Productivity Questions to Improve Personal Effectiveness

Want to be more productive?  Answer these productivity questions and learn what makes you productive.

To get started, here are some questions Peter F. Drucker hints at in The Effective Executive (page 96), plus a few that have helped me:

• Do you work better in the morning or at night?
• Do you need to make a number of drafts fast (rapid prototyping) or work meticulously on one draft?
• Do you present best from prepared text, notes, or by improvising it?
• Are you more productive as a member of a committee or alone?
• Do you work better creating a detailed outline or by just getting started?
• Do you perform better when you have plenty of time or with deadlines looming?
• Do you learn better by reading a document or listening to someone talk about a subject?
• What posture makes you the most productive?
• How long can you be productive before needing a break (45-minutes, 60-minutes, 90-minutes)?
• What type of break helps you maintain productivity (exercise, humor, thinking, napping)?

Once you’ve answered the behavioral questions, also consider the actual execution of tasks:

• Do you work better on a computer or using a pen and paper?
• Do you prefer complete silence or listening to music (and what kind of music)?
• Are you more productive with people around (such as in an office or at a coffee shop) or in complete isolation?
• Can you get more done by having multiple applications running on your computer or by having only the task at hand in front of you?

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