Learning the skill of productivity is learning the skill of being resourceful.
Am I right? You’re stuck in a dead end job. You have a ton of tasks that you need to complete to move forwards. You have other obligations in your life and you have very little time to do these ton of tasks?
In this fast moving world, this is a challenge that we all face. We have simply got to master ourselves to master the use of our most precious and limited resource, time.
#1 – Know EXACTLY Where It Is You Want To Go
How freakin’ mad would you think someone was if they said they were struggling to achieve something except they didn’t know what it actually was they wanted to achieve?
This is the problem with most people. I’m sure you’ve heard the various studies that reveal that only 3% of people set themselves clear and written goals on a continual basis. Is it any wonder why you’re finding yourself in the 97% if you’re not setting goals for yourself.
I’d recommend getting this started using a mindmap.
#2 – Plan The Following Day The Night Before
The benefits of doing this are two-fold:
- You can hit the ground running the following day, so you don’t arrive at your computer screen thinking, “right, what shall I do?”
- Your subconscious mind will work overtime on your tasks during the night without any additional effort and the answers will appear in your consciousness as if by magic the following day when you’re implementing the activities on your ‘Must Do’ list.
#3 – Work Through Your Must Do List – Highest Return Task First
It’s so easy to get caught up doing lower activity tasks like a blog redesign, researching the next plugin, creating systems for your business, list management, accounting and numerous other things that you actually procrastinate on the activities that bring revenue into your business.
These are known as RGA’s or Revenue Generating Activities. These include:
- Creating a blog post with buyer keywords
- Writing an email promotion to your list
- Refining your offering
- Creating a sales letter/video
- Answering queries from your prospects/customers
- Creating a follow up email sequence
- Developing your back end offering
#4 – Add Times To Your Activities & Compete Against Them
This is where you look at the must do list that you have created for yourself and write how long you think that it will take you to complete the task. It doesn’t really even matter if you overestimate this as when you work through the task and complete it ahead of time, you’ll still do it without rushing and due to the level of focus applied, you’ll still achieve more than you would if you didn’t have any target.
#5 – Close Down Skype Completely
Skype is only needed for pre-arranged conversations. Never leave it open for people to instant message you when they want. Skype can drain hours of time without you even knowing it.
#6 – Ditto Facebook, Google+, Twitter and YouTube
The same goes for Facebook, Google+, Twitter and YouTube. You only need spend as much time as necessary on these. If you are connecting with your audience, do these tasks in times where you don’t feel naturally so productive as these tasks do not require much brain power.
#7 – Oh… and ditto Emails
Emails are exactly the same. Your email software should not be open except perhaps last thing at night. If your software makes a sound to alert you of a new email, turn it off as it is an unnecessary distraction that makes unreasonable demands of your attention and focus.
#8 – Leave Your Mobile Phone Out of the Office
If you have something like an iPhone or a Blackberry which are awesome devices for when you’re on the go and you just just place it next to your computer because you cannot bear for it to be away from your side, then you’ll likely get distracted when the phone vibrates to signify a text message, email or other notification.
Simply leave your mobile phone in another room so you can come back to it later when you’re not so focused on creating content and building your empire.
#9 – Have an Impeccably Clear Desk
Every unnecessary item on your desk consumes mind-space which blocks creative energy that is required for production.
My desk consists of a wireless keyboard and mouse, a large monitor (HINT) and my notebook and pen. That’s it! Anything else is simply an unnecessary distraction slowing you down.
You really do have no idea how much a cluttered desk and workspace slows you down. It really is a case of clear desk, clear mind!
#10 – Always Have a Pint of Water On Your Desk
Finally, your brain and body requires a good amount of water to function efficiently. If you want a good level of concentration whilst creating, then ensure that you have an adequate supply of water readily available. At least some sort of drink that hydrates you rather than dehydrates will keep you productive and on track.
Productivity Takeaways
- Ensure that you put into practice all the tips shared here.
Are there any brilliant productivity habits that you have and work brilliantly. Please do help the community here by sharing them below and tell us about them.
Oh, I would be really appreciative if you help the world become more productive by sharing the article on Facebook, Google+ or Twitter.
To Your Online Success,
The Profit Share
The mutt's nuts or the dog's drivel? I double dare you to leave a comment! :-)
Agreed, Today Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and youtube are big distraction factors and you never know when you spend(wasted) your precious hours on these sites.
