MAKE IT HAPPEN WITH THESE 8 UNBEATABLE PRODUCTIVITY SECRETS

If you were to do an assessment of your week, how many times do you experience urgency or feel like you’re in a rush?

What if I were to tell you that the only reason you are always in a rush, is because you made a choice to embrace such a hurried pattern into your life?

Somehow, our societal structure has made us feel that we are constantly pressed for time whether it’s simply driving through traffic, in line at a grocery store, or working on an important project. As a result, we put ourselves through this frustrating cycle of shuffling, worrying, stressing, and repeating the whole process all over again.

How can you possibly live in the moment, when you make a habit of rushing yourself through life? Click To Tweet

Read on to learn how to make it happen with 8 unbeatable productivity secrets that extremely successful people have managed to master to effectively 10X their lives.

1 // RISE EARLY

The early bird catches the WORK Click To Tweet

No that’s not a typo.

I absolutely love the hours between 4AM and 7AM because the world is still silent. For a person who cherishes quiet hours, this is the perfect window to really maximize your productivity. No one is trying to interrupt you and even distractions (i.e. social media) are not as much of an issue.

Trust me when I say this… the people you admire most who are killing it in the industry are already up at this hour. They are up writing, exercising, planning their day, meditating, prepping, and getting a head start on the rest of the world. These remarkable individuals know that other people are either sleeping in or are concentrating on the wrong things. They also know that they are among the 10% who really, really WANT success and have decided to make sacrifices to maintain their status.

2 // 3 – 5 TASKS WITH A SIDE OF M.I.T.

I cringe when I look back at some of my old planners and notepads filled with endless bullet points of things that DIDN’T GET DONE. Girl, who was I fooling? Oh, right. Myself.

How often do you bombard your to-do list with at least 20 tasks, knowing you won’t possibly complete even half of them in one day?

It has become quite a trend to look busy. Busy has become romanticized. So many people love to go on and on about all of the things they have to do and how there’s not enough time. Being overworked has become this badge of honor that really ends up affecting our mental and physical health. The bad part, is that the smaller tasks are what most people tend to obsess over and complete on their list.

TAKE THE ‘LESS IS MORE’ APPROACH TO YOUR SCHEDULE

On Sunday’s I like to look over my monthly goal list and select my main priorities for the week. Within that list, I make it point to only choose around 3 bold goals, while the rest are smaller duties. My week revolves around getting these bold goals completed at optimal times. I never want to get to the end of a week and still see my main tasks unchecked. When I look at each day, I can include one bold goal and 2-4 minor tasks.

KEEP YOUR EYE ON YOUR M.I.T. (MOST IMPORTANT THING)

If you’ve ever read Eat that Frog! by Brian Tracy, you’ll recall the phrase being a metaphor for conquering your most challenging task at the beginning of the day. By doing so, Tracy maintains that if you ‘tackle the frog’ so to speak early in the morning, this in turn leaves you with a simpler day. So often, we cling to those smaller tasks to avoid completing the bigger one.

Brian Tracy’s book is popular for a reason. This concept is great and has many mindset techniques to change your perspective on productivity.

While I love the book, I’m on the fence about ‘eating the frog’ because everyone’s schedule, time, and energy calls for its own respective self-management. Doing the hardest thing first may not be feasible to your sanity or overall work ethic. I would rather tell you to reserve your hardest thing for your most powerful hours of energy. Reserving your MIT during those high energy hours will have the greatest impact on completion and competence.

HERE’S WHAT YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW:

I remember attending a conference and one of the speakers attributed her success to mastering her craft at 100%. Not 50%. Not 20%. 100%. Because by being an expert in your field and focusing on your strengths, you can stop wasting time on things you are only marginally good at. This was such a game changer especially to someone like me who on more than one occasion professed to be a ‘jack of all trades.’

Think about this same concept when it comes to goal setting. When you pile up your schedule with a dozen responsibilities, chances are you’re only giving about 20-30% of your full attention to the task. Translation: You’re playing yourself.

Make a commitment to use 3-5 tasks per day maximum to devote 100% of your energy, effort, and attention to achieving those main goals.

3 // TIME BLOCKING EXTENSION

I’ve been steeped into the planning and organizing industry for the past two years and it’s taught me quite a few lessons. In fact, my first planner layout included a breakdown of time by the hour.

BIG MISTAKE.

Our planner schedules rarely match up to the reality. Even if your appointment is set for one hour, you still have to consider the minutes of transport, extra meeting time, and interruptions. So, blocking out one hour for each task actually negatively impacts your overall well-being because it prompts you to have a misguided view of time. You CANNOT control time. You have to learn to always be flexible and time blocking is the perfect strategy to implement on any given day.

Time blocking is amazing because it teaches you to be mindful about your priorities and develop the discipline to be more focused when completing a task. When I think of a project (even a small one), I consider it much like I do cooking. When cooking, you have to prep, cook, and then clean up. There’s no way that I could realistically time block dinner for 20 minutes unless it was a microwave special! So, for each of your to-do’s, include those logical gaps of time to prep and then follow-up on what you’ve done.

