Dormady, lead business consultant; Audra Johnson, lead business consultant; and Steve Storer, project manager.

What We Bring to the Table

The project has been an opportunity to help WDW grow in their ability to serve the community. Our goal has been to help them successfully and independently set up and operate a facility that makes their day-to-day operations scalable.

“WDW was able to lease a new warehouse facility allowing them to take in larger quantities of available food and subsequently better fit the distribution of the food to the food banks and pantries across the Denver metro area,” Bob said. “What WDW didn’t know was how to set up and operate this new facility.”

Our First Steps

After joining the WDW team for a ride-along to get familiar with their day-to-day operations, our group took about a week to design their new warehouse, identify required materials for optimal warehouse production, and generate various processes for staging goods, validating expiration, breaking down pallets and managing outbound shipments. Most recently, we met with Arlan Preblud, WDW’s executive founder; Tim Sanford, director of operations; and Kyle Endres, Director of Development; to continue our efforts.

We decided we will begin by supporting some initial Salesforce improvements and looking at process designs for volunteer-related initiatives. For instance, Kaitlyn and Chris are working to help WDW gain visibility into their inventory and donation tracking by defining the current state Salesforce capabilities and developing requirements around what is needed to provide additional functionality. They are expanding on the WDW process flows to incorporate the Salesforce use into the overall warehouse process map, providing visibility where improvements are made and highlighting where additional opportunities can be found.

“Most Collaborative Effort I’ve Experienced”

The WDW team is an incredibly hard-working group of people and working with them has been one of the most collaborative efforts I’ve experienced. To know we’re helping an organization that provides so much to our community makes this effort not only rewarding, but also a fun and educational experience. My colleagues have certainly echoed that sentiment.

Kaitlyn said she’s been excited by the opportunity to contribute to the project. “WDW has been extremely helpful in providing access to everything needed to understand their processes, and I’m looking forward to the continued work with them.”

“An Empty Canvas”

Dean has realized opportunities to try new approaches. “Since I’m working with an empty canvas, it’s fun to see what kind of options we can come up with,” he said.

Bob finds the ability to apply our business skills to an effort like WDW especially rewarding. “The time spent on this effort was both educational and rewarding for the team,” he said. “The excitement on the team’s faces when we walked into the new warehouse was great to see. Even more, the additional product that WDW will be able to distribute to the needy in the community is inspiring.”

Vital Outreach

“Partnering with organizations such as WDW is the perfect opportunity for Perficient to utilize our skillsets to give back to the community in meaningful, impactful ways,” Audra added.

Chris believes companies like Perficient have helped propel significant growth in the Denver area during the past several years.
He hopes the momentum continues. “Companies need to be committed to ensuring those who live in the markets they serve are not left out of this tremendous growth that is being realized by the city and Perficient,” he said. “Community projects such as this are vital.”

“Invaluable Assistance”

As our work with WDW continues, we’ve received great feedback from Arlan:

“The assistance We Don’t Waste has received from the Perficient team has been invaluable. We have a new Distribution Center and know how to recover food; however, when it comes to strategically and logistically setting up our Distribution Center, they’ve helped us get the new facility up and running so much faster and more efficiently than we could have done on our own. Plus, the team is a delight to work with. Hunger is a pressing issue, and with Perficient’s help we look forward to efficiently and effectively feeding more people than ever before.”

Read more about how our colleagues across all of our Perficient locations make an impact in their communities.

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