What does it mean to be productive? Let’s start here –
quickly write down the five most important results you are meant to ‘produce’
throughout your work day. For example, resolve customer issues by 4pm or make
15 calls to prospective customers.
In order to be productive, you first have to have a clear
grasp on the exact results you want to achieve from your efforts. With that
firmly in mind the following habits exhibited by the most productive people will
guide you.
Habit #1 – Start with the end in mind.
It’s not the time you spend; it’s the results you get.
Rather than organizing your work by time organize by the results you are
committed to getting. For example instead of planning to spend an hour on submitting
client applications rather plan on the specific number of submissions you want
to complete.
Habit #2 – Cycle between difficult and easy tasks.
Behavioral research has shown that our willpower operates
more like a muscle. It gets stronger the more we exercise it, but it also needs
a rest. In one experiment researchers found that if a person was given an easy
task (sample a chocolate chip cookie) before a harder task (complete an
unsolvable maze puzzle) they would stick with the harder task longer.
Conversely, when researchers gave the participant a hard task first and then
had that person try to solve the puzzle they stuck with it 70% less time than
if it was preceded by an easier task!
Productive people
organize their work so that their activities cycle between things that require
different degrees of willpower. They build up their reserves for the activities
that will need it.
Habit #3 – Write a list, check it twice.
Review your schedule and write
down a few things you want to accomplish next to each item. Writing
down the tasks along with a brief description of what you want to accomplish
helps focus your brain on the end result you are aiming for.
Develop the habit of spending 5-10 minutes each evening
before you go to bed writing out your schedule for the next day with a brief
description as outlined above next to each item.
According to Virginia Berninger, a professor of educational
psychology at the University of Washington, handwriting differs from typing
because it requires executing sequential strokes to form a letter, whereas
keyboarding involves selecting a whole letter by touching a key.
She says pictures of the brain have illustrated that
sequential finger movements activated massive regions involved in thinking,
language and working memory—the system for temporarily storing and managing
information. By writing out your schedule you are engaging your memory and
actively engaging your brain for the upcoming tasks.
Tracking and noting your progress throughout the day will
keep you focused, providing momentum to see your tasks through.
Habit #4 – Taking control of technology
Between email, your phone and the Internet you have a lot of
different things vying for your attention. Being constantly distracted
throughout your day not only breaks your concentration but dramatically
increases the amount of time you have to spend completing tasks.
Several recent studies show that it takes the average
person’s brain 15 minutes to refocus on a task after being interrupted. The
concept of the effective ‘multi-tasker’ is false. For example if you were
working on a report that would normally take you an hour but you had three
interruptions (email alert, text and phone call) that same report would take
you over an hour to complete.
You can see the evidence of this when you are working long
hours to ‘catch-up’ or feel like you have been busy all day but haven’t got any
of your work done.
Most effective people have developed the habit of switching
off so they can focus on key activities. For example, they will put their phone
on silent, turn off their web browser and email alerts so they can have an hour
without interruptions to tackle tasks that require focused concentration.
Habit #5 The mind-body connection.
Energy is the fuel that allows you to work at a high level
of productivity. Stress, insufficient exercise and lack of sleep all deplete
your reserves of energy and prevent you from having the capacity to work
productively. Ironically, the more productive you are, the more time you have
to exercise, get enough sleep and socialize with your family and friends.
On a physiological level stress caused by lack of sleep or
other environmental factors elevates a hormone called cortisol. This hormone is
responsible for regulating your fight or flight response. At elevated levels it
interferes with short-term memory, increases blood pressure and can cause
serious health problems over time.
Your first line of defense is exercise. When you exercise
regularly (more than three times a week for 45 minutes) your body produces
endorphins which boost your sense of well-being, help your muscles to relax and
lowers your blood pressure. The combined effect is to inhibit the production of
cortisol and aside from making you feel better it also positively affects your
memory and brain function.
Next by ensuring you get enough sleep (7-8 hours a night)
you ensure your brain is able to get the REM sleep it needs to consolidate
memory and allow you to feel well rested.
Finally, eating a diet that is balanced and suited to your
activity level you can ensure you have the fuel you need.
No comments:
Post a Comment