Productivity techniques that will expand YOUR CAPACITY, INCREASE YOUR EFFECTIVENESS and ensure you achieve your 2020 goals

- Jim Rohn

If you believe that time is a very precious and limited resource which must be used wisely in order to free you up to pursue big, important and meaningful goals that help those for whom you care most, then managing your time very well is critical.

You owe it to your family, clients, investors, team and yourself, to maximise your probability of success by minimising wasted time and ensuring you are making the best use of all the resources available to you. Here are the Top 10 Productivity Tips I developed over my last three decades of building businesses and I continue to use daily:

1. Maintain a Morning Routine

Establish a morning routine by waking up at the same time each day. Dedicate 10 - 15 minutes to inspiration, affirmations before you head to the office and complete your daily plan (more below). Keep your morning routine focused on health, inspiration, productivity and traction to make the best use of that time.

2. Say Affirmations Affirmations are a great way of focusing on becoming the type of person you envision and then will help you manifest into your future state. I can write more about this in the future if you would like and give examples. Say your affirmations each morning and throughout the day if time permits.

3. Get Organized (The Ultimate Productivity Journal)

My method of being organised is based upon a personal and customised daily journal I developed, which I call The Ultimate Productivity Journal. Whatever you do to stay organised, I suggest you complete it first thing upon arrival in the office. It should list your goals, priorities, schedule, and anything else you feel necessary for a successful day.

4. Review

Goals Daily

Each morning I recommend you review you Lifetime Goals. These goals are big, transformational, intergenerational, will take many decades to achieve and are focused on ensuring you do things dramatically differently in order to achieve them. By reviewing them daily, you will keep focused on what is most important front and centre of your mind.

Lifetime

5. Write Down Annual Goals Every Day!

Each morning, I recommend you write down (this is important) your annual goals in order to both remind yourself of your goals and recommit to making them happen. This takes less than 2 minutes. A daily reminder of where you going and why, helps to stay focused on what is most important.

6. List Your Top 5 or 6 Tasks For The Day in Priority and Ignore all Else

List out you top 5 or 6 tasks for that day, in order of priority, and schedule time to complete them in your calendar. Only focus on those tasks until they are done and ignore everything else. Focus on the critical few not the trivial many.

7. Focus On The Most Difficult or Unpleasant Task First Procrastination is the thief of time and opportunity. Make every effort to do the one thing you know needs to be done but have been putting off. Usually, once you start on that task you will find it was easier and better than you thought and move forward.

8. Schedule Your Day and Block Your Week With the daily schedule done, proceed to execute upon the tasks of the day. Focus on the most productive and intellectually challenging tasks in the morning and more administrative and less critical in the afternoon and evening. I also recommend roughly scheduling theme days throughout the week (client days, project days and catch up days) and cluster your activities and meetings around those days. For instance, most Fridays are good for catch up days and for reviewing projects or major goals.

9. Follow The Sundown Rule

Before the end of the work day, endeavour to respond to every piece of correspondence and email, even if it is to say that it has been received and will be acted upon the next day. Sam Walton used this approach to build Walmart and you will find that clients, your team and colleagues love it, since it demonstrates respect for the relationship and service for the client.

10. Use Friday For Catch Up and Week In Review This idea is from David Allen’s great book, Getting Things Done, where he recommends setting up a regular schedule to get completely caught up by going through every piece of mail, correspondence and handling it before the week is over. This will clear your mind before the weekend and ensure you start Monday fresh and ready to go.

Eamonn has a B. Eng. (Electrical) from Lakehead University, MBA (Finance) from University of Toronto, and has completed Executive Education at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He lives in Vancouver, Canada. Follow him on twitter @ Eamonnpercy