Time Management And Productivity Lessons From The Military.

This week on my podcast, I have an interview with Simon Jeffries, a former UK Special Forces leader. We discussed how the military prepares and trains people for a highly stressful working environment.

Much of what is taught to anyone joining the military first is called “good admin”. This is about keeping equipment, clothing, and everything else clean and in good working order. It’s also about having everything ready at a moment’s notice, so if you are called to parade in three minutes, you know where everything is, it will be clean, and you will be on parade looking and being ready for action.

This is common sense, yet we, non-military people, never do anything like this. We are, in effect living by the seat of our pants every day. Most people have no idea what they will wear that day when they wake up or where their project files are.

How much time do you waste each week trying to find a file, a project note or an email? It all adds up. If you have to spend even five minutes looking for the correct files every time you sit down to begin a focused work session, you will lose at least an hour each week. Wouldn’t you be more productive if you knew where everything was?

This means rather than having notes littered all over the place in multiple different apps, you have…