How The Most Powerful People Get Things Done We all have big decisions to make and deadlines to meet. And sometimes it can feel overwhelming. This got me wondering: how do the most powerful people get things done? When lives are on the line, literally trillions of dollars are at stake and the world is watching… how do people handle those situations? So I called my friend James Waters. James was Deputy Director of Scheduling at the White House and served in government for 10 years. James had some tremendous insights about how they do things at The White House that line up with a lot of what the formal research is telling us. Now if you’re looking for Republicans-this, Democrats-that, you’ve come to the wrong place. Let’s get to it. Be Responsive It ain’t like an episode of “The West Wing.” Watching that show you might think that 5 people get everything done. How do you make insanely big decisions with such a huge number of people involved? We all know people who have 1000 unread emails in their inbox or don’t pick up their phone. Sum Up
A Simple Strategy to Make Every Day Productive If you’re like me, you have some days when you’re the queen of your life and get forty-three things done before lunch … and others where changing out of your pajamas is the day’s biggest achievement. This is one of the many reasons I love listening to business-oriented podcasts. You can pick up gems of wisdom and inspiration — and yea, even practical tips for productivity — from successful business people, even if they operate in a totally different realm than you. Recently I came across a shiny, new-to-me tidbit while listening to business guru Marie Forleo speak about gaining clarity in this interview with Amy Porterfield. Marie said something in passing that I’d never heard before and fortunately, Amy asked her to elaborate. Here’s Marie’s tip: “Always produce before you consume.” That’s her strategy for making sure she’s productive every day. If you’re a homemaker, for example, producing before you consume means starting the day by doing a task instead of reading the paper.
This Is How To Be Productive: 5 New Secrets Proven By Research Want to know how to be productive? Create goals, make a plan and execute. We all know this is a good idea… and it never, ever seems to work. It’s like simplifying boxing down to “Just go into the ring and punch the other guy until he’s knocked out.” Sounds easy. So let’s ask a different question: what’s stopping you from being productive? Whenever you’re not getting stuff done (or not getting the right stuff done), ask which of these 5 is the problem and apply the solution… Problem 1: Priorities Sometimes you do get a lot done… but they’re not the right things. Whenever you hear or say, “I don’t have time” — it’s a lie. You need to be realistic. Ask yourself, “What’s important?” And this is where procrastination can help. There are three variants of procrastination, depending on what you do instead of working on something: you could work on (a) nothing, (b) something less important, or (c) something more important. It’s not a question of objective important/not-important. Problem 3: Habits
This Is How To Be Productive Without Being Miserable: 8 Proven Secrets There’s plenty of good advice on how to be productive. But most of it makes you feel like you need to turn yourself into a machine. You don’t want to be Robby the Robot. Here’s the thing: you often don’t need help with the doing part. What really gets in your way? “It scares me.” Those are feelings. The best productivity system is the one you stick with. The research and experts say the answer is, “Yes.” Start The Day Happy The sound of the alarm clock should not signal, “Time for the pain to begin.” So indulge yourself a little in the morning. Research shows your mood in the morning affects your productivity all day: Researchers found that employees’ moods when they clocked in tended to affect how they felt the rest of the day. You’ll never be as productive as you could be if you don’t make a little effort to improve your mornings. (To learn the 7 step morning ritual that will keep you happy all day, click here.) Okay, you’re starting the day off happy and that leads to productivity. Sum Up
The Most and Least Productive Hours in a Day In a perfect world (or, at least a more efficient one), you could be productive whenever you wanted. Just sit down and start typing/put that pen to paper/invent the next app or Fidget Spinner. Unfortunately, productivity isn’t as easy as just plugging in for humans—we experience energy and creativity peaks and valleys. Those valleys are necessary—they’re your brain and body telling you that you need a break. While you can’t (and shouldn’t) eliminate the normal, less productive times in your day, there is a way to recognize when you’re most likely to be at your performance best, and optimize it. While your productivity goals will always benefit from smart time management strategies, they’ll also get a boost when you know what part of the day is optimal for you to work at your most challenging and creative tasks. It’s Ultra(dian) Easy So, since pushing through that downtime means you’re working with less than optimal focus and energy productivity researchers are suggesting a new approach.
7 Productivity Mistakes You Are Probably Making Every Day Today’s guest post is by Gloria Kopp. Gloria is a digital marketer and a business consultant from Manville city. She is a content manager at Australian help. Everyone wants to be more productive; that’s why lists of productivity tips are so popular online. 1. There are many tools available that help you block out the rest of the internet while you work. If you get mentally fatigued, it will take you longer to recover before you can get back to work. 2. If you’re looking to reach a specific goal, it’s easy to reward yourself when you’ve made some progress towards it. 3. You want to be more productive. 4. When you’re tackling your to-do list, you’re probably trying to do more than one task at once. 5. It can be really tempting to put off the biggest–or most difficult–tasks until later in the day. 6. Everyone has a time of day when they’re most productive. 7. Being productive doesn’t mean that you need to get everything done yourself. Do you know of any other productivity mistakes?
How Fractured Focus Steals Your Productivity (and How to Take it Back) Productivity Thieves, Part 1/4 If we had to convey how to be more productive in one sentence, it would go something like this: Put the best version of yourself in charge. That sounds easy, but doing it requires more than simply reading another book about focus. The more we look into productivity—how to achieve it and why we keep losing it—the clearer it is that a lack of information isn’t the problem. The problem is acting on what you already know, on putting that informed and inspired version of yourself at the helm. We all have habits that rob us of our concentration and waste our time. To help you overcome them, we’re doing a series of posts that break down the worst of these productivity thieves and give you concrete actions to help you do more with less effort. What exactly is fractured focus? Fractured focus is the division of your attention across multiple tasks. Let’s establish that we love the internet. But capturing the right information means separating the signal from a ton of noise. Okay, but…
The Minimalist’s Guide To Productivity I’ve been on a journey to adopt a minimalist lifestyle for years. I’ve taken on a minimalist wardrobe, thrown out all the junk in my house, even downsized to a smaller flat with less storage and way more floor space. For me, the appeal of minimalism comes from this idea that your life can be simplified, streamlined, and reduced without sacrificing quality. It didn’t occur to me until recently that this idea...quality over quantity, could be applied to the workday too. A minimalist lifestyle begins with getting really (really really) comfortable with the idea that more does not equal better. The minimalist guide to productivity starts with a simple theory. Decide What’s Important You aren’t Superman. Minimalism doesn’t really work without a clear and specific goal in mind. To decide which tasks are important and which can be cut, try to narrow your focus to your overall goal. At work your mission might be to “increase sales by 300% in the next 180 days and keep all my existing clients.”