Humans are prolific procrastinators. People have struggled with habitual hesitation going back to ancient civilisations.
To be productive is to get important tasks that move us closer to our goals done. What we’re doing is allowing ourselves to defer these crucial things — in the process, our goals remain incomplete.
It’s easy to make plans and throw dates on your calendar, and yet it’s practically inevitable that you’ll let some deadlines fly whilst you still have some tasks unfinished.
Everyone strives to do better every day, but the harsh reality is that until you are 100% committed to doing actual work, nothing else matters. Your fancy goals and weekly to-do lists won’t help you if you can’t commit to doing them.
People have the mental capacities to make ambitious plans, yet almost no time at all to put them into practice. It’s easier to plan but a lot more difficult to do something about those plans.
No webinar, no online course, no ebook, no mentorship will help you if you do not go all in and get things actual work done.
Confused, lost and uncertain? You are not alone. Feeling under pressure to deliver? It’s the same old problems for everyone.
Sometimes you lose control. There are many occasions when you feel uncomfortable and unfulfilled because of your inactions.
Many people who hear or read what productivity hacks and strategies won’t do anything with the information. They go back to their lives, don’t change anything and get the same results they were getting before: not getting stuff done.
‘Pareto Principle’ states that 80% of your results come from 20% of the work you do. Highly productive people understand — so they spend quality time on those activities.
These productivity rules can help you do more high-value work.
1. You can only make progress if you start today, right now!
The biggest hurdle for many of us is simply getting started. Making that important decision to take a step. You can be as big and successful as you can possibly imagine if you build that mindset you need to push yourself to make that all-important decision to just start.
“To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult.” says Johann Wolfgang Von Goeth
You have everything you need to make an impact in the world if you can get past the many reasons why you should postpone that task. Don’t think too far into the future.
Use what you have right now at where you are and witness the magic of getting things done.
In Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World, Peter H. Diamandis says, “Right now, and for the first time ever, a passionate and committed individual has access to the technology, minds, and capital required to take on any challenge.”
Stop looking for a perfect time to start work. Are you waiting for a perfect time to do that task or start that project? There can never be the best time to do anything. The perfect time is now. You may have convinced yourself that now is not the best time because of X, Y, Z reasons.
Napoleon Hill once said, “Do not wait: the time will never be ‘just right’. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along.”
But come tomorrow, you will still give yourself another excuse. Just get on with it. Re-clarify your goals (get rid of your fuzzy goals).
2. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to productivity
Don’t limit yourself to single productivity rule.
Every productive person has a system for getting things done. What works for Tim Ferriss may not necessarily work for you. After years of using different systems and writing about them, I can say that there is no one-size-fits-all productivity system.
There are good guidelines and high-level principles that are universal, but you alone can define and refine what works for you.
When your system makes you feel comfortable and confident that your productivity bases are covered, and it has a track record of actually helping you do your work without missing anything important, stick to it.
If you try a system and it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t mean the system is broken. It just doesn’t fit you. Move on. Try something else. Focus on the results, not the system.
Getting Things Done (GTD), The SMART Method, Timeboxing, Biological Prime Time, Personal Kanban, Pomodoro Technique, Getting Things Done, and Eating Live Frogs are some of the most popular and effective productivity systems today.
All of these systems are designed to do one thing: get stuff done. Once you try a system for at least thirty days, you’re free to stick with it or try something different.
Once you settle into your system, you need to customize it. Make it your own. Your situation is different from David Allen, Gary Keller, or Chris Bailey. You have unique needs for your specific situation.
There is no perfect productivity system. Experiment and find out what works for you, and give you the greatest return for your time, energy, and attention.
3. You will never be able to do it all
“Success demands a singleness of purpose,” says Vince Lombardi, an award winning American football coach.
Do one thing well, not three things badly! Many people want to do well at work. And make the most of their skills. It’s incredible what you risk and do to progress. But sometimes you will have nothing to show for it.
What you choose to do may be good use of your time but you probably won’t be able to show real results.
You won’t be able to do everything this week or this month. And that’s okay. As long as you are consistent and stick to the process.
Sometimes priorities change. That’s part of the journey.
It’s better to be clear about what you want to get done at any moment in time than combining multiple tasks.
It’s so easy to get seduced into the importance of a task, project or job and drive yourself insane to over-deliver or impress.
But it’s always important to take time out and ask: What am I risking or taking for granted? What could I have done differently to achieve the same results? At the end of the day, is that the best use of my time?
4. Doing nothing is not laziness
Life is a challenge. Sometimes it’s common to feel like you’re constantly working against the clock every day, and moving plans and tasks around to meet deadlines. And guess what, when you do take time to relax … you feel guilty. But you shouldn’t.
Many productivity resources are focused on what you can do MORE of in order to achieve your goals. But MORE is hard to achieve. Many people can’t get a lot done. And they get anxious and stressed even more.
Planning downtime refreshes your mind for more better work.
Taking breaks in our mental work is equally helpful. Brief diversions improve focus, according to research. Taking a break allows you to come back to your task with renewed energy and sense of purpose.
The next time you feel guilty about doing nothing, consider how much more effective it may make you in the long run.
Charles Dickens wrote his novels between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. After that, he would go out for a long walk. He once said, “If I couldn’t walk fast and far, I should just explode and perish.”
Leonardo Da Vinci had a bed in his studio and when patrons accused him of wasting time, he said: “If I don’t do this, you don’t get the work.”
Silence seekers include Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO, who recently went on a 10-day silent Vipassana yoga retreat in Burma (Myanmar). There he practiced a technique that he said would “hack the deepest layer of the mind and reprogram it.”
Pause to reflect. Pause to feel progress. Pause to create. Pause to think. Pause to take control. By all means pause. You can’t do your best work while moving from one jam-packed day to the next.
5. To get things done faster, find a productivity pattern that works best for your body
To be more productive, and intentional, view time management as task management. This mindset can help you realize that “some tasks can wait,” — not everything is urgent.
When you do work, get excited, enjoy the process, pour yourself into it, work on important, high-impact tasks … and then learn to relax, refresh, and replenish your energy.
Sometimes it’s more important to recognize how you channel your energy than to be “on” all the time. Listening to your own body and working with it, not against it is one of the best productivity hacks.
Brian Tracy calls this your prime time. “Your internal prime time is the time of day, according to your body clock, when you are the most alert and productive.”
The single most important productivity advice you need to follow is this: Match your highest priority work to your most productive hours. The basic idea here is to track your energy, motivation and focus to get a sense of when, where, and how you’re the most productive.
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This post was previously published on Entrepreneur’s Handbook and is republished here with permission from the author.
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Photo credit: Bulent Keles