What is common between you and Elon Musk? You both have 24h in a day. Why does he get 10x more task done than an ordinary person? His time is split between many projects like Tesla, Space X, The Boring Company and others and he still makes adequate time for his 4 children according to his biography by Ashlee Vance. Today, you will learn about 5 things to improve your productivity and ensure you get things done and are satisfied.
Spending too much time making a schedule
I was a victim of this category. I have created so many ‘Productive timetable’ but ended up not following most of it. I have tried downloading apps and spend numerous hours creating a great plan to success. Eventually, I would fail to live up to it because either they were not realistic or I just didn’t have enough drive for it.
We have this desire to create the perfect plan which seems to take into account perfect time management. We focus too much on the future and what we will do rather than what we can do now. I would suggest to spend only 10% of the time planning and rest in implementing.
Why?
Ideas are multiplier to execution.
It is possible to get started and then figure out things as you move along. Next time you over plan or spend excess time drafting a schedule, I want you to do the following.
Take the first step in your action plan. You would be surprised to know that the first step is often the hardest because it’s the initial push which allows your brain to actually start operating in completion of the task.
Not Automating Tasks
Technology can be your best friend if used correctly. Automation no longer applies only for manufacturing. Think of something which you do repetitively daily? There are several ways you can do this.
If you know coding and understand computer language, then you can directly automate some tasks through Java and python.
If you are into finance or manage huge excel sheets, it would be good to learn advance excel so you can input formulas.
If you are a digital marketers, there are hootsuite, socialpilot, lucidpress and much more.
If you write frequent emails and want to send an email every morning, you can schedule post an email and write it in advance.
Tired of spending time paying bills, set up auto pay.
Apple iPhones allows users to create customized shortcuts based on commands set by you and is very easy to setup.
If your work involves limited technology use, try delegating some tasks. Effective delegation can create a win-win for both you and the employee.
The one-time cost of setting up is high but once the automation is created, the benefits are reaped.
Importance of purpose
Direction is more important than speed. It’s essential you know the underlying purpose behind why you are doing what you are doing. It aligns you and ensure you stay focused towards your goals. Before starting, I would recommend you to do an exercise called 5 whys? This helps you know the root cause of the problem and craft a problem statement which can be solved more effectively.
For example, let’s say the problem is always looking fatigue at work.
Why? – Because I have less time to get ready
Why? – Because I wake up late
Why? – Because I always end up snoozing my alarm in the morning
Why? – Because I sleep late
Why? – Because I binge watch on Netflix
Finding the purpose sounds easy but it isn’t because most of the time we have a vague idea. Sometimes, it requires serious brain work to really understand our reason for dedication. Once found, it enables us to self-motivate ourselves because we have more clarity.
Aiming for perfection
Steve Jobs was known for his obsession for designing the perfect product. While desiring for perfection might help you in terms of quality it has some drawbacks as well.
Firstly, lot of the things which we say are ‘perfect’ can improved, upgrade or modified. There is always a better version. If we go with this belief, we are playing the infinite game. We are not playing to reach a certain level but to constantly grow and evolve. A finite mindset will limit one’s productivity to the task itself.
Secondly, you are suffocating your creativity by going for perfection. For example, if you own a bakery and you decide to make the cookies which are perfectly designed and accurate quantity of each ingredients, you created the better cookies compared to your competition but not different cookies. In other words, you are not aiming to stretch your imagination to accept ideas beyond the possibilities and creating something which didn’t exist.
Thirdly, there is a point of diminishing returns. Our value at each level will drop so aiming for perfection might mean we are not making the correct tradeoffs and we should know when to focus on other things as well.
Fourthly, there is a Japanese saying ‘Wabi-Sabi’ which talks about accepting imperfection and seeing the beauty in things being imperfect. It’s about accepting yourself and building on what you already have.
Not learning from your mistakes
We all make mistakes. It’s what makes us humans and not machines. It’s essential for us to learn from mistakes. If we don’t reflect on our mistakes, we don’t learn and thus we don’t grow. Let’s say you make a mistake in your work. Here are the ways it will help you become more productive if you learn from this mistake.
It will show your hidden fault lines
It can reveal new insights or advice from someone which you wouldn’t have known had you not failed
Help us make better choices in the future
Make us more humble
Tells about our current skill level.
Knowing these things will help you reevaluate your current plans and help increase efficiency and effectiveness in your work.
For sticking till the end, here is a bonus productivity tip. You remember in the introduction we mentioned Elon Musk. It seems the productivity ninja has his own technique to master time management and achieve more than an average human. It’s called time boxing We hope these tips help you start and end your day with more work completed. Remember, Time is Money!
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