Increase Productivity With Acronyms

I have two major flaws. The first one, asthma, put an end to my dreams of joining Cirque du Soleil and has ruined all my pants with an imprint of an inhaler in each pocket. The second one, a short attention span, has ruined my ability to do two things at once and often makes me burst out in song mid-conversation.

It is my short attention span that makes practicing all these up and coming life-hacking methods like GTD, and The Action Method so damn difficult. I even spent money on a stupid notebook intended to increase my productivity! (See:The Action Pad)

However, one thing has increased my productivity at work and that’s creating simple acronyms around my job functions. Making a living in the digital world means that you have to put on a different hat with every conversation. (My favorite is the “Why the fuck is this link broken?” hat). So I took these hats, a.k.a. responsibilities, and broke them down into the following categories:

Networks – Bringing on and optimizing network advertisers
Enhancements – Improving features and functionality of the site
Reports – Web Analytics and often Ad Trafficking-someone’s got to do it, right?
Distribution – Getting our content in front of new eyeballs across the web

I used these categories and prioritized my to-do list depending on the day and situation. The four categories framed my work life and brought familiarity to all new projects and tasks. It was simple; everything I do, should do, or could do would relate to networks, enhancements, reporting, or distribution.

And then it struck me like a bullet in Plaxico Burress’ foot!

My job functions spelled out were N.E.R.D