Want to be Ultra-Productive? Take These Steps!

You know the person who always seems to get more done in a day than humanly possible. What makes them more successful than you? You both work hard, have talent and opportunity. Often, it’s simply a matter of doing things a little differently.

The ultra-productive among us understand the value of time and how to use it efficiently. Often that’s the difference between being good and being great! Adapt these behavioural and attitudinal adjustments and watch your productivity soar:

• Singular Focus – The ultra-productive know their most important tasks and work on them for the first hour or two of each day with no distractions. Ask yourself, what is the most important task to attain my goal? Then make it your top priority every day.
• Schedule Minutes, not Hours – Average workers schedule their day in blocks: an hour here, 30 minutes there. The ultra-productive know that there are 1440 minutes in each day and nothing is more valuable than time.
• Check Email Less Frequently – The ultra-productive aren’t constantly looking at their phone checking email. Instead, like everything else, they schedule time to check and respond. Nothing is too important that it can’t wait for a bit. If it is, you’ll get a call!
• Avoid Meetings – Billionaire Mark Cuban was once asked for his top productivity tip and his response was “never take a meeting unless someone is writing a cheque.” Meetings are notorious time killers! They often start late, lose focus, and run long. Whenever you can get out of a meeting do it and put the time to more productive use.
• Follow the 80/20 Rule – Also known as Pareto’s Principal, it states that 80% of your results come for 20% of your efforts. Ultra-productive people understand this and focus on the efforts that provide results and ignore the rest.
• Delegate! – Ultra-productive people don’t have control issues or micro-manage tasks, they delegate! Don’t ask what can I do to get this done, ask how can I get this done. The answer is delegate!

Improving your productivity can happen! Working smarter is the way. With some simple adjustments you can get more done, move closer to your goals, and still have time for the important things in life.