Some weekly planner structures include breaking the days up by morning, afternoon, and evening. This is very ideal because those blocks of time are broken up and you feel less rushed to complete a bulk of work. For instance, some people can carve out their morning routines from 5AM-7AM or 7AM-9AM. Then from 9AM – 12PM would be an ideal chunk of time to include your MIT (most important thing). After lunch, the afternoon block could be from 1:30PM – 5:30PM. And your evening span of time (for nighttime routines or even extra work) could be 7PM-10PM.

What time blocking does is give you the room to shift things around, especially if new commitments come into the equation. Remember that your goal is to make sure you are making real progress on relevant and important goals.

Once you’ve written out the 3-5 MIT (most important tasks) for the day, then prioritize those tasks and arrange them into the time blocks. You may need to test this out for a solid month in order to determine what works for your schedule. You’ll notice that I created other gaps of time for lunch, commute, errands, or dinner with friends. You don’t want to squeeze EVERYTHING into one day. That is counter-intuitive and unfortunately lots of people find themselves underestimating time and feeling frustrated and at the mercy of an overbooked schedule.

One last thing on time blocking. Take the time either once a month or each quarter to review how much you accomplished as a result of time blocking. You’ll find yourself being far more responsible using this method.

Prioritize your time blocks to maximize your productivity. Click To Tweet

4 // BRAIN DUMP

Don’t know about you, but my brain vault has to be emptied on a weekly basis. Every Sunday, I take the time to jot down all the random thoughts I’ve been having over the course of the week. I actually include plenty of notes pages in my planners especially for brain dumping sessions because the process is really therapeutic. Think of it as a mental cleansing ritual from all of the input your brain is receiving daily. You’re regularly reading articles, watching television, going to school, working on projects, listening to podcasts, and going through training. The result of all this input equals to a cluttered and overwhelmed mind. Your mental vault as I call it, is full.

Think about a time when you tried to remember an idea you forgot and your memory trigger didn’t activate until days later when you spotted a reminder or were in conversation with someone. It could also be that you have so many things to do between work and home that you’re forgetting about a task that’s important to you.

READY TO BRAIN DUMP? IT’S SIMPLE:

Using a full sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper, let your mind flow over all the endless things you worry about getting done. Added to that, jot down any other random things that pop in your head from trips you want to take to goals to personal thoughts. There’s no structure to this and you can write or doodle to illustrate your brain’s innermost feelings.

Once you’re done, then you can assign categories to those thoughts. My categories include

• Personal
• Work
• Home
• Errands
• Life Goals
• Random
• Internet Musings

Once you assign them to categories, then prioritize them using Steve Covey’s principle in the book First Thing’s First. I can’t tell you how wonderful the four quadrants work in the decision making process. You’ll find that some of the tasks are not urgent and not important.

If you are really about that productivity life, then you can take things a step further and create a project management or task management page in Asana or Trello. I use both and highly recommend them.

5 // FLOURISH ON AUTOPILOT

Before embarking on my own business venture, I had no idea how people were managing to get things done by themselves or even with a small team. I am so happy that I’ve had the opportunity to test out various productivity and project management tools. Now, I don’t know where I’d be without them.

If you aren’t taking advantage of these amazing tools (most of them have free or reasonably priced plans), then you need to do so to avoid unnecessary headaches. A lot of you are probably behind because you neglect to respect the prep.

In all of my 9-5 jobs, I prepped my wardrobe for four weeks. Yes, that sounds ludicrous and far-fetched but I did it successfully and it still is one of the best decisions I made. I was very involved in the process as a planner. I recognized that I had a weakness. I would waste 30-45 minutes each morning trying to figure out what to wear. So I need a solution and create a 30-day wardrobe planner. I would map out my outfits, wash them, iron them and prep them for the next four weeks. It only took me a few hours to perfect this batch process. Can you imagine how much time I saved without having to think about what to wear each morning?

This is one example of how prepping can be beneficial to your life and especially if you prep weeks in advance. It really takes the guesswork out of making what should be simple decisions. Be honest, how often do you spend your valuable time agonizing about small details like what to eat, what to wear, when to run errands, etc.? These are daily responsibilities and we give it the power to knock us off track.

Prep these recurring details in your life so that you’ll be positioned to conquer things that really matter and make a difference.

6 // LET GO OF BALANCE

Out the gate, let me tell you that work/life balance only exists at the magical land of Hogworts (yes I’m a HP fan).

Second, there’s actually not a separation between work and life. Gasp!

YOUR WORK IS YOUR LIFE AND YOUR LIFE IS YOUR WORK.

I dare anyone to debunk this especially since millions of people spend a large chunk of their day (aka their time…aka their LIFE) at work.

