Fueling your Professional Growth with PDCA

The Art of Achieving Hyper-Productivity the right way with PDCA

5 min readMay 26, 2023

Background

To work smart without necessarily working hard is the real definition of being hyper-productive.

Hyper-productivity requires leveraging your strengths while capitalizing on the weakness of the situations around you to excel, which is where Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) comes into the picture.

This article is a combination of my articles How to Plan-Do-Check-Act Your Way to Professional Growth & To Being Hyper-Productive.

Introduction

Having spent part of my childhood in a military barracks with a military man for a father, my first encounter with the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) practice in a workplace setting was at a daily standup meeting with my boss at the time.

Although I understood and appreciated the value of PDCA, I didn’t immediately implement it into my workflow, until later on on the job.

After working with this results-oriented boss for over a year and a half, I grew to appreciate the PDCA as a good way to be hyper-productive.

What is PDCA

Known to many as Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) is a tool you can incorporate into your daily routine/workflow to be more hyper-productive. We often put off such small, yet effective practices because we feel it’s either a lot of work or we don’t want to face the reality of our flawed workflows.

Image credit: Sathish Chandramouli: Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)

PDCA was coined together by W. Edwards Deming, and many in Japan credit him as one of the inspirations for what has become known as the Japanese post-war economic miracle of 1950 to 1960 when Japan rose from the ashes of war on the road to becoming the second-largest economy in the world through processes partially influenced by the ideas Deming taught: -

Better design of products to improve service
Higher level of uniform product quality
Improvement of product testing in the workplace and in research centers
Greater sales through side [global] markets

photo credit: Internet (Source unknown)

PDCA is effective and applicable to any goal-oriented person. Anyone who has read the books Atomic Habits or The Compound Effect and follows the success advice from those books can agree with me that PDCA is a great way to improve one’s hyper-productivity.

The state of Hyper-productivity

Hyper-productivity is a “state of mind” and existence where you achieve the overarching ability to be focused and patient, no matter the situation or challenges you face when delivering on your plan, objectives or goals. Being hyper-productive requires a “ think big but start small “ mentality.

The Whole idea of PDCA is to;

Plan, which involves visualizing & laying out what you are trying to accomplish & what you think will get you there or that goal?
Do, is where you faithfully execute the Plan to the last detail.
Check, involves reviewing whether the results of the Do align with the set expectations in the Plan.
Act, is where you then follow up the Check by making adjustments if necessary (most often to the Plan) and repeat the cycle as often as possible.

Book Recommendations

For those really interested in being hyper-productive, I recommend reading books;- The Compound Effect, Atomic Habits, The 4-Hour Workweek and Deep Focus to get a good idea of what works for you and what doesn’t work for you. For those in the project management & software development industry, also books;- Scrum, and Ask your Developer are good reads to pick up.

atomic habits. Source: Atomic Habits website.

Those books have been very instrumental in my professional growth as well as personal development.

Mastering hyper-productivity.

Time -Management is the single most important aspect of being Hyper-Productive. The “Hierarchy of Productivity “ by The Swedish Investor explains “what it means” and “how” to prioritize as well as separate needs from wants.
To become truly hyper-Productive, you need to focus on being productive rather than being busy. For this, you will need to Plan, Do, Check, and Act constantly.
Being hyper-Productive means learning by doing and mastering by teaching, because the more you practice, the more you learn what works and what doesn’t work for you. Over time you begin to subconsciously quit anything that is not working, leaving room and time to focus on what works.
Hyper-productive people delegate and automate unimportant tasks and do the most important tasks first, preferably before noon. This doesn’t necessarily mean you should work on your important tasks in the morning when you are an evening or night person. The idea behind focusing on the most important tasks is to improve your income per hour and not as a total income because “ Time is money. “
Hyper-productive requires defining time for work and time for relaxation. Ask yourself if, “What you are doing at the moment was the only thing you accomplished today, would you be satisfied and happy with yourself?!”
In order to Master hyper-productivity, you need to develop “Action” habits. This is very key and important as you are able to focus on 20% of the work that brings 80% of the results. You can utilize the PDCA tool to maximise your productivity.

Conclusion

When properly utilized, PDCA can be a productivity game-changer for hyper-productivity for anyone building their personal or professional growth. But requires a lot of commitment, discipline, honesty & personal reflection. I would know!

PDCA is a really simple, effective, and straightforward practice with actionable and quantifiable results.

As the saying goes; “ Do what you can and is possible and whatever is impossible is improbable “. You need to be very precise and purposeful about your goals and how you intend to achieve those goals.

“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.