Just came across this methodology to improve my work productivity which is ECRS. I think this is a great tool for me to start reform myself especially on organizing my own stuff which is pretty messed up right now. Definitely, I do not like to be in this condition but due to my poor organizing habits, it seemed to be very hard for me to breakthrough. Nevertheless, through this method, it is clearer for me to make a change and put myself into the growth path to gain the organizing skill that I longed to have.

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E – Eliminate

First of all, it is about eliminating all irrelevant tasks and works that are not helping on the goal. By eliminating doesn’t mean that we will not do it anymore but it may be delaying it to another quarter or year so that we could focus on the things that will help us to reach out goal. Likewise, I would like to eliminate tasks that would not help me to achieve my 2019 goal and make space for me to start tasks that could benefit the overall planning. The best example given by the article is like cleaning our wardrobe where every season, we need to eliminate previous season’s clothes to make way for the next one. Without elimination, we cannot fill up the space with appropriate clothing that keeps us comfortable. It is just the same as our life.

C – Combine

Next, would be a combination. Combination of tasks takes some strategic planning which in turn will make us more productive. There are tasks that could be combined which seems obvious but we may not be doing in a right (productive) way. For instance, when we are clearing wardrobe then we will have new clothes coming in. During this moment, we can combine tasks like moving the clothes into the wardrobe with categorization. Combining these two tasks together will make our life easier as we do not need to clear the wardrobe again and categorize while we just throw every clothes into our wardrobe in the first place. This should be the same for me, whereby whenever I start a new task or job, I should open a file with proper filing and record so that in future, I could easily trace the job and know the chronology of the work. As of now, I need to do spring cleaning for the old ones while for the new ones, I am practising this to make things organized.

R – Rearrange

Sequencing of tasks is one of the keys to making us more productive. That is why we need some time to sit down and think about the flow of our tasks. See how each task link to each other and how to streamline the flow, just like how Henry Ford first introduced this concept. Like myself, I am currently training myself to combine work plus recording to do list, updates and follow ups in a systematic way. Every 2 hours after working on some task, I will need to spend some time on my note pad to record down the items that needed to be done or happened. This will keep my memory freed out for more information to come in. Plus, such combination will make my work easier to manage and have more time to do something that is a different genre from the current task.

S – Simplify

Lastly, it is about simplification. It is utterly important for us to keep things simple as our brain does not like complicated stuff, especially repetitive tasks. When we eliminate, combine and rearrange things, we may end up in something complicated due to the metrics that we required ourselves to commit. However, we can always revise and see what are the most critical metrics that needed to record which will affect our productivity directly. Then, slowly start to diversify our metrics to make things more comprehensive. However, in the starting point, we should keep things as easy as possible. Like how I did to my finance record. I had been doing this for continuous 2.5 years and I had accumulated quite a bit about my own financial habit. It is interesting to observe myself through such records and my way to sustain this is to make the input as simple as possible.