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FutureVisionsSM
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 Solutions.
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!
For the four
keys to career success, send an email to bs@futurevisions.org
with "MWS Career Success" in the subject and nothing in the body