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Hi Priya,
Thanks for your comments.
Definitely, if you are going to use these sites, then at least be purposeful and strategic in your approach otherwise you’re invariably wasting precious time.
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Wayne,
Yup! Disconnection is essential.
There are so many distractors online today. People often wonder why they get little done, but then stop to send texts, check Twitter, update facebook profiles etc. and then wonder, “where did the time go?”
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Absolutely Steve. You hit the nail on the head.
Focus is important and you need to set your environment so it is conducive to focusing.
Good to see you again. :)
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Didn’t realize that clearing my desk can help me become more productive. I used to have many papers on my desk and I have hard time finding one when I need it. I guess I need to fix this ‘not good’ side of me. Hmm I tend to disagree about having water on your side as it might spill on my desk or computer. Well accidents happen. However, I can have a bottled water with me under or beside my desk. Thanks for the tip!
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Fair enough, I have a wireless and paperless desk, the water is at arms reach and my desk is sturdy, so I would be a real cluts to spill my drink.
Touch wood, never split a drink yet. ;)
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You’re right, I find it hard to resist my chats and calls so I’m gonna need to shut them off. Goodbye to my mobile for the meantime and my skype friends. I really like concept of being productive without any distraction from a ringing tone. Thanks for the tips!
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Hi Vhien,
Yes, get rid of the unnecessary distractions and you’ll find yourself producing a lot more.
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I would say to just go ahead and get rid of the to-do list. The reason? Well, I’ve always found that you just end up doing the easy stuff first and put off the major stuff for later.
What I’ve been doing now is to just understand that I need to do at least 5 profitable actions each day and keep that in mind whenever I’m working.
I try to schedule up client contacts, link building, creating money pages or something that is going to directly benefit me than to have something like “tweak sidebar”.
Welcome to my blog Murray.
Thank you for the great tip. :-)
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Hi, Wayne!
I always plan my day ahead, so I completely agree it is something of importance in order to make a productive day out of it. I also like the fact that you didn’t forget about adding the tip regarding water-we always need to be hydrated during work. Many bloggers write tips about productivity and they stick to just organizational stuff. However, for having our body and mind working in a coordinated way we have to take care of our health, and water is the best drink to help out with it.
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Hi Christina,
Welcome to my blog. :-)
You’re absolutely right… it’s important to look after our health and we must have the arrogance to understand that we (ourselves) are our number asset in our business.
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This is correct. that learning the skill of productivity is learning the skill of being resourceful.
These are nice tips for productive.
i am following these steps.
Hi Noah,
Thanks for that. Good to see you here. :)
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Frankly, I feel very hard to focus on blogging this time around and I have to think how to fix this problem..but thanks as your post is helpful.
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Hi Zamah,
Reassess your goals and ask yourself where are you going? And…
“How am I getting in my own way?”
Perhaps blogging isn’t the business model for you?
Wayne Lambert invites you to read Promote Yourself Online Here
Thumbs-up! . Social Media this days are big temptation to our works.
I agreed to you @Priya. But these sites could be more useful someday you’ll need them a lot.
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Wonderful Suggestions.Learning the skill of productivity is learning the skill of being resourceful.
It’s true.i learned a lot. Your blog is very impressive.And very useful.
Wassup Wayne!
Reading this article reminded me of my old habits. I totally agree with you on number 3. Before I would always procrastinate and never finish what I needed to do for that day. I started caring around an agenda with me in my back pocket everywhere I go and it helped me ever since. I have been using this method for a very long time and in the process of teaching my kids the same way. Nice article there are a lot of tips in here that are very useful. Thanks for sharing.
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These are best to be productive & this article hits the nail on the head while giving a clear explanation of the topic. With the entire buzz going around it’s nice to see an informed piece on the subject. Please keep posting information on this.
Banning myself from facebook during working hours is probably the best thing I ever did in terms of productivity.
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Love these tips – I follow pretty much all of them myself. I’d also add that you need to understand what time of day you are most productive and schedule your workflow to mirror that.
For example, I’m a morning person, so I get up early and knock out as much as I can while most people are sleeping … I then save my phone calls, emails, and other tasks that don’t require as much focus and creativity for the mid-day / afternoon
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#1 is most definitely the most important. If I can plan the next day the night before, I can accomplish a lot and stay on task all day long. But if I don’t, my whole day is off.