Guest Post by Mike Myatt

Has the speed at which business is transacted in the 21st Century completely overwhelmed you? Now that we’re approaching the end of the year, have you been as productive as you’d hoped for? Do you find yourself flirting with disaster by constantly brushing up against deadlines? Are your work hours increasing without a corresponding increase in income or satisfaction? Do you wish you had more time in a day? Boosting personal productivity is virtually the only way for professionals to meet their earnings expectations, keep their sanity by maintaining a balanced life, and meet the ever increasing level of customer expectations. In today’s post I’ll provide some tips for how to manage your day instead of having your day manage you.

Let’s face it; productivity is the standard by which most of us are judged in the business world. Whether you like it or not, in most business environments your destiny is likely to come down to a “what have you done for me lately” type of evaluation. My question to you is this: Are you as productive as you think you are, or even as productive as you used to be, and would your co-workers agree with your assessment?

Boosting ProductivityEven though entrepreneurs, executives, and leaders are typically bright, talented and motivated people known for being highly productive, studies have shown that most professionals, when objectively assessed, are found to view themselves as being more productive than they really are. This is even true with the classic over-achieving type “A” personalities. So, what separates the productive from the non-productive? In working with countless executives and entrepreneurs it has been my experience that those professionals who like to cover a lot of ground and consider themselves masters of multi-tasking are not nearly as productive as those who have an ability to focus.

Inbound calls, voicemails, e-mails, meetings, drive-bys (unscheduled interruptions), cell phones, social media interruptions, and any number of other items that compete for your attention will consume your day leaving you wondering where the time went. The reality is that more executives and entrepreneurs are overwhelmed by technology than actually demonstrate an understanding of how to leverage technology to their advantage. The key to boosting productivity can be found by taking the following four steps:

  1. Have a clearly articulated vision: It is absolutely critical to understand what you’re playing for…If you don’t have a well defined vision, then you won’t understand the mission. If you don’t understand the mission then you won’t develop a well conceived strategy. Without a strategy it is unlikely that you’ll set the proper goals, and without accurate goals your tactical execution will be flawed and inefficient. It is the constant alignment and realignment of your actions to your vision that allows you to focus efforts based upon the right prioritization. I often counsel clients that the first step toward failure is ambiguity, while clarity of vision is the first step toward success.
  2. Leverage Down: While you can be lucky, you cannot create sustainable success without understanding the principle of “highest and best use”. Your efforts should be focused on those activities that maximize the leveraging of your time and skill sets leading to the attainment of your goals. Any activities that don’t meet that definition should be delegated to management, staff or outsourced to contractors.
  3. Focus: I have written before on the power of focus. No other single trait leads to a certainty of execution like focus. Those of you who know me have probably personally experienced my “gut-check” strategy which I highly recommend to all my clients. For those of you not familiar this concept it is one of my key pillars of success and it goes like this…Every hour on the hour (no exceptions) I ask myself “Am I doing the most productive thing possible at this point in time pertaining to the achievement of my objectives?” I have been known to terminate meetings, conversations, phone calls etc. based upon conducting this gut check. It keeps me from losing focus and being distracted unless I choose to do so. When in doubt FOCUS!
  4. Order your world: In today’s business world it is impossible to be productive without a well thought out workflow process. You must take yourself out of reaction mode wherever and whenever possible, and focus (there’s that word again) on proactively addressing workflow. The following list is a high level overview of a suggested workflow process:

Bottom line…If you’ll adhere to the principles described above you’ll actually have time to get your work done and have a life. With virtually nothing to lose and everything to gain, why not give it a try?

Guest Author

Mike MyattMike Myatt is America’s Top CEO Coach, recognized by Thinkers50 as a global authority on the topic of leadership, a Forbes leadership columnist, author of Leadership Matters,  CEO at N2growth, and is a Senior Fellow at the Gordian Institute. His new book, Hacking Leadership: The 11 Gaps Every Business Needs to Close and the Secrets to Closing Them Quickly, is available on Amazon.