Do a search and you’ll find thousands of articles showing you how to achieve a work/life balance. Visit the library or peruse Amazon and you’ll find dozens of books with the same concepts.

I don’t believe in work/life balance. I do believe in finding a rhythm between the two areas based upon your understanding of time, effort, and energy. There’s an extra special group of people in this world who’ve successfully managed to find their rhythm between their personal and professional life. By rhythm, I mean a sense of joy and fulfillment in knowing what they want to achieve, how to succeed, the tools and networks they need, and a way to include the people they love in the process.

I repeat, balance does not exist. Why? We have two very strong areas competing for our time. Some may even say three. Our personal (‘me’) time, social time (family), and our profession (work). Include a ’cause’ in the mix and that’s four areas competing for your attention in the 168 hours of a week.

THERE’S NO REWARD WITHOUT SACRIFICE

The reason this small percentage of special beings have managed their rhythm of productivity is due to an acceptance of sacrifice. There are times you’ll have to work late or for extended periods of time, which means spending time with family has to take a back seat. There are times when work duties are scarce, which leaves more time for family, friends, and ‘me’ time.

THE BALL WILL BE DROPPED. AND THAT’S OKAY. Click To Tweet

The issue is … many people can’t accept this statement. For them, dropping the ball means failure and incompetency. It means neglect. It means resentment. It means a dozen other negative feelings that are more about EGO than anything else.

It’s also about CHOICE. You have the choice to acknowledge that there will always be more work than time and that ‘working harder’ doesn’t mean you will get all of your tasks done and done well. It certainly doesn’t mean balance.

Identify how to find your own rhythm. Be honest about the time you have and set objectives around the type of life you want. What’s important to you? Relationships? Health? Exercise patience when developing this productivity rhythm because it doesn’t work itself out overnight.

7 // BE DECISIVE!

Not proud to say this, but for the majority of my life, I was the paragon of indecision and I haven’t fully been delivered of this flaw. Indecision has been one of the toughest struggles of my life. It’s jeopardized many great opportunities and caused me to stay in one place for years.

I used to envy people who could definitively make a decision about a path to take even if they weren’t sure of the results. To me, it was courageous. They managed to save time and move forward into greatness instead of allowing fear to hold them back.

In my defense, I was more of an ‘All of the Above’ type of person than answering A, B, C, or D. That’s how I think about choices. In life, we have this large cluster of choices in one box, 4-6 choices in another box, or 2 choices in a box. On a small level, we make choices about what to order at a restaurant or what areas of the house to clean. Then there are more difficult choices like choosing a spouse or buying a home.

I realized as an indecisive person, I really wanted to avoid risks and I had the need to be accurate. I was also greedy and wanted it all. In the areas that mattered, I wasn’t being assertive enough to go for what I wanted. Yes, fear was present and accounted for. I also had no idea who I was and how I fit in the world.

Do you hold off on making decisions because you’re waiting for things to align or be perfect? Do you have a set standard of criteria you need to see before making a decision?

HOW THIS FITS IN WITH PRODUCTIVITY

The reason your to-do list is endless and things aren’t getting done, is because you haven’t gotten CLEAR on what you want and how to get it. You are also afraid of what it will mean when you get it in terms of responsibilities and accountability.

People are always running from accountability.

When you hold yourself accountable, you aren’t making excuses, you are making purposeful decisions. There’s less confusion about why and how you want to succeed.

Stop operating within the land of LIMITS. If something you want to do requires extra effort and time, find a way to delegate (aka outsource). Find an intern. Ask a relative.

Address your fears because if you don’t, they’ll continue to eat at you and overrule you every time.

Do the proper research (don’t take too long) and listen to your gut. Pay attention to how you are feeling when it comes to making a decision but don’t automatically accept it as fact. Know that our willpower is a tug of war between the mind and the heart.

Overall, create your own personalized decision making system that helps you quickly but logically come to conclusions so that you can constantly be moving forward with a purpose.

8 // BE IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL. GET MARRIED TO COMMITMENT

A lot of people really don’t understand the difference between setting short-term and long-term goals. They also don’t understand the concept of building a lifestyle.

For instance, let’s say you want to lose 10 pounds in 6 months for an event. This is clearly a short-term goal. The event is your marked deadline. Let’s say you want to pay off $10,000 of credit card debt within two years. That is a long-term goal. However, if you want to build a sustainable business or have good health all around, then you have to understand that this is a LIFESTYLE, not something you quit on a whim.

A lot of people want long-term and lifestyle results with short-term effort. Click To Tweet

They’re not even willing to invest in building a foundation for the lifestyle, and have the nerve to get upset at the lack of results.

This sends a very clear message. Some people aren’t serious about the quality of their life. Because thinking about 1-3 years versus 10-20 years means neglecting the big picture.

Do you want a well-designed life over time, or do you want to stay on a hectic road trip with no destination in sight?

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS.

I hope this lengthy discussion on productivity will help you to be more decisive, consistent, and wise about how you spend and schedule your day.