In today’s world, the demand on your time, energy and other resources is endless. You have to juggle the demands of work, family and anyone else who rightly or wrongly feels that they have a claim to your attention.
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Then there is the 24-hour availability that we put ourselves on via email, phone and social media. This gives the impression that you are available on demand. But you are not. You have reports to submit, blog posts to write and speaking engagements to prepare for. Then there is the wife, the kids and the neighbours. And then there are friends to meet up with, new contacts to make and never-ending number of meetings to attend.
So you end up doing your best to juggle all the balls and eventually you begin to drop them one at a time.
Increase Your Productivity
The word productive has its origin from a French and Latin word meaning “bring forth”. And so the more you could “bring forth” or produce in the shortest amount of time, the more productive you are. The problem with this definition is that it does not take into account the benefit of what you are producing.
So rather than go to work on anything and everything, let me give you 3 things that you can start putting into practice today to be more productive and in the process give your life a boost. For more on productivity, get my free ebook.
1. Reflect on Your Daily Routine
[Tweet “Pause and ask yourself this question, How do you spend your day?”]
Are there adjustments you can make? Regularly ask questions about different areas of your daily life. For example:
- Are you getting enough sleep?
- Are you making the most of your waking time?
- Are you getting enough exercise?
Your answers to these questions will help you decide what adjustments are needed. Adequate sleep and exercise will help you reduce stress, increase oxygen flow to the brain and increase your productivity.
2. Plan Your Day in Advance
It may seem obvious that having a plan or a roadmap for your day will help you to be productive. But many people do not do this. And there is the school of thought that believes that everything is in God’s hand so we should not make plans. To plan effectively, you have to have a goal in mind of what you want to accomplish. This means that if you have nothing to accomplish, there is no need for a plan.
Weekends are a good time to plan the week ahead and the night before is a good time to review and plan for the next day. Create a simple list of tasks that need to be done. Order your list in terms of your priorities or time of the day ensuring that you tackle your money-making and business-oriented tasks first.
3. Consider Moving Paperless
Paper notes, diaries and planners are great to use, but if you are able to, I would recommend a move to electronic organisers and notes. Electronic notes and planners offer you ease of access, ease of retrieval and a chance to boost your green credentials. Some of the applications I use are:
- Evernote – The unique notebook that lets you categorise, store and retrieve notes. It is available on all platforms and operating systems. Its cloud sync means that your notes are always up-to-date at all times.
- Wunderlist – Another cloud based application that lets you manage your tasks and to-do list. It has a simple-to-use interface that makes creating daily tasks and lists fun and easy.
- OmniOutliner – This is what I use to brainstorm my ideas, write my speeches and outline my presentations and books.
There are many more productivity applications out there but I have mentioned the ones I find most useful on a daily basis.
Being productive and getting more done in the limited time you have gives you a sense of accomplishment which leads to greater self-esteem. It also frees up your time to focus on the things that matter to you.
For more ways to increase your personal productivity get a copy of my ebook “7 Ways to Increase Your Personal Productivity” . It offers many more tips and action-steps to increase your personal productivity and achieve more in life.
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