How to be super productive performer
All of us want to do more in life, get more out of life, have
more time and get more done. But the problem is all of us are given equal time
each day, that is 24 hours. You have seen performers achieving in one day what you
would do in a week. You might also have come across performers who stay busy the
whole day, but at the end achieve little and of course you might have come
across people who spend just few hours a day and yet get the job done. Do you
know what the difference between the two is? It’s productivity!
Productive performers or entertainers always get more out of life, do more in
their life, spend less time working and yet get more done. In the next couple
of minutes I am going to share with you some great tips to be productive and
achieve more in your limited time.
Set goals for yourself
Be very specific about what you want to achieve and set goals
for yourself as a performer. Your every objective should be a goal, and then think of a
practical and viable strategy to achieve that goal. Keep your goals realistic
and constantly compare with the ultimate outcome that you want. To know more
about how to achieve your goals read my other article about
Break your goals to actionable steps
When we talked about goals a moment ago, we talked about the
big picture or the ultimate outcome. Now is the step to divide your goals to
smaller goals, then the smaller goals further, till each becomes a task or an
actionable entity. Here is an example, Your goal is you have to upload a
website for your company. Divide it to designing, programming, content writing
and uploading. Now you have got actionable items, you have to make a design,
then you have to write the code behind the design, next step would be to write
content and once all is done then you have to upload the website.
Plan, Plan, Plan
This is one of the most important steps in being ultra
productive. Make a plan for your every objective and every goal. Spend as much
time as you can on planning about how you are going to achieve your goal or
objective. That way when you would start doing a task, everything would be
there in front of you and all you would have to do is follow the plan.
Remove distractions
Find out the distractions that keep you from doing your work.
Make a list of them, and set it as a goal for yourself that you have to remove
those distractions. Those that can not be removed, learn how to overcome them.
Always find the source of distraction and remove that source.
Give yourself motivations
Motivation helps you stay focused and be resilient to
increase your productivity. Give yourself short term motivations. Think about
going to a show or a concert after your finish a specific task. Mind is a
wonderful thing, it’s a whole world within your head, make this world
beautiful, give your mind a beautiful place to work in and it would do wonders
for you.
Give yourself ideals
Set ideals, love them, praise them, follow them, imitate
them, try to walk in their shoes for a moment and think about how they achieved
their goals. Anyone can be your ideal, it can be Steve Jobs, or Bill gates or
even the guy next door!
Stop multi tasking
Switching from task to task never helps. It has been proven
that multitasking decreases your productivity level by about 10 percent. Start
a task, and never switch to anything else till you finish it. Doing to many
things at a time makes you busy, not productive! There is a huge difference
between being busy and being productive
Make a schedule
Make a schedule for yourself, right from the time you get out
of bed till the time you go back to sleep. Each and everything must be written,
divide your time into sections and allocate each section to a task according to
your schedule. Here is another point, if you can not follow your schedule,
don’t even bother to make one. If you make a schedule and then don’t follow it,
it becomes a distraction and source of low productivity.
Learn when to say NO
Again, this one is extremely important. You must know when
you have to say NO. Think about this, you have to make a 500 page report in 24
hours, you start working early in morning, after a couple of hours your friend
came and asked you to help him in fixing his car, what would you say ? You
might think this guy is like my best friend, I must help him because he need me
at this moment, tell you what, this is wrong. This is the time when you should
and you must say NO.
Believe in yourself
Self belief is extremely important in productivity. Believing
in yourself improves your confidence, boosts your morale, makes your daring and
focused. Believe in your abilities and believe in the fact that nothing in this
world is impossible. Those who you think are standing at the Mount Everest of
success are also humans like you. If they can do it, you can do it too. To
clear yourself more, go back to the point where I said give yourself ideals and
imitate them.
Learn the difference between busyness and productivity
“It’s not enough to be busy, so
are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?" – Henry David Thoreau
Highly productive people are
often less busy than those who are overworked and overwhelmed. When you are
working don’t look at the clock in front of you, look at the work that lays
ahead. Work and work hard, but not to stay busy , work to achieve your goals.
Move from self management to time management
"Your time is limited, so
don't waste it living someone else's life." – Steve Jobs
Manage yourself first and then
think about managing your time.
List your actions
When you start your day, make a list of actions or tasks that
you have to do, write anything that comes to your mind. Then prioritize your
actions, list the important ones first and follow a descending order. When you
are done with your list, allocate time to each according to its importance. Then
start from the first and never stop till you nail down the last one. If you can
do it in an hour, enjoy the rest of your day, if it takes whole day to complete
your list, whole day is what you have to give in to achieve your goal.
Measure, Analyze Enhance
At the end of each day look at your actions and goals. Think
about what your achieved and what could not be done. Then think about what
stopped you from achieving your goals, think about how to overcome those
distractions and obstacles, make a plan to enhance your productivity and when
you get up the next day incorporate that plan to your next day’s agenda. At the
end of day two again analyze your plan, see if it worked for you, if it worked,
make that a habit, if it didn’t work, analyze it again, follow the thinking
curve again and tweak your plan to make it perfect.
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