Tuesday, May 20th, 2008...11:07 pm
GTD and Metrics - Measuring Productivity
I have never been very big on metrics. It really has nothing to do with whether I like metrics or not. Where I typically have an issue with metrics is that most companies, especially large corporations, fall into the trap of establishing metrics that measure things for the sake of measuring things. We measure, but most of the time, we measure stuff that does not tell us anything. Metrics are useless if they do not provide information to the user that helps them determine if they are accomplishing their goals. But more often than not, we measure things and then are at a loss as to what they tell us about our performance.
Properly framed metrics, however, can help individuals or organizations make themselves more effective and efficient. Metrics can be a huge asset to your productivity arsenal. So when we received the following comment to a recent post, it got me to thinking.
Hi! My name is Mayra. I work as a Black Belt in a Mexican company. I want to know the best way to measure the performance of a BB. I mean, Which metrics are the most appropriate way to prove that a BB is reaching his/her objectives in the company (# of projects, savings, etc)? Thanks for your help!
Michael and I both thought about this, and realized that not much discussion, at least that we had seen, had been given to metrics in the context of GTD.
So over the past couple of weeks, we have been tossing this topic around to several respected friends of BBP. The responses we have received have been tremendous.
Over the next couple of weeks, we will share with you insights about metrics and GTD from several GTD bloggers and productivity gurus that we have spoken to.
But we do not want the discussion to stop there. You as readers and people who are seeking higher levels of productivity have a voice as well. So as we publish the responses we have received, please enter into the discussion with your thoughts and ideas.
- Jason
7 Comments
May 21st, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Looking forward to what you and your gang have come up with. Aside from a giant pile of todo lists with exed-out checkboxes or piles of notepads with dates on them, it’s tough to measure progress.
There is one way that you can look back and track progress over a longer period of time. The major deviation in my GTD set-up is my todo list is directly associated in a parent-child relationship with my projects list, and I’m able to associate a tag with the larger projects. This is all done using shadowplan (http://www.codejedi.com/), older software I have yet to find an equivalent for.
So once I’ve limited my tasks to the larger projects, I can look back at what’s been completed over time. If I was more diligent about marking dates, then this would show me a pretty accurate count of my progress over any period of time. Getting that into some kind of tracking software wouldn’t be easy though, probably would have to be done by hand. Automating that process and then being able to graph it would be pretty rad.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:01 am
I’m looking forward to see what you two write about in the coming weeks. I’m always looking for ways to boost my own productivity and measure development. Most importantly, staying organized and keeping everything in one place (which I’ve previously posted about). Once again, looking forward to the coming articles!
Jake
NoteScribe: The Premier Note Taking Software
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:09 am
Jason and Michael, I’ve been a feed subscriber here for awhile. Our blogs share a similar topic and stats. I threw a link up to your blog in my sidebar blogroll. I was wondering if you would return the favor. Let me know… and keep up the great work.
Marc of marcandangel.com
May 24th, 2008 at 4:17 am
By making a project “SMART” its easy to measure the progress. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-Bound.
Its always advisable to visualize the end goal of a project before starting it. If the goal is defined then its easy to measure the progress, since we will tend to choose a metric that will help us see how close to the goal we are.
I use the SMART concept for practicing GTD.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
@Marc
I actually ran across your site the other day with your 50 Things that Everyone Should Know. I have added you to our blogroll as well. You have a lot of good content. Keep it up.
June 20th, 2008 at 11:19 am
[...] I was recently approached by my friends at Black Belt Productivity to offer some thoughts on metrics in the realm of Getting Things Done – how to measure productivity and ensure that it is driving you to specific goals. For further detail on the question, see the original post. [...]
July 28th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Measuring things just for the purpose to measure something is a huge problem. One I find even worse is measuring the wrong things. This not only is a waste of time, but can have negative effects to the company.
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