Stop procrastination and start getting the important things done! Today I’m giving you actionable strategies that you can employ in your life right now to improve your productivity and time management using focus, habits, & outsourcing!
These tactics will take you from floundering to thriving. I know because I’ve gone from using none of them to living by all of them, and I can honestly say that I am a far better and more productive man because of them.
Most people fail at achieving their goals because they just don’t take action towards the critical tasks that move the needle forward. In this post, I show you how to change that!
“You can do anything, but not everything.”
– David Allen
Thinking that you can do everything is a sure-fire path to an endless battle and feeling eternally unproductive. I’ve been there, I know! The to-do list never ends, and life becomes one extensive list of tasks.
I remember a light bulb going off in my head one night while I was pouring over my long to-do list as I thought, “But wait! Life is not about ticking things off a list or getting to the end of A LIST! Life is about so much more than that!”.
If living by a list is the way you are operating, I encourage you to start working differently and think about what this is costing you. Because what you’re doing is going through your days trying to tick items off a to-do list rather than focusing on how you can make an impact.
Let that sink in for a moment… rather than focusing on how you can make an impact!
Do you want to make an impact in the world and on your life?
Yes, I thought so. Me too, and that’s why I’m giving you these strategies to create a life-changing shift in how you operate.
Are you in!?
Starting now, we will only choose actions that create value and lead you toward making an impact!
How do you know which actions to choose?
Ask yourself, “which tasks will create the most value, make the most impact and get me closer to my goals, my dreams and the person I want to be?”. And repeat this each and every day.
if you are in business, these activities will be based around the income-generating, revenue-producing tasks that will move you forward, rather than spending your time working out how you can fit in all those little tasks to get EVERYTHING done.
The majority of people spend their days answering emails and responding to phone calls that are sucking their time. Add distraction activities to this, and most of the day is leached away. No more! It’s time to flick the switch and figure out your high-value, income-producing, revenue-generating activities.
If you’re not in business and you’re in a traditional job, your high-value activities will be those core actions that drive your projects forward and help you to move ahead in your career.
People always say, “I wish I had more time; I need to manage my time better”. But here’s the thing, you can’t get any more time, you can’t “manage time”, time is not manageable; it is just there. Whether you do nothing or you do everything. Whether you run around unfocused or you’re hyper-focused, it doesn’t matter; time is simply there, ticking away.
What you can do, though, is you can manage how you use the time available to you in each and every moment.
Okay, so how do I do this?
You’re about to learn the invaluable lessons I’ve learned on my journey, through coaching others in productivity and performance, and from some exceptional books that have had a fundamental impact on my performance and productivity. (More on the books later).
The first thing to do is to run a time audit. You need to have a look at where you are spending your time. Once you understand where you are spending time, you can start investing time wisely instead!
Ask Yourself These Questions:
Where can I remove actions that are keeping me busy but not productive?
Where can I allocate tasks?
I know for a fact, having worked in the corporate world and seen a lot of what goes on, that most people are spending their days being busy but not productive. They may be at work for eight hours a day, but they’re probably only doing a couple of hours’ focused work.
Nest Step, Time Blocking:
This simple strategy might just 100x your productivity! How does it work? Mark out blocks of time into your calendar, and schedule those activities. At the start of your week, or the end, schedule your time for the next week. Block out your diary with the tasks that add the most value to your life and your goals.
You may have heard of this strategy as “strategic blocks” or “deep work”, but whatever the name, time blocking is probably the most foundational element in being more productive and minimizing distraction.
The great thing about having these blocks on your (virtual) calendar is that if your week gets derailed (like mine just did during the Melbourne lockdown with two children at home), you can move your blocks around. A word of warning, though. Do this only when you absolutely have to because this is not a habit you want to form.
Buffer Blocks
Now you have your high-value tasks set on your calendar; you need to add “buffer” blocks. Buffer blocks mark out specific time to deal with things that come up during the day, because, lets’ face it, things always do come up! This way, if someone interrupts you during your high-focus time, you simply say,
“I can’t talk now but come back at x time, and I’ll have ten minutes spare, we can look into it then.”
Allocating time on your calendar to deal with those inevitable things that come up means you aren’t always chasing your tail and feeling unproductive and resentful.
R & R Blocks
You can’t tell me you don’t need rest time allocated (If you are, maybe you need to read my previous actionable post about the importance of sleep and how to become more productive by optimizing your sleep time, here).
Sleep: The Foundation of Health
R & R Blocks are critical to living optimally and efficiently. if you’re operating at a higher level of efficiency and productivity, if you are focused week in week out, you’re going to need some time to rest and recover. So one of the first things you can do is allocate that rest and relaxation time on your calendar. Whether that be a major annual holiday with your family, or loved ones, or a couple of hours each week to take a break, put it on the calendar.
For me, this looks like going for a long bike ride or hitting a few golf balls on the driving range. It could also be going to watch a movie, whatever it is, allocate some time. Rest time is just as important as the foundational element of sleep.
Sleep: The Foundation of Health
Part of being a thriving man is living in balance, balancing the deep work and the focused time with taking care of yourself so that you can show up and take care of the people in your life, the people who love you.
Now that you have time blocks allocated on your calendar for high-value activities, plus buffer blocks and R&R time, you can think about what your first tasks will be for tomorrow. You’ll also now start to see whether you actually have time in the week for all the things you want to do and can adjust accordingly.
How do you work out what you’re going to put into these blocks of deep work?
At the end of every day, decide what the three next steps are that will get you to your goal in the most efficient way. Tasks that make everything else easier or unnecessary. This can apply to your personal life, health and well-being, relationships, business, and work. Ensure that you end up with three things that will get you to your end goal most efficiently.
Do not on any account be tempted to multi-task! Or take a sneak peek at your old to-do list (that should be in the bin by now!). The key here is to focus and minimize distractions so that you can move the needle forward on your goal!
For me, those strategic tasks might be:
Creating content for my podcast.
Adding value, activities, and content into my coaching programme.
Recording videos or other audios.
Creating training or education programmes.
Learning or consuming content from some of the coaching that I’m involved in myself.
Okay, now, I understand that this next step will not be possible for everyone, but as soon as you can, I urge you to delegate the tasks outside your zone of genius to leave you time to work on your high-value items.
And there we have it, the secret to optimizing your time and reaching success in half the time! Put this into action today, and let me know how you get on.
If you’d like to know more, I highly recommend the following books I mentioned earlier, which were instrumental in my understanding of productivity and performance:
“The ONE Thing” by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan
A fantastic book. Get yourself a copy of The One Thing because it will teach you how to focus and do more than most people manage in their lifetimes.
“12 Week Year” by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington
If you don’t already have experience with time blocking or focusing on a small number of tasks at one point in time, then this book may be eye-opening for you.
Lastly, let’s not pretend that this habit shift will necessarily be easy. For some of you, yes! But not for all of you. Ingrained habits can be tricky to change, especially when work colleagues or family are used to you working in a certain way, but you can do this! These techniques will absolutely 10x your productivity and radically transform your life.
Listen to the Full Episode here: