Your core work and the impact on your productivity system

One thing that you cannot escape is that the productivity system that is going to work for you, will depend heavily on what your work actually is. Life isn’t just about work and so we could also throw in the general circumstances of life to this. When you consider all of your different responsibilities across every area of life, then what you need in order to manage all of this ‘stuff’ is going to look different, don’t you think? So, an important thing for us all to do is to consider your core work and the impact on your productivity system.

Identifying your core work

This can actually be the hardest part, though for some roles it can be quite easy. Carl Pullein often picks the example of the sales person for an illustration of this. Or perhaps a teacher. For these roles, the name says it all. If you are a sales person, your core work is to sell. If you are a teacher, then it is to teach. Though, I sometimes wonder if this is overly simplistic. Take the example of the teacher. You could very easily argue that the core work of the the teacher only happens when they are stood in front of the class and teaching. But equally, you could say that lesson planning and preparation are a key part of this. You could also make the point that marking your students work is where you learn how they are getting on and is the only thing that gives you data on how to focus your teaching in future.