4 Musts For Significant Productivity

Work less, achieve more. Sounds great, but is it realistic? Yeah, actually, it is–and simpler than you might expect.
 
A few months ago I test-drove a truckload of tricks, tactics and tools that promised to add hours to my day. I devoured Tim Ferris’ The Four Hour Work Week and Todd Duncan’s Time Traps. I downloaded desktop alarms and project tracking software. I banished low-impact tasks from my planner and attacked similar tasks in batches. I called my email from my car, firing off messages through a voice recognition device. I downloaded audio books so I could “read” while driving, standing in line at the post office or cleaning the house.
 
Some of these tricks and tools did ease my workload. Others didn’t fit my lifestyle and just burned extra daylight, batteries and brain cells.
 
As I reflect on my immersion into productivity tips an gadgets, I’m reminded of four unchanging principles that work for all of us, all the time. (And, wouldn’t you know it, the Scriptures had them recorded long ago.)
 
1. Good time or project management stems from good self management. One common trait successful people share is the discipline to do the right thing even when it hurts. They understand that significant fruitfulness can’t exist without structure and self control.
 
If you’re struggling to maximize your time and outcomes, try focusing on managing yourself instead. What’s holding you back? What bad-habit triggers (think television, online networking . . . whatever’s hindering you) can you minimize or remove from your path?
 
2. People who produce significant results consistently monitor what goes into their minds. It’s been said you can judge someone’s bank account by the size of his or her library: People with tiny bank accounts tend to have no libraries, but usually have big TVs. If you’re letting junk in, junk is what you’ll produce.
 
3. Innovative producers take time to think. Author and PR veteran Mark DeMoss writes in his Little Red Book of Wisdom, “Everyone, it seems, is busy designing, writing, buidling, producing, implementing–unfortunately, too much of it is divorced from good thinking.” Henry Ford, says Mark, called thinking “the hardest work there is, which is probably why so few engage in it.”
 
Why do you do what you do, the way you do it? Is there a more effective way?
 
4. Purpose-driven professionals recognize that how they start each day affects how they finish it. Henry Ward Beecher called the first hour of the day the “rudder” of the day, effectively directing how the rest will go. Career coach Dan Miller writes, “If you get up late, grab a cup of bad coffee and a Twinkie, rush to work fuming at the idiots in traffic, and drop down exhausted at your desk at 8:10, you have set the tone for your day. Everything will seem like pressure and your best efforts will be greatly diluted.”
 
How about starting each day with a time of focused meditation, prayer and prioritizing? This practice alone will kick you into high-energy, conquer-the-world mode for the rest of the day. Give it a try. (I double-dog dare ya.)
 
Until next time, don’t hesitate to drop me a note and let me know how you’re doing and how I can help.
 
Wishing you a blessed weekend and a kick-butt week,

Andrea

Related Scriptures:
Psalm 90:12  |  Ephesians 5:15-17  |  1 Corinthians 9:26-27  |  Proverbs 6:9-11   |  Romans 12:2  |  Psalm 119:11   |  Luke 14:28   |  Matthew 14:22-203 

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