Efficiency - 8 reasons why you are not as productive as you can be
“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.”
― ―
The article was inspired by the book:
Timothy Ferriss - Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers
What is efficiency? Are you an effective person? An effective person is a person who reaches Maximum results in a minimum time, and wants to double your results in minimum time? Would you like to use time better? Do you find yourself repulsive and repulsive? Instead of just getting to.
the point? It's time to wake up, it's time to start planning your time, and understand - that your time is.
worth money, how much would you pay for your own time? Sure, a lot, so if your time is expensive.
for you, you have to change bad habits to get the best out of it.
You have not set any goal
Setting goals are the key, the challenge of most people who do not set goals for themselves or that the goals they set are not right for them. Goals are the yardsticks for achieving your dreams, no goals, no personal vision, A to B. How you want your life to go on. It is true that it sounds like a nice and stress-free life, but the truth is that life without goals is life without direction, which creates a problem of "hovering" - in which one day after another we spend "hovering", talking from one to another, subject to whims and demands of others, Work for her. Days and weeks pass without anything being done and before you notice, you are already in your 40s, 50s, 60s, asking yourself where half of your life has disappeared.
How to fix this?
Take a pen and paper, set periodic goals for a limited time and annual goals, in the important areas of your life - career, connections, money, health, and self-improvement. Where do you see yourself in a year from today? Can not write goals? Close your eyes, let your imagination run, here are your dreams, they are there to fulfill them. If you can dream then - you can fulfill them.
Create a board, "dream board", write down these goals and then work to fulfill them. Add images that express a direct connection to your dream, create positive thoughts around your dreams, direct them forward with positive thinking, talk about your goals - they are not a secret, say yes to them as if the universe is doing its thing and making sure they are realized for you. Good happens to you. Keep the board where you can see it every day so you will not forget who you are and what your goals are.
Your goals are not the right goals for you
Setting goals are not enough - you need to set the right goals. If you set the wrong goals, you are putting yourself on the road to failure! But what defines "correct goals"?We believe there are no such criteria for correct purposes, know what is right for you. Your goals should be challenging for you, but actionable, specific to you and divided over time. Define a six-month time? Year? Everything is good as long as it's good for you. Remember there is no timeout! We do not run anywhere, it is important that you enjoy the road, the road is an integral part of the goal, and sometimes the road is revealed as the goal itself. Goals that match your expectations tend to achieve great success when all things remain constant. Unfortunately, many of us achieve the wrong goals - goals that are not inspiring, too small, too vague, or without a deadline. Because our goals directly affect our actions that harm our results, setting the wrong goals, making us have very small results, or even having no results at all, creating a dead end.
How to fix this?
1. Make sure your goals are goals that you want only for you and your higher interest, goals that you want to achieve and not goals that others have set for you. Live your life as if every day is your last day, ask yourself and if it was - what would you want to do in your time? 2. Go for great goals but nevertheless make sense. For example, to increase my customer base by 200% and be a market leader, and not "get another customer to two customers so that I have enough to make ends meet" 3. Be as specific and focused as possible. For example - "Earn $ 10,000 per month until September 2015," rather than "increase my salary."4. Set the deadline, a final goal for each goal, which brings us to the next point.
You have no deadline / final destination
The importance of a deadline and a timeline is great. If you've heard some advice about efficiency, then you've probably heard of Parkinson's Law - which says that "the work expands in such a way that it takes advantage of all the time available to perform it.
In the first chapter, Parkinson claims that a person has a natural tendency to increase the amount of time he has to invest in completing a particular task until he has exhausted the time at his disposal. This means that if you set a deadline for the task that is four hours away, in fact, to complete it you will need only two hours, you will inevitably take four hours for the task. If you set a deadline of up to one week for a task that actually takes two days, you will take a whole week to complete the task. If you do not set a final deadline for completing the task, completing the task can take forever
Conduct an experiment, take a task and set a reasonable time to do, now try to do the task half of the time allotted. Believe in yourself and see how it is possible.
