1. Outsource
Prioritize your time by eliminating the
unnecessary tasks and outsourcing your weaknesses. In this way, your time and
focus is directed to where you’ll make the biggest impact for your business.
2. Eliminate temptation to waste time
This is especially so if you are in the online
industry. There are so many distractions online, from news to gossip to videos
and etc. One way to do away with such distractions is to deliberately cripple
the technology to boost productivity. You do this by restricting access to
sites that distract you for the period you are working.
3. Wake Up Early
Early-risers have more productive mornings, get
more done, and report less stress on average than “late-risers.” Early mornings
are usually very productive times to complete important tasks. You will be able
to accomplish more in the same amount of time.
4. Take Your Breaks Seriously
Don’t eat lunch in your office. Use lunch time to
rejuvenate, refresh and to really take a break. You have to re-energize by
getting out of the chair and out of that room. After lunch, you will much more
productive because you have the renewed energy to complete your tasks more
efficiently.
5. Leave Your Work Unfinished Before Your Break
This helps you to zap right back into the flow
once you get back because your brain craves completion. This is actually a
famous writing tip from Hemingway – he always left the last sentence
unfinished, so he could pick up again easily the next session.
6. One Thing At A Time
Multitasking cuts back on your productivity so
instead of juggling multiple projects at once, focus on one thing at a time by
scheduling out blocks of time — or even entire days — during which you only
concentrate on one task or one project.
7. Salvage "Dead Time" With Technology
"Dead time" are the small pockets of
times spent while waiting in offices, waiting in airports, waiting before a
lecture, waiting on the bus and etc. Be productive at the moment dead time
begins by engaging in activities such as reading things that will help in your
business of increase the efficiency of your daily tasks. You can get low cost
readers like the Kindle, the iPhone and, of course, the iPad.
8. Begin with The Least Urgent Task
The idea is to complete your tasks before they
become urgent. And the only way to do that is to work on the least urgent tasks
first.
9. Schedule the
Fun First
This tip will kill procrastination. If not it
will drastically reduce it because by doing the fun things first, your brain
won’t feel threatened when you want to do the work, because it will know that
the fun is guaranteed.
10. Find Out and Capitalise On the Times You Are
Most Productive
If you are far more productive at a certain time
of the day, get more done between that periods of time. During your
unproductive timings, go to the gym or engage in other activities that requires
no thought and do the hard stuff only in your productive timings.
11. Time-Sensitive Tasks
Look at all of your to-dos and first identify
which ones are time-sensitive — the ones that need to be done that day or that
week. Prioritize those tasks then pick from the other to-dos, one big project
per day to tackle once the time-sensitive items are done.
12. Consolidate Email Accounts
Have all your email accounts forward into one
email client, so you only have one place to check emails. Through IMAP, you
keep all of your emails synchronized with your mobile device and backed up to
your hard drive with Apple Mail.
13. Prevent Possible Interruption
In order to enter a state of deep focus and
concentration, it is important to prevent interruption. In this way, you can
get into momentum or flow. Anticipate what may interrupt you, such as the cell
phone, people around you, or the Internet, then take the necessary steps to
eliminate any possible interruption as much as possible.
14. Plan
Take the first 30 minutes to plan the rest of
your day by making a list of the important tasks that you need to have done
today and stay focused on these items.
15. Work Less, Get More Done
Set a time limit on your work sessions and you
will find that you get more done. A benchmark you can follow is to limit both
your work sessions (60-120 minutes), and your weekly output (40 hours). Working
hard is not just about the quantity (time), but about quality. To increase the
quality, you need to decrease the quantity. There is a sweet spot for every one
of us. Find it.
16. Get An Outside Perspective
When you get overwhelmed and too emotionally
involved in everything that is happening, you tend to not be able to make clear
decisions. Get an outside perspective from a business partner, mentor, coach or
friend and sort out what’s really most important now. An outside perspective
can open you up to new possibilities.
17. Use A Calendar
System
Keep what you have to do and all the major
deadlines in a calendar system like Google Calendar. In this way, you can
easily prioritize and plan your time hence boosting productivity. Google
Calendar can also help you keep track of random assortment of appointments and
the places you need to be at. It also facilitates coordination with business
partners by allowing two or more people to synchronize their calendars.
