What is your number-one secret to productivity? That question was posed by Kevin Kruse, a contributor to Forbes, to 200 “ultra-productive people,” including 13 Olympians, 20 straight-A students and over 200 successful entrepreneurs. Kruse said that after analyzing all of their responses, he was able to organize their answers into 15 unique ideas.
Secret #1: They focus on minutes, not hours.
Average performers default to hours and half-hour blocks on their calendar.
Highly successful people know there are 1,440 minutes in every day and there is nothing more valuable than time. Money can be lost and made again, but time spent can never be reclaimed.
Secret #2: They focus only on one thing.
Ultra productive people know their Most Important Task (MIT) and work on it for one to two hours each morning, without interruptions
Secret #3: They don't do lists.
Throw away your to-do list; instead schedule everything on your calendar. It turns out that 41% of items on to-do lists are ever actually done. Highly productive people put everything on their calendar and then work and live from that calendar. “
Secret #4: They beat procrastination with time travel.
Your future self can’t be trusted. That’s because we are “time inconsistent.” What can you do now to make sure your future self does the right thing?
Secret #5: They make it home for dinner.
Highly successful people know what they value in life. Yes, work, but also what else they value. There is no right answer, but for many, values include: family time, exercise, giving back.
Secret #6: They use a notebook.
Richard Branson has said on more than one occasion that he wouldn’t have been able to build Virgin without a simple notebook. Ultra-productive people free their mind by writing everything down.
Secret #7: They process email only a few times a day.
Ultra-productive people don’t “check” email throughout the day. They don’t respond to each vibration or ding to see who has intruded their inbox. Instead, like everything else, they schedule time to process their email quickly and efficiently.
Secret #8: They avoid meetings at all costs.
Meetings are notorious time killers. They start late, have the wrong people in them, meander in their topics and run long. You should get out of meetings whenever you can, hold fewer of them yourself, and if you do run a meeting, keep it short.
Secret #9: They say “no” to almost everything.
Billionaire Warren Buffet once said, “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.”
Remember, you only have 1,440 minutes in every day. Don’t give them away easily.
Secret #10: They follow the 80/20 rule.
Known as the Pareto Principle, in most cases 80% of outcomes come from only 20% of activities. Ultra-productive people know which activities drive the greatest results, and focus on those and ignore the rest.
Secret #11: They delegate almost everything.
Ultra-productive people don’t ask, “How can I do this task?” Instead they ask, “How can this task get done?” They take the “I” out of it as much as possible.
Secret #12: They theme days of the week.
Highly successful people often theme days of the week to focus on major areas, such as “Mondays for Meetings” and Friday afternoons for financials. Batch your work to maximize your efficiency and effectiveness.
Secret #13: They touch things only once.
Highly successful people try to “touch it once.” If it takes less than five or 10 minutes—whatever it is—they’ll deal with it right then and there. It reduces stress since it won’t be in the back of their mind, and is more efficient since they won’t have to re-read to evaluate the item again in the future.
Secret #14: They practice a consistent morning routine.
My single greatest surprise while interviewing over 200 highly successful people was how many of them wanted to share their morning ritual with me, according to Kruse. “Hal Elrod, author of The Miracle Morning, told me, ‘While most people focus on ‘doing’ more to achieve more, The Miracle Morning is about focusing on ‘becoming’ more so that you can start doing less, to achieve more’.”
Secret #15: Energy is everything.
You can’t make more minutes in the day, but you can increase your energy which will increase your attention, focus, decision making, and overall productivity. Highly successful people don’t skip meals, sleep or breaks in the pursuit of more, more, more.
The full article can be found here.