Things The Most Productive People See Differently
We all get
24 hours in a day. Yet some people seem to accomplish so much more. Its because
they know how to optimize their day for better performance. There are seven
things the most productive people see differently.
1. They see the long term effect of every little thing
they do through the day.
Daily
routines and habits are important. It’s been proven that we have more willpower
in the morning or as soon as we wake up. Every little decision you make from
the time you wake up to when you go to bed will deplete the amount of willpower
you have. Productive people have an investor’s mindset with almost every action
they take.
Just take
a look at how Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg almost wear the same shirts
everyday. They know better than to waste their willpower and time on deciding
what clothing to wear. They know it won’t matter in the long term.
President Obama said “You’ll see I
wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want
to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many
other decisions to make.”
Focus on
the things that will actually help you in the long term as soon as possible.
Which brings us to our next point.
2. They see the hardest tasks as top priority.
They know
their willpower is at it’s highest as soon as they wake up and they use that to
their advantage by tackling the toughest tasks first. Productive people also
know that putting off the hardest things for last will become a habit and carry
over to other areas of their life.
As Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe puts it “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of
things which matter least”.
Don’t do
the easy things first. Save the easy tasks for last when your willpower has
gone down and you are tired.
3. They see learning how to learn as an important skill
to master.
The most
productive people know that continual learning is important for their own
personal success.
Benjamin Franklin said “If a man
empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him. An
investment in knowledge always pays the best interest”.
Highly
productive people take learning a step further and implement memorization
techniques to help them retain more information, speed read, and they use the Pareto 80/20 principle to
their advantage. For example when reading a book, read the table of contents,
the back cover of the book, the beginning, the end, and whatever parts in
between that sound interesting. It’s been said that one should never read a
book from cover to cover unless they enjoy it.
The 80/20
principle can be applied to your schedule and your income as well. Use this to
your advantage and put more focus on the 20% of things that generate 80% of the
results. Also, read books about how to learn faster and apply what you learn.
4. They see technology as a tool.
Tim Ferriss wrote “Get on a strict
low-information diet and focus on output instead of input; your wallet and
weekends will thank you for it”.
Many of us
today simply let technology distract and control us. We let the funny viral
videos on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram suck away massive amounts of our
time. We let our phones constantly steal away our attention with emails and
text messages. They are all time drainers. Stop checking your news feeds. Turn
off the television. Set up an email auto-responder. Choose specific times to
check email and other messages so they won’t steal your focus away at random
times of the day.
5. They see even the worst days as days to make the right
choices.
In his book, On Writing, Stephen
King said “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up
and go to work”.
Productive
people find ways to get their work done regardless of whether they feel like
doing it or their circumstances. The process of getting where you want to be or
finishing work will not always be smooth sailing. Highly productive people stay
focused on the long term result and not on short term relief.
They know
that everything we do either brings us closer to our goals or farther away from them.By law if you are not moving in one direction
you must be moving in another. Work to acquire the self-discipline to persevere
and stay focused even in the worst of times.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it “Do
the thing and you will have the power”.
Consistent
good habits are one of the most important things that separate productive
people from procrastinators. Produce good results, not excuses.
6. They see the value in getting help from other people.
Highly
productive people don’t waste time doing things they could get someone else to
do. Bill Gates said he never did anything alone.
Neil deGrasse Tyson said “I have a
personal philosophy in life: If somebody else can do something that I’m doing,
they should do it. And what I want to do is find things that would represent a
unique contribution to the world – the contribution that only I, and my
portfolio of talents, can make happen. Those are my priorities in life.”
This one
definitely applies to entrepreneurs and business owners. You can’t do
everything yourself. Put as much focus as you can on the high priority tasks
that generate the most results.
7. They see the benefits of daily meditation and routine
breaks.
Jon Kabat-Zinn said “Most people
don’t realize that the mind constantly chatters. And yet, that chatter winds up
being the force that drives us much of the day in terms of what we do, what we
react to, and how we feel”.
When we
practice meditation and mindfulness, we are actually becoming aware of this
chatter and stilling our minds.
Lao Tzu said “If you correct your
mind, the rest of your life will fall into place”.
Even
though mindfulness originated in Buddhism, it has little or nothing to do with
religion. The benefits of mindfulness and meditation are grounded in science.
Daily meditation practice can help us stay focused longer and therefore allow
us to get more done. Being a workaholic and trying to plow through work with no
breaks actually makes you less productive and is bad for your health in a
multitude of ways.
You may
think you are too busy to meditate, but that is all the more reason to start
doing it. Sit down somewhere comfortable, close your eyes, get into a rhythm of
breathing, and focus on the feeling of the air entering and leaving your body
for about 10 to 20 minutes. This will relax you, reduce stress, quiet your
mind, and will eventually make you an overall more productive person. Practice
meditation everyday.
BY NOEL N
http://www.lifehack.org/287476/7-things-the-most-productive-people-see-differently?ref=mail&mtype=goal_reminder&mid=20161107_with_thumbnail&uid=687414&hash=707e797f7e757e6d794c856d747b7b3a6f7b79&action=read_more&goal_id=9&token=d0e3e4b03809d240b52d71f8a6770fa9
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