How to fix this?
Set a deadline for all your tasks and goals. What's more, make a timeline, detailing all the steps and milestones to achieve your goals.
You try to do everything
Have you ever heard of the saying that "less is more?" Well, here's another one: "Trying to do everything eventually will lead to zero.
achievements."Today, our society focuses much on doing more and finishing more things. While I certainly agree with the importance of doing more and achieving more, trying to do everything can cause a lack of concentration, not to mention a feeling of flooding and stress. In fact, in my five years as a coach, this is one of the most common problems among my clients - and we're talking about talented people who have achieved a lot under their name.
How to fix this?
Stop doing anything. Instead, focus on the most important things and make them good.
Think about what 20% of the most important tasks on your list are and how you can work on them? Less important things, get rid of them, or group them and reject them after achieving important goals. And so we progress to the next point.
You try to do everything yourself
I noticed the problem among many perfectionists, among whom I too was included: we insist on doing everything ourselves. Why? Because we refuse to let things go. We feel that when we let things go, we lose control, maybe people will mess things up, everything will become a disaster, and we'll have to clean up the mess later.
I understand because sometimes I am. In the past, I was much more "possessive" about my work. I would choose to do it all by myself so that I could do it all the way I wanted, but I realized that in order to save time and do the work better, it is sometimes important to divide the tasks. Think about it: no matter how effective you are, you will never be able to achieve the same amount of work that 10 people or 100 people (who are talented to your degree) can achieve the same amount of time. Many hands make work easier and two brains are better than the one most of the time
How to fix this?
Get rid of having to do it all by yourself. Help your teammates, employees, and/or acquaintances. Faults can happen, but everything is built on guidance, making them do things the best.
You do not have a contributing work environment
Evaluate your current workspace. On a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 is the best possible environment for work, how would you rate it? Would you rate it in 1 to 3 bad? 3 to 5 average? 6 to 8 reasonable? Or 9 to 10 excellent.
Most of us work in 3 to 5, the average environment. From an unorganized work environment to a messy table of poor sizes that lead to noisy traffic (especially to those of us working at home), to chatting people, too boring working situations and we constantly struggle in our environment just to get things to work. This is bad because instead of investing energy in our work and converting it into a constructive output, our energy is depleted by our environment.
How to fix this?
Know the concept of "flowing environment" - a term that I interpret as "an environment that brings you maximum work experience and allows you to enter the flow easily." You know you are in a flowing environment when you can get into work easily and you feel energized all the time! Find your flowing environment (or create it if needed) and then take a look at your efficiency and soar.
You think work can only be done when you have an hour
Think that a five-minute break cannot affect your never-ending list of goals? Well, think again. "Time pockets", these small-time windows between yes activities can make a huge difference when they are effectively utilized.
How to fix this?
Take advantage of your time pockets, even if they only last 5 minutes. Do not underestimate the change that a small-time pocket can make in your life. You will be surprised at how practicing this habit can change many things for the better.
You abandon other areas of your life
Perhaps the biggest misconception about efficiency is that you have to put aside all other non-work related things family, society, love life, and health to get ahead. "I'll get to those later," is what most of us say.
This perception is wrong. Work does not complete your entire life and work cannot fill the gaps that only areas that are not related to work can. While neglecting other areas of life (as we said social life, love, family, health and mental health) can give you an advantage in the effectiveness of your work initially, it is a temporary thing - this form of organization/structure cannot last for long, Because you will be "starved" in the other areas of your life and you will have no motivation to work at all.
Some people call it "self-burning," others call it falling.
How to fix this?
Identify the areas in your life that you are abandoning and then work to improve them while keeping your work's priorities in control. Efficiency comes from the holistic management of your life.
A happy man/parent/ spouse will be full of inspiration and energy to work hard and provide the best in his work.
“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.”
― ―
The article was inspired by the book:
Timothy Ferriss - Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers
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