I first met Hamza Khan at a mentorship and networking event in 2018 and instantly I was in awe of his humble personality and willingness to create a positive impact in this world. So, when I was thinking of the guests that I should invite for my Secrets of Greatness show, Hamza’s name was an absolute no-brainer.

Hamza is a multi-award winning marketer, an entrepreneur, an amazing storyteller who has spoken at TEDx twice and a best-selling author of the book The Burnout Gamble. 

Hamza teaches the art of mastering productivity at various educational and business institutes. Many years ago, though, Hamza was a self-proclaimed procrastinator who’d be at the mercy of the digital monster in his pocket. It all changed for him when he joined the Canadian Armed Forces after high school. The experience forced him to override the natural algorithm of his brain. Like most youth that I come across, Hamza too was lost as a young boy. He was confused. He had no mentor. He did not understand the purpose of post-secondary education and he did not want to go to post-secondary. Hence he chose to join the Canadian Armed Forces simply to run away from his circumstances. 

One day at the Canadian Armed Forces, Hamza, with a team of five, was dropped in the middle of a forest and the task was to find your own way out and survive. The team fell apart unfortunately because all the team members were similar in the nature that they all had the tendency to procrastinate. It wasn’t until adversity hit in the form for darkness, strange howling sounds and lack of food and water that Hamza was forced to dig deep into his values and leadership skills to rally the team, work together and find a way out of this adverse situation. 

Hamza and his team survived but most importantly the experience made Hamza realize the importance of doing and being productive. Without a productivity model, we cannot be successful in our personal and professional lives. Period. 

Hamza recommends reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done to create a stress-free productivity system for yourself. And here are four (4) stages of productivity from David Allen that Hamza follows and teaches his students: 

Capture:

We all get inputs from different channels whether it is to attend a meeting, go for a party with friends, or work on a new idea. Our immediate goal should be to immediately plug it out of the ether and capture or record it in our calendar or sticky note or a digital assistant app such as Google Keep. 

Process:

Once the idea or activity is captured, the next step is to figure out the action steps for the idea or activity. A To-Do-List is the easiest method to kick-start the processing stage. You can use any digital tool such as Asana, Evernote or Trello. These tools help you process the when, where, who and what for the idea or activity. 

Do:

The biggest mistake anyone can make in their personal or professional lives is to say “Oops! I forgot!”. We cannot afford to forget about important events because it erodes trust. And trust is the foundation of all personal and professional relationships. 

Our calendar is the simplest and easiest tool built to ensure that important tasks and deadlines don’t fall through the cracks. Once the idea or activity is captured and processed, it needs to be actioned on. Dedicate time in your calendar to execute on the idea or activity. The calendar allows us to organize our tasks and ensures we remain focused on what needs to be done during the hour. 

I always say to everyone I meet: If it is not in my calendar, it ain’t happening. 

Review:

This is the stage when we review your actions & outcomes. This can be done using Journals. As we discussed in our previous blog a 5 minute journaling method can be highly effective to reconcile your thoughts. It allows us to observe our thinking pattern, our behaviour, our routine and habits. And this reflection is crucial for long-term sustainability. 

Our working environment plays a crucial role in our productivity outcomes. Hamza recommends the following three (3) tips to create an environment that is conducive to stress-free productivity, especially when working from home these days:  

• Establish set working hours 

• Change your location. Do not work while you are cuddled up in bed. 

• Dress up even if you are walking from your bedroom to the lounge to work

• Take breaks otherwise you will burn out

• Limit your distractions (one way I do this is by hiding my smartphone under the couch) 

For more tips on productivity connect with Hamza Khan (at www.HamzaKhan.ca) or write to me at Omer@OmerQadri.com