The fact that these hacks are simple to use is their best quality. You can use them right away because they’re so simple.
Give them a read and a try, then watch as your output soars.
1. They Never Touch Things Twice
Because touching something twice is a massive time waster, productive people never put anything on wait. Don’t put off responding to an email or phone call. You should act, assign, or delete something as soon as it captures your attention.
2. They Get Ready for Tomorrow Before They Leave the Office
Every day at night, productive people get ready for the next. This routine helps you consolidate what you’ve accomplished today and guarantees that tomorrow will be beneficial for you. It doesn’t take long, and it’s a wonderful way to wrap up your workweek.
“For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.” –Benjamin Franklin
3. They Eat Frogs
Procrastination’s best cure is “eating a frog,” thus highly productive people begin each morning with this delightful meal. In other words, individuals start with the task that they find the least appealing and most dreadful. After that, individuals have more time to work on the things that excite and motivate them.
4. They Fight The Tyranny Of The Urgent
The phrase “tyranny of the urgent” refers to the propensity for small tasks that must be completed immediately to trump what truly matters. This is a serious issue because hurried actions frequently have minimal effect.
You can find yourself putting off the critical tasks for days or even weeks if you give in to the tyranny of the urgent. The ability to recognise when putting out fires is impeding one’s performance allows productive people to overlook or delegate the things that prevent meaningful forwards progress.
“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” –William Penn
5. They Stick to the Schedule During Meetings
The largest time waster is a meeting. A meeting will go on forever if you allow it, so ultra-productive people let everyone know up front that they’ll stick to the agenda. This establishes a cap that encourages everyone to be more concentrated and effective.
“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” –Michael Altshuler
6. They Say No
People that are extremely productive are not afraid to use the powerful word “no.” They refrain from using words like “I don’t think I can” or “I’m not sure” when they need to express “no.” By declining a new commitment, you respect your current obligations and give yourself the chance to effectively complete them.
According to research from the University of California, San Francisco, it is more difficult to say no, which increases your risk of experiencing stress, burnout, and even depression. Your attitude and productivity will improve if you can learn to say no.
7. They Only Check E-mail At Designated Times
People who are incredibly productive don’t let email be a continual interruption. They utilise tools that prioritise messages by sender in addition to regularly checking their email. They preserve the remaining information till they reach a stopping point and establish alerts for their most crucial suppliers and finest clients. Some even programme an autoresponder to inform senders when they would be returning to their inbox.
8. They Don’t Multitask
Multitasking is a true productivity killer, according to people who are extremely productive. Stanford University research demonstrates that focusing on one task at a time is more effective than multitasking. The study’s findings revealed that persons who are frequently inundated with many streams of electronic information are unable to focus, remember details, or move between tasks as well as those who work on one thing at a time.
But what if some individuals possess a unique talent for multitasking? The multitasking propensity and efficacy beliefs of several groups of persons were compared by the Stanford researchers. They discovered that people who frequently multitask and believe it improves their performance were really worse at it than others who prefer to focus on one item at a time. Because they had more difficulty organising their thoughts, weeding out extraneous information, and transitioning between tasks slowly, the frequent multitaskers underperformed. Ouch.
Your productivity and effectiveness will suffer if you multitask because your brain can only concentrate on one thing at a time. Your brain cannot successfully complete two activities when you attempt to accomplish them both at once.
9. They Go off The Grid
Never hesitate to leave the grid if necessary. Give a single, trustworthy person your phone number so they can act as your filter in case of an emergency. Anything they don’t approve of must wait while everything else must pass through them. High-priority tasks can be finished with absolute certainty using this approach.
“One man only gets a week’s worth of value out of a year, while another man gets a full year’s worth of value out of a week.” Charlie Richards
10. They Delegate
Ultra-productive people accept the fact that they’re not the only smart, talented person in their organization. They trust people to do their jobs so that they can focus on their own.
11. They Put Technology to Work for Them
Technology catches a lot of flak for being a distraction, but it can also help you focus. Ultra-productive people put technology to work for them. Beyond setting up filters in their e-mail accounts so that messages are sorted and prioritized as they come in, they use apps like IFTTT, which sets up contingencies on your smart phone and alerts you when something important happens. This way, when your stock hits a certain price or you have an email from your best customer, you’ll know it. There’s no need to be constantly checking your phone for status updates.