18. Take Immediate Massive Action to Do What You
Need To Do
The key to productivity is actually do what you
need to do. Be careful not to get trapped by secondary activities. Do be
reminded that spending your time to maintain your productivity system is a
secondary activity. Instead, you should do what you need to do.
19. Schedule Like-Minded Tasks Together
Block the similar to-dos together. For example,
set aside time to make outbound calls, and make one right after the other. Plan
times during the day to check your e-mail, Twitter and social media to avoid a
huge time trap.
20. Do Something Else If You Find It Hard For You
To Make Progress In The Task At Hand
It is typical to experience obstacles in tasks.
Sometimes, it is frustrating that the more urgent and important something is,
the harder is for you to make progress. If you’ve hit a wall like this, you
need to break the downward spiral of procrastination and bad feelings. If you
can’t push yourself to do something, just stop the losing battle and go for a
walk. Chances are, on your return, you will jump on that task with unexpected
eagerness.
21. Go Into "Isolation"
It is imperative to remove all external
distractions in the event that you find your plate filled with all
high-priority tasks. Focus all of your energy on one task at a time until it’s
complete, and then move on to the next one. Once all priorities are cleared,
you may re-join society!
22. Procrastinate Productively
Procrastination is always number one on the
unproductive list. Most teachings teach you to avoid and refrain from
procrastinating. However in the event that you must procrastinate, try to
procrastinate on something with a later deadline rather than something
frivolous.
23. The Power Of 3
Give yourself 3 must-complete tasks each day
(usually fairly large tasks) and take short breaks between each one to give
your mind a break and switch gears.
24. Strike A Balance Between Handling Urgent
Issues And Long Term Solutions
Some of us tend to handle all the things that pop
up as soon as they come. Although it is a good habit to complete tasks that
come up as soon as you can, you’ll never move forward as a business if this
continues. Divide your time between what’s urgent and what’s important and make
an even
Split between
handling urgent issues and working on long term solutions. Learn to outsource
urgent matters while you handle the important ones.
25. Treat Perfection like A Process, Not an
Achievable State
Perfectionism can be crippling to productivity.
Some of us can't even start projects because of perfectionism. Being a
perfectionist and wanting to achieve perfectionism over a certain project is
not a bad thing, however it is unrealistic to expect it. Aim instead for
excellence and correction along the way.
26. Show Up For Meetings on Time
It is a huge waste of time when people arrive
late at meetings and the chair of the meeting, out of politeness, would
reiterate what had been said in the meeting earlier. In order to influence
punctuality in others, you yourself have to be the example and show up on time
for all meetings first.
27. Focus On What Really Matters
Not everything is a priority. Spend some time on
planning to determine the most critical tasks that you need to take on. It’s
usually much better to concentrate on one or two priorities and do them really
well, instead of doing many things and having mediocre results.
28. End Your Day On A Positive Note
Devote the final hours of your workday to some of
your least-pressured tasks like paperwork. You will feel a sense of
accomplishment by completing at least one thing before the day ends.
29. Write Lists And Rank Your Tasks
Written lists are one of the best tools for
productivity. After you have written your list, give each item a numbered
ranking based on priority and go according to it till completion.
30. Imagine Competition While Working
This works for some people: Pretend that all the
people around you are potential clients judging your work habits. Imagining
this competition will make you work harder and more productively.
31. Define Roles And Divide Work
If you are heading a team, define distinct roles
for each member on your team and divide work accordingly as well. There are
some people who will want to do everything. With clearly defined roles,
everyone on your team is clear on who should do what. In this way, your team
will be more productive and tasks get completed faster as well.
32. Find Help When In Doubt
You might require skills that are outside your
immediate field to complete tasks at hand. Find others who have those skills
and might be interested in working with you or find people who might know
someone in their network who would be perfect for it. This increases
productivity drastically.
33. Search For
Tools That Increase Productivity
There are a variety of tools out there online or
offline that help you increase productivity. One such example is Pivotal
Tracker, a free tool that allows you to track task lists. It forces you to
prioritize your to-do list.
