236: 10 Ways To Be More Productive Today

Sep 27, 2016

I think we all want to be more productive. We want to be less stressed while making more progress towards our goals.

That can be a tricky thing to balance because we see the pursuit of our goals as demanding that more get done. We see being more productive as getting more done. In both cases, we feel overwhelmed before we even start because we just don’t have enough time to get more done!

However, to be more productive, I don’t think you need to get more done. To make more progress towards your goals, I don’t think you need to get more done.

In today’s episode I’ll talk about how you can be more productive without doing more and while accelerating your progress towards your goals!

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10 Ways To Be More Productive Today

While many of these strategies might seem like common sense, I don’t want you to discount them on those grounds. Instead, ask yourself, “Am I consistently implementing this?”

Knowing the strategy or being familiar with a concept doesn’t matter. Do you live it? Is it yours? Do you have room for improvement? Is it a habit for you?

Don’t reject the obvious – implement it. If you want to be more productive, it’s not about what you know, it’s about what you do and what you do consistently!

  1. Start
    Interupt your perseverating on the plan and the overwhelm and take 5 minutes of action in the direction of your goal. Train yourself to leap into action. As I shared from one of my FLFT clients, “action is your pressure release valve!”
  2. Change your language
    Work towards no longer thinking or saying things like “I’m so busy/stressed/overwhelmed”. We share these statements like a badge of honor and they don’t do anything to help us be more productive. Instead, replace those thoughts and words with things like, “What I will do next is…” and “What I can do is…” or “What I’m working on now is…”
  3. Question everything
    Does this item need to be on your list? Does it need to be done? Does it need to be done today? Are you the one who needs to do it?
  4. Check your priorities
    The purpose of a task is to move us towards a goal. Unfortunately, I think we get into a routine of being busy, without ever questioning if the tasks we’re doing have anything to do with the goals we have. So, review your tasks and make yourself identify what goal, if any, that task moves you towards. Is that goal important? Is there a goal?
  5. Stop rushing
    Catch yourself when you’re rushing through one task to get to the next. Catch yourself when you’re thinking about what’s next instead of focusing on what you’re doing now. By slowing down, we often go faster and create efficiency.
  6. Be honest about your distractions
    If you want to be more productive, look at what is getting in the way of your productivity. What are your most common distractions? Put them on paper and then ask & answer the question, “what can I do to minimize this distraction today?”
  7. Set a timer
    Build your focus endurance. Start small, with just 5 minutes of focused effort. Most of us have very limited endurance when it comes to focus. Create it and build upon it.
  8. Stop working
    Don’t go from dawn to dusk without dedicated “rest” time. If your rest time includes folding socks or returning emails, you’ll have an over-inflated sense of the time you spent working and you won’t ever feel recovered or rested. Even if it’s 15-20 minutes per day, implement focused rest time.
  9. Establish a routine
    Routines create efficiency and efficiency increases productivity. It doesn’t matter if your routine is 3 minutes, 30 minutes, 3 hours or more, work to establish routines to increase your efficiency.
  10. Don’t believe everything you read (or hear)
    Don’t blindly implement the strategies of others. Pay attention to what works (and doesn’t) for you and do those things.

Resources

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