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Work Smarter not Harder

3 Tips to be More Productive

Someone once told me that to be successful you need to do the most productive thing possible at any given moment.

 The only problem with that statement is most people don't know where or what their most productive tasks are.

 I guess you could maybe just create lists of what you need to get done, and then prioritize that list.

The only problem with that strategy is when I used it, my list would seem to grow throughout the day.  I would have more on my to-do list at the end of the day than I did when I started. And that doesn't give you a feeling of being productive, does it? Just working off a list, doesn't make you more productive.

Here are three tips to help you to be more productive in your day so you can reach your goals faster.

1. Start with setting motivating goals.

Without goals, there is no way to determine what is productive and what isn't. You can't determine what tasks will lead you to what you desire and what tasks are just wasting your time.

 The key to being productive is to clarify what you actually want to achieve or really just produce. You need to continually ask yourself, “Will this task move me closer to achieving my goals?”

 2. Create “monthly, weekly, and daily” tasks buckets.

The problem with most task lists is that there are way too many tasks and not enough time to get everything done. We tend to be more productive, if we have, maybe 4 to 6 items on our list rather than 25.

The more focused we are, the more productive we are. It's as simple as that.

The first step is to create a “monthly task” list. These are the tasks that need to be completed every month. Each month you add additional tasks that need to be completed that month based on your 90-day plan, right? These tasks are going to go into your monthly tasks bucket.

Secondly, each week, look into that monthly bucket and see what tasks need to be accomplished in the week ahead. We then move those things that are in your monthly bucket into your “weekly bucket” task lists.

The third step is then each day, look into that weekly bucket list and now see what needs to be accomplished that day. Once you have selected your list for that day, then we need to really sit down and look at each task and estimate the time it's going to take us to complete each one that you really need to accomplish that day. If you can't accomplish all of these tasks that day, you need to really then sit down and look at and prioritize and say, “Which one of these tasks are least productive?” and put that back into your weekly or monthly bucket list and you could come back and look at those in another time.

At the end of each day, you have to see what's been accomplished and then determine what needs to either go in and be scheduled for the next day or maybe just go back into your weekly or monthly lists and bring those back up at another time.

 3. Finally, the most important - Don't finish today until you plan for tomorrow.

If you wait for the morning to plan your day, you're going to lose precious time and momentum to start your day. That's no way to start out a productive day.

By ending your day knowing what you need to accomplish the next day, it will allow your subconscious to begin working on solutions and ways to accomplish your tasks faster. You're really going to sort of be leveraging your brain while you're sleeping to help you become more productive that next day.

If you follow these tips, you're going to become more effective, more efficient, and most importantly, more productive.

Each month, you're going to be able to look back in amazement at how much more you are able to accomplish by implementing these three simple steps.

If this business tip resonates with you and you want to learn more about how you could be productive reach your goals faster, I invite you to schedule a free strategy session with me.