34. Being around The Right People
Experience has shown that when you surround
yourself with smart people who have similar working styles as you, your
productivity tend to increase many folds. This is because they spur you on,
rather than bring you down.
35. Plan On Wasting Time
Work intently with no distractions for a given
time, then give yourself (significantly shorter) blocks of time to be
unapologetically unproductive.
36. Refresh And Re-Motivate
Step outside your immediate task to be refreshed
and re-motivated. In that time, get a stranger’s feedback on your product,
website, blog post, etc. You’d be surprised how often you are standing too
close to the problem to see the obvious solution, and a third party point of
view can prove invaluable.
37. Complete Your Work Before Your Battery Runs
Out
This can be a great motivation for some. Leave
your battery charger at home and aim to complete your tasks before your
computer battery runs out. This forces you to be productive through motivation.
38. Keep Everything Electronically
Laptops and other electronic devices are portable
and to b productive and mobile, it is good to keep all your tasks
electronically so you can do things on the go. In addition, if you’re working
from a coffee shop or in a park, the last thing you want to be doing is
shuffling papers. Become proficient in taking notes in PDF documents and get
used to reading documents on your computer.
39. Assign Tasks You Can Do During Your Commute
Commuting usually takes up a bulk of your time. A
way to increase productivity is to assign tasks that you can do on the go. For
example, listening to business presentations.
40. Get a portable phone number
Google Voice gives you one number for all your
phones, voicemail as easy as email, free US long distance, low rates on
international calls, and many calling functions. This increases productivity
for your business because with one phone you can work from home, different
office locations and on the road. Being accessible to my clients is crucial and
that is why this is so important.
41. Signature
Scan
Business reports, plans and other collaterals
often require signatures. To save time and increase productivity, scan and save
your actual signature as a graphic and insert it into Word documents as a
picture. If it’s a PDF, save your signature as a Custom Stamp.
42. Cache Email
Make sure you can cache your e-mail because in
this way, you can work on planes or in areas where you do not have an Internet
connection.
43. Start Small
We tend to think big, blue sky concepts. The
downside is that such thinking makes the barrier to entry – and action – quite
high. To avoid “blue sky paralysis,” pare your idea down to a small,
immediately executable concept. Once you’ve road-tested your idea on a small
scale, you’ll have loads more insight on how to take it to the next level.
44. Create Simple Objectives And Revisit Them
Regularly
Sometimes we get too caught up with new ideas
that might make it impossible to ever really complete anything. The best way to
avoid it is to write down a simple statement summarizing your objective at the
start of each project. After which, be reminded to revisit it regularly.
45. Stick To A Routine
It can be tempting to do the more enjoyable
things even if there is a lot of work to do. Procrastination can easily
overcome us therefore, create a routine and stick to it. It will help create a
pattern in terms of both work and leisure.
46. Do Away With Unnecessary Meetings
If there must be a meeting, make sure everyone
knows what needs to be accomplished from the outset. If people are present who
don't help out with achieving that objective, let them leave. Always start your
meetings with the question, "Do we all know why we're here?" and then
follows with, "Does everyone need to be here?"
47. Tackle The Toughest Nail First
Most people like to start with the easy stuff and
complete them first. However, if we end up finishing the easy task first, we
might end up procrastinating because we may feel complacent and contented to
have completed some tasks. When we get to the tough part, frustration and
stress sets in when we meet a challenge in the tasks. Thus, it is best to get a
head start by completing the worst task first and slowly make a transition into
easy ones, you’ll feel great to have completed so many things by the end of the
day.
48. Practice
saying “No."
Guard your energy and focus closely. Saying
"no" is an essential part of the productivity equation. Even when
opportunities come, keep in mind that they might be distractions from the work
you have at hand.
49. Get Organized
Being organized saves time. When you are
organized, you will be about to readily access your work files and records when
needed. Regardless of the organizational system that you use, you’ll save time
if you can go right to a file or folder when you need it. This guide will help
you get more organized:
50. Expand Your Work Environment
As human beings, our mood flows from the
space we occupy. A clean, streamlined space can empower you to think and act
with clear focus. A cluttered, loud, or crowded workspace can transform you
into a distracted and unfocused version of yourself.
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