with FutureVisions^SM

creating sustainable results in growth and performance

Three Questions for High Productivity

1. Keep asking yourself, "What are my highest-value activities?" What are the things you do that contribute the greatest value to your work?

2. Ask yourself, "‘Why am I on the payroll?" (Your own payroll or someone else’s – doesn’t matter.) What exactly have you been hired to accomplish in terms of measurable results?

3. And keep asking, "What is the most valuable use of my time right now?" This is the key question in time and personal management. You should ask and answer this question every hour of every day Whatever your answer, you should be working on this task most of the time, if not all the time.

Once you have thought through your work and decided on your most valuable task, you must discipline yourself to start it immediately and stay with it until it is complete.

When you concentrate single-mindedly on a single task, without diversion or distraction, you get it done far faster than if you start and stop and then come back to the task and pick it up again. You can reduce the amount of time you spend on a major task by as much as 80 percent simply by refusing to do anything else until that task is complete.

Seven Keys to Higher Productivity

There are seven additional ways to increase your productivity, performance, and output, either alone or in combination with others.

1. Work harder at what you do. When you work, work all the time you work. Don’t waste time. Don’t look at the workplace as a place to socialize with your friends. Instead, when you come to work, put your head down and work full blast for the entire day This practice alone will enable you to double your productivity.

2. Work faster. Develop a sense of urgency Get on with the job. Don’t waste time. Develop and maintain a fast tempo in your work activities. Deliberately move faster from task to task. You’ll be amazed at how much more you’ll get done just by deciding to pick up the pace in everything you do.

3. Work on higher-value activities. Remember that the number of hours you work is not nearly as important as the value of the tasks you complete, the quality and quantity of results you achieve. The more time you spend on higher-value tasks, the greater results you will obtain from every hour you put in.

4. Do things you are better at. When you work on tasks at which you are especially skilled and experienced, you can accomplish much more in a shorter period of time than could an inexperienced person. In addition, work at getting better at the most important things you do. Nothing will increase the quality and quantity of your output faster than becoming excellent at performing the most important tasks that are expected of you.

5. Bunch your tasks. Do several similar activities all at the same time. By writing all your letters, filling out all your expense reports, or preparing all your proposals at the same time, you get better and faster with each task. You move more quickly along the learning curve. Each subsequent task takes you less time. You can reduce the amount of time it takes to perform a particular task by up to 80 percent by doing several similar tasks one after the other.

6. Simplify your work so that it is easier to do. Consolidate several parts of the job into a single task so that there are fewer steps. Eliminate lower-value activities altogether. Click here for more on simplification.

7. Multiply yourself by organizing and working with other people who have skills and abilities that are complementary to your own. A good manager becomes a multiplication sign in that he or she coordinates work of different people so that the outcome of the team is far greater than the total outcome of the individuals working alone. Your ability to assemble a team of excellent people and then help your team accomplish important tasks is central to your long-term success. Even at home this principle operates successfully: what kind of team have you assembled to handle all the chores that need not be done by you?

8. Work longer hours. Notwithstanding my points elsewhere regarding time off from work, it is true that if you start a little earlier and stay a little later, you will be more productive.

By starting your day earlier than the average person, you beat the traffic into work. By staying a little later, you leave after the traffic. By doing both, you can add two or three hours to your productive working day without really affecting your lifestyle. These extra hours are all you need to become one of the most productive and highest-paid people in your field.

The Race Is On

Compete against yourself to see how much you can get done of high value each day. Make it a game. Set schedules and deadlines for yourself and race against the deadlines. See whether you can get more and more done in less and less time.

Develop a clear vision for yourself as a highly productive person. Think about the times in your life when you were most productive, effective, and efficient. Think about situations in which you were doing the right things in the right way. You were getting a lot done in a short period of time. You felt terrific about yourself and your performance. You were in that magical state of flow, and you felt happy and exhilarated.

Project forward five years and imagine that you are now one of the most productive people in your field. What would you look like? How would you be working? What would you be working on? What would be your guiding principles for personal performance? How would people describe you to others in terms of the way you work? Let your vision of the future guide your present performance.

Once you have a clear vision of your ideal future, put an on the specific image of yourself that you like the most. Continually visualize and see yourself as if you were already that person. Remember, the person you see is the person you will be. Hold that image in your mind until you become that person in your reality.

With your ideal vision clear, set specific goals for yourself in terms of your work life. Imagine that you have the ability to produce any quality or quantity of work that you desire. What would it be? What are your specific goals and objectives for your work and your personal life?

Motivation includes motive. You must be clear about why you are doing what you are doing. Why do you work as hard as you do? What do you really want to accomplish? What is the fastest and most direct way to get from where you are to where you want to go?

What additional knowledge and skills will you need to double your productivity and perform at your best? Become an expert at time management. Read the books, listen to the audio programs, and practice, practice, practice until you are one of the most productive people in your business.

What habits and behaviors would be most helpful for you to develop to increase your productivity? Concentrate on developing the habits of result orientation, focus, concentration, discipline, and persistence. These become internal motivators and drivers for .

My favorite organizing principle for high productivity is single handling, in which you concentrate single-mindedly on one thing, the most important thing, all day long. Once you have programmed this work habit into yourself, you’ll be amazed at how much you get done.

The daily habits of planning, setting priorities, and then starting with your highest-value task will do more to help you than perhaps anything else in time management. You can develop these habits by practicing them over and over again until they become automatic.

What daily activities should you practice to ensure that you perform at your very best? Make sure that you are always working on the highest-value use of your time.

Finally, what one action commitment are you going to make as a result of what you have just learned? What specific action are you going to take to increase your productivity, performance, and output? Whatever it is, do it now!