I’m always looking for ways to improve my production because the more I can get done means the more return on my bottom line. I’m always asking myself this question: What was my total output in the end of the day? If the answer is honest and I know deep inside I got a lot of work done that compliments my bottom line, then I know I’ve had a great day. However, it’s important to tell you that NOT everything was so clean cut because I had to tweak my productivity strategies to make the most out of my days. I studied successful people, making sure I was incorporating their strategies into my day. I went over each one, looking for a pattern of productivity, so, in other words, what strategies produced the MOST output from everything I incorporated into my daily lifestyle.
When I started to use this strategy, I looked at successful relevant people to see what they did throughout the day. I read about people who are pioneers in the industry, like John Chow and Neil Patel. I also went outside the box, reading on billionaires and how they accomplished what they did. I noticed something amazing….
They all had disciplined themselves to tweak productivity and follow through on them every day. Here are a few more things I’ve learned over the past several weeks that I’ll be trying out.
Someone Should Hold You Accountable
If you’re operating a business, then you’re going to have other people working for you. If you have several things on your mind at once, it might be strategic to have someone else hold you accountable for NOT getting work done. However, to put a twist on this concept, you should hire someone for this EXACT job. This means the person will work hard to force you to get the work done because their job does depend on it. Having someone else hold you accountable for NOT getting your tasks done means you’re not only letting yourself down, but the other person as well. Many successful people will tell you they’ve succeeded by letting others do well so when you let someone else down, it has twice the effect.
15 Minute Intervals
Here’s something cool I’ve been utilizing and it’s been working awesome so far. I’m still in testing mode because I want to find out what timeframe works the best, but so far, 15 minute intervals of work have produced cool results. This strategy is very simple and is perfect for those easily distracted. Complete work in 15 minute intervals, then give yourself a break to do what you need to for 15 minutes. However, during work time, you have NO distraction and only have a timer in place to countdown from 15 minutes. I’ve noticed when you’re racing against time, you’ll write content quickly and the output will be awesome. When writing this content, I’ve written up to here in 15 minutes and will take a break. But I know once I start writing again, I’ll be done before the counter hits “0”. The point is, I’ve completed my work in 20-30 minutes so this was a productive session.
Set Email Timing
One of the biggest distractions for those people who make a living online is emails. If I was going to start responding to every email message I get from the very start, then I’d still be checking emails right now. I receive an enormous amount emails daily and they don’t stop coming in so I’ve learned to set times to respond to them. The funny thing is, during my 15 minute break time mentioned in the strategy above is when I check emails. I have set times I stick to and they start in the morning. For example, here’s a quick breakdown:
- 30 minutes first thing in the morning
- 15 minutes during first content writing break
- 15 minutes during second content writing break
- 30 minutes after finished writing content for the entire day
- 30 minutes before going to bed
This will give me enough time to divide emails according to importance and reply to the ones I need to right away. It’s an awesome strategy and has worked very well for me.
Tackle MOST Time Consuming Tasks First
Here’s something that has worked great for me and I encourage everyone to try this strategy before incorporating it into your daily habits. I’ve noticed I am MOST productive and creative first thing in the morning so I like to tackle complicated tasks early in the morning. This way, I put 100% effort and get them out of the way without the quality suffering. For example, I write content early in the morning after I’ve just woke up after a good night’s sleep and this has worked great for me in producing engaging content. Once the hard things are out of the way, I can start to focus on other stuff that is second on my list. Because I’ve done the hard stuff, I can start to play around with how much time I give to other tasks but at this point, it doesn’t matter because the “heavy” stuff has been completed.
It’s important to try what works for you and then you can incorporate it into your daily habits. You just have to test and tweak just like you would anything else.