12 Ways to > your Productivity to get more done.
– by focusing on what’s Important and managing your Time better to feel more Productivity.
Topics: Focus, Important vs Urgent, Perfectionism, Routines, Meetings, Plan, Multi-Tasking, Quitting.
Some people just get more stuff done by having perfected maximum Productivity. By the time most of us are pouring our second cup of coffee, these super-achievers have worked out, answered all their important Emails, & sent the draft of that Project Report due next week.
How do they do it? Actually, you can, too, says Paul Rulkens, author of “The Power of Pre-eminence” and president of Netherlands-based Agrippa Consulting International, which works with multi-national companies. “High performance starts with a mind-set that translates into things that you do. Once you’ve got the mind-set, you will have the behaviors, then will turn into action. Everyone can become have higher productivity,” Rulkens says. They know these 12 things.
1. Focus on what Matters most. People who are highly productive have established clear Goals & a Vision for what they want to achieve long term. They focus on what matters – and realize – that “80% of what you do doesn’t matter,” Rulkens says. Instead, they focus on the 20% that does and apply their efforts there – the 80/20 Rule.
2. Know the difference between “Important” & “Urgent”. Extremely productive people know that “important & urgent” are two different things. Many things seem urgent, and that’s usually determined by the person who expects an immediate answer,” says professional organizer Alison Kero, ACK Organizing. If you get side-tracked by un-important urgent issues, you spend your time fighting needless “fires” instead of getting done that really matters –the important.
3. Don’t be a Perfectionist. At the heart of pro-crastination, you’ll often find one of its root causes is perfectionism. Let that go. It’s not always attainable or worth the extra effort. ”
4. Have Set Routines. When you make the more mundane aspects of life routine, you free up brain-power & time. Pozen’s days are highly regimented. He usually wakes at the same time and has simple morning routines. He lays out his clothes the night before. It may sound boring, but think about how much time is wasted wondering what to wear or have for breakfast. Reclaim those valuable resources by making them a routine, he says.
5. Only attend Meetings relevant to you. Meetings are a necessary evil or can aid productivity when they’re used wisely. But poorly planned meetings waste precious time, says business coach Melissa Mizer, founder of the coaching firm MoreSeekers. Mizer says effective meetings must have five components:
a) Make sure the right and necessary people are in the room.
b) Make sure roles are clearly defined.
c) State the meeting purpose upfront (brainstorming, decision making, etc.)
d) Set objectives for the meeting.
e) Define next steps & action items before the meeting ends.
6. Know where to Find, What they Need, When they Need it. You don’t have to have a clean desktop or any organization apps, but you do have to have a system that lets you find the info & files you need when you need them. Author Pozen says that he keeps files on each of his courses, so he can easily access them and adds relevant news to each file as he comes across it. That way, he can update his courses with the most current events.
7. Plan your Days. When some of the smartest people in the world want to be more productive, they attend a conference, take a class or read a book (ie, Robert Pozen’s “Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours” or other similar book), Pozen is a highly productive person. He writes, speaks, teaches courses, etc. To stay on track, he says: “I am meticulous about planning my to-do items around my appointments, then setting goals for what I want to get out of each appointment to ensure those meetings are worthwhile.
8. Allow time in your Schedule for Emergencies. When you’re too tightly scheduled, you can end up under-mining your own productivity. If one thing goes wrong, your schedule could be disrupted for the rest of the time. Give yourself time, which you can always find a way to spend wisely.
9. Multi-tasking is essential for productive people, but you have to choose the activities to pair. The tasks should be complementary in the sense that usually, one task is much more important than the other, and the other one can be done with a limited amount of energy & diversion.
10. Sometimes you have to do what you don’t want to do, but have to do. Sometimes you have to “swallow a bitter pill.” Overcoming pro-crastination—at least most of the time—is essential for high performance.
11. Save Wasted Time. Those 10 minutes before your next meeting or the two hours your flight is delayed can be great news for your productivity. When you keep a list of things that need to be done, you can quickly scan it and pick out the actions you can take in the time you have. Answer a few Email messages or return a call in the few minutes before your next meeting, or start the research for your next project while you wait for your plane.
12. Know when to Quit. Think high performers are the “quitters never win” types? Wrong!. Winners quit all the time. They’re just more thoughtful about it. Smart quitting means ditching the things that you shouldn’t or don’t want to be doing, because they aren’t worth your time, or delegating those things that can be done more cost effectively or efficiently by someone else. That does more than free up time for you. Quitting releases a lot of stress & negative energy. That energy can now be focused on the things that really matter.
Comments: Have you found out anything else the makes you more Productive?
from Fast Company Zine 06 March 16 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz