7 Secret Strategies of the Exceedingly Productive
“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” – Jackson Brown Jr.
24 hours, 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds; however you choose to look at it, we all have exactly the same amount of time each day. So how do some people manage to fit so much more in?
Basically, it all boils down to cultivating the right habits.
We’re not claiming to make you the next Einstein or Mother Teresa, but we can help you to be a far more productive you.
Read on to find out just how much difference a few simple changes can make.
Working habits of the expertly productive
- End every day by preparing for tomorrow – Before end your day, spend a few minutes making your plan for the next day. Not only will this give you a great start to each morning, it’s also useful for identifying how much you have already achieved.
- Urgent Vs Important – Don’t let yourself get distracted by the word “urgent”. You must identify what is important and make sure it gets done. This also means not immediately ditching what you’re doing as soon as someone phones, emails or comes to your desk with something they have classified as urgent. Obviously, things will come up that do need to be immediately tended to, but you may be surprised by how many of those “urgent” requests are really nothing of the sort.
- Do that horrible task – Always do your least appealing task first and get it out of the way. Think how much better the rest of your day will look immediately, much like when you save the best bit of a meal for last.
- Touch everything only once – Don’t let yourself put off emails, telephone calls and tedious tasks until later; that only makes it take up even more of your time. The first time you “touch” a task, get it done. Remember the 4 Ds we mentioned in previous blogs? This is where you need to put them into practise, by either Doing it now, Delegating, Deleting or Designating a time to get a larger project done.
- Delegate – Delegate, and delegate some more. If you take one thing from this blog, make this it. Master delegation and you’ll never look back.
- Control your technology – Don’t let it control you. It’s perfectly acceptable to turn off your smartphone, shut down the instant messaging client and not answer emails sometimes. As long as you can be reached in an emergency, or have supplied an alternative contact, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that being able to be permanently reachable means you need to remain permanently available.
- Set aside email time – Turn off new mail notifications and only check your email account at pre-decided points of the day. You don’t really need to read every single email as soon as it arrives, and we all know we’ll end up spending more time on it than just reading. Plus there’s the time it takes to get back into the swing of things after a distraction (approximately 25 minutes, on average).
So there you have it – the secrets to outstanding productivity. Now all you have to do is put them into practise.
If you would like some help becoming more productive, get in touch for your free 30-minute spotlight session now.
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