There is a productivity formula, like a recipe, that you can learn and practice until it becomes automatic and easy. When you develop the habit of thinking in terms of these seven key ways to increase your output, you can double your productivity, performance, and result in no time at all.
WORK HARD.
First, develop the habit of working longer and harder than other people, start a little earlier, work a little harder, and stay a little later. Work all the time you work. When you start work, don't fool around. Get busy and stay busy all day long. This habit alone can increase your productivity 50 to 100 percent from the first day.
WORK FAST.
Second, develop the habit of working faster and getting the job done quickly. Pick up the pace. Move more rapidly from place to place and from task to task. Develop a sense of urgency, a bias for the action. Become known as the person who gets things done quickly, rather than a person who gets around to them.
WORK SMART.
Third, develop the habit of doing the most important things. Remember, every single thing you do has a value that makes it more or less important than every other thing you do. The law of the Excluded Alternative says, “Doing one thing means not doing something else."Make sure whatever you are doing at the moment is the most important thing you could be doing. Otherwise, you will end up putting more important tasks aside.
The sad fact is, even if you do an unimportant task extraordinarily well, it will have no impact on your career. In fact, spending too much time doing a good job on something of low priority or value can actually damage your career because it keeps you from working on something that really matters. As management consultant Benjamin Tregoe once wrote, "The very worst use of time is to do well what need not be done at all."
WORK ON YOUR STRENGTHS.
Fourth, develop the habit of working on those things you are better at. There are special talents and skills you have developed throughout your career that enable you to do certain things quickly and well. You make fewer mistakes and therefore save an enormous amount of time in doing things you are better at, the better you get at those tasks and activities, and the more of them you get done in a shorter period of time.
What tasks are you the very best at doing in your work? How could you organize your work so you are doing more and more of them at a higher level?
WORK MORE EFFICIENTLY.
Fifth, develop the habit of bunching your tasks. Take advantage of the learning curve. This principle says the more similar tasks you do, one after the other, the faster you will complete each subsequent task, and at the same or higher level of quality.
For example, dictate all of your letters at once. Write all of your business proposals at once. Clear up all your correspondence, or assemble all of your expenses at the same time. Write all your reports at once. Do all your telephone prospecting at the same time.
Efficiency experts calculate that if you have ten similar tasks to do, and you do them all at once, one after the other, by the time you get to the tenth task, you will be working so efficiently that it will be taking you only 20 percent of the time it took you to do the first item on the list. Bunching your tasks is a powerful personal productivity habit.
WORK BETTER.
Sixth, develop the habit of continuously improving and getting better at your key tasks. This is one of the most effective time management principles of all. The better you become at what you do, the more of it you can get done in a shorter period of time. Sometimes, improving in one essential skill can have a multiplier effect, increasing your productivity and performance in many other areas of your work.
For example, if you do not know how to type with the keyboard, you will use the "hunt and peck method." You will type with two fingers, and no matter how long you work at the keyboard, you will only be able to type five to eight words per minute.
However, if you decide to learn to touch-type, you could get any one of several popular touch -typing compute programs, practice 20 to 30 minutes each day, and within 90 days you will be touch-typing at 50 to 80 words per minute. You will have increased your productivity, performance, and output in typing by 1,000 percent. You will have opened up the entire world of the Internet for yourself by development of a single skill, which is learnable by anyone.
What one skill could you develop that could help you use more of your other skills at a higher level? If you could be absolutely excellent in any single skill, which one skill would have the greatest positivity impact on your career and your income? What can you do, starting today, to develop that skill? Whatever it is, set it as a goal, make a plan, and then work on improving yourself in the areas every day until you have mastered the skill and made it part of your personal skill set.
PREPARE FOR WORK.
Seventh, to get the most out of yourself and your life and to increase your return on the investment of your time, you should develop the habit of preparing thoroughly for every meeting and interview, both inside your company and with people on the outside. Thorough preparation takes a little time at the beginning but can lead to tremendous saving of time later on.
Customers always know when a salesperson is thoroughly prepared. Juries always know when the lawyer is thoroughly prepared. Prospective employers always know when the applicant is thoroughly prepared. Make it a habit to do your homework and get all of your ducks in a row prior to any meeting of importance or significance. Sometimes, the element of preparation is the critical factor that enables you to impress everyone present and achieve great success.
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