To complement that report, here are some additional productivity boosters:
- Creating a daily to-do list can increase productivity your by 100%.
- If you want to increase your productivity, establish a performance goal that inspires you to take action.
- One habit that many highly productive people confess to is getting up earlier than others. How could you use an extra hour or two? (Sorry, I can't do this one!)
- Find the right tools to help you achieve your daily goals. Finding ways to simplify tasks will boost productivity and improve your mindset.
- It’s not enough to plan to reach a goal: For maximum productivity, plan how you can maintain your success once you reach it.
- Make a list of the “time waster” habits in your everyday life. How can you take steps to reduce these?
- Important tasks are worth doing well. (“Hurry and impatience are sure marks of the amateur” --Evelyn Underhill)
- It’s important to keep up with business learning. Listen to podcasts while doing other things, if you don’t have time or to read books.
- Combine your personal life action list with your work action list for maximum effectiveness!
- If you really want to be more productive, learn to say “no”. (What are three things you can start saying “no” to?)
- Identify distractions and replace them with new, productive habits. (What is one distraction you can eliminate right now?)
- Review your “to do” list at the end of the day. If you consistently don’t achieve your daily action goals, reduce the number of tasks.
- “You can prepare all you want, but if you never roll the dice you'll never be successful” -- Shia LaBeouf
- To eliminate time wasted on meetings, plan them, send everyone an agenda, appoint a chairperson, and stick to your agenda.
- To increase productivity, eliminate reactivity. Plan at least a week ahead, using a system that you find easy and pleasant to use.
- When it comes to productivity, find out if it works best for you to tackle your hardest task first – or last. (Everyone is different!)
- To increase productivity, set time limits on meetings, phone calls, and tasks. Make note of what works and doesn’t and refine these.
- If you want to increase productivity, resist the urge to multi-task. Focus on one task at a time – and get each one done.
- Get rid of clutter to increase productivity – and this includes ruthlessly dumping negative, energy-sapping people.
- Take a leaf from your high school days and work on different tasks in “periods.” This technique can actually increase your productivity.
- Recognize that “emails aren’t letters, they’re tasks.” Respond, delete, or file accordingly.
- If you want to motivate yourself to be more productive, figure out what you want to "reward" yourself with -- and use it as an incentive to reach your goal!
- Which apps do you use to boost your productivity? What’s the common denominator in why you like each one? (E.g. easy to use, visuals, etc.)
- Create an “Action List” – not a “chore” or “to do” list – and learn to think of it that way. The positive wording can work miracles.
- “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The Sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus” -- Alexander Graham Bell
- To increase productivity, take the initial time to learn programs or apps you use completely. E.g. explore your email capabilities.
- Eliminate distractions. Don’t run desktop apps that give alerts about non-productive stuff, such as the latest tweet or email.
- Use the power of systems and software you already have: For example, use Excel to create a time-tracking spreadsheet.
- If you really want to increase productivity, do small or unpleasant tasks “right now” instead of assigning them to your To-Do list.
- To increase productivity, identify your best money-making activities and focus more time and priority to each one.
- To increase productivity, work smarter by delegating, discarding, and outsourcing more tasks.
- Don’t just identify money-making activities to increase productivity: Pay attention to each one’s ROI.
- Ruthlessly eliminate procrastination habits and activities if you want to create more productivity. Do it one habit at a time.
- “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work” -- Stephen King, on writing productivity.
- “Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all” -- Peter Drucker, originator of “outsourcing.”
- Follow through and follow up are as important in increasing productivity as planning. Have you found this to be true?
- Keep a notebook or record your ideas via your smartphone and Evernote as they occur, to make the most of creative bursts.
- To increase productivity, cross half the things off your To-Do list every day and highlight no more than three remaining ones as top priority.
- “Taking action without thinking is the cause of every failure” -- Peter Drucker, originator of the business “community” concept.
- Adopt taking a “power period” every day — a chunk of time in which you work on something, allowing absolutely no distraction.
- Schedule your “power period” for the daily time slot you notice you’re usually the most productive within (early morning, mid-morning, mid-day, early afternoon, late afternoon, early evening, late evening, late night!)
- If "getting started" is your nemesis, schedule your “power period” for first thing in the morning (when you would usually be on Facebook!)
- If typing slows you down, either outsource written content or learn/brush up on your touch typing using this free resource: http://www.keybr.com/
- To increase productivity, look for external distractions and remove them. Face your desk away from the window, turn off the radio, etc.
- Try playing classical or meditation music softly in the background. Are you one of those whose productivity increases when you do this? (This is a strategy I also recommend when you are STUCK writing a resume in "Write Great Resumes Faster")
- To increase productivity, take five minutes to print out Google keyboard shortcuts (Windows only): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449
- When trying to streamline family life, create an Action Station in a central place where family can check schedules, post notes, etc.
- Answer emails you look at either straight away – or not at all. Don’t promise yourself you’ll do it “later.”
- Track your time at least twice a year. Seeing where you waste it can help you be more productive. (Try https://www.toggl.com/.)
- Create routines – but make sure they work for all family members. If one isn’t working, change it (or change the time).
- “Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before” -- Franz Kafka
What are YOUR productivity strategies?
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