Working without interruption for long periods is an extraordinarily powerful
way to increase your output and get more and better results.
Start Earlier, Work Harder, Stay Later
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There is another simple technique that you can use to double your
productivity and to accelerate your results.
First, go into the office one hour earlier, before the workday begins. By
leaving home early and getting into the office early, you will avoid most of
the traffic. Since there is no one there to interrupt you, you can get started
immediately. Often you can clear up an entire day’s work in that one hour.
Second, develop the habit of working straight through your lunch hour when
almost everyone else has left the office. There is no law that says that you
have to go for lunch when everyone else goes. There is no law that says that
you have to eat lunch from twelve to one each day. You can take your lunch
hour before 12 o’clock or after 1 o’clock. In both cases, there will be no
crowds or delays. You can eat quickly and be back at work with very little
downtime. You can get in and out faster and you will get better service.
Third, stay in the office and work one extra hour after everyone goes home.
This is one of the best ways for busy people to stay on top of their jobs.
During that uninterrupted hour, which as you know, is worth three hours
during the day, you can clear up all your responsibilities, write your reports,
dictate your correspondence and plan the next day in detail. The key is to
take those 60-90 minute chunks of time and work without interruption.
Close the door, unplug the telephone, put your head down and work without
stopping.
The Paradox of Work
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The paradox is that “You can’t get any work done at work.” Fully 75% of
time in any work environment is spent in conversation and discussions with
other people. There are never-ending distractions, interruptions and
telephone calls. As much as 50% of working time in any environment is
taken up with idle chitchat among coworkers as they go back and forth
throughout the day.
If you start one hour early, work through lunch, and stay one hour later, you
will add three hours of productive time to your workday. You will, in effect,
double your productivity, performance and output. Your results will
skyrocket. You will get vastly more done than the other people who work at
regular hours. You will be so far ahead of your coworkers that people will be
amazed at how much you get done.
Hard, sustained, concentrated effort is essential to high productivity and the
successful achievement of anything worthwhile. Every great
accomplishment in human history is preceded by an extended period of
concentrated effort, for a long, long time, sometimes for months, or even
years. Your job is to create these chunks of time.
Minimize Idle Conversation
One of the great time-wasters, or time-savers, depending upon how you
handle them, is conversations and discussions with coworkers and staff.
Since conversation and interaction are inevitable and unavoidable, the way
you handle discussions can have a substantial impact on your overall
productivity and results.
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When you have a meeting with someone, arrange your office and organize
your time so that you concentrate single-mindedly on that person during the
meeting. Do not allow the conversation to go off on tangents. Listen intently
to the other person when they speak and resist the temptation to digress from
the topic being discussed.
The very act of listening with intense concentration dramatically reduces the
amount of time that it takes a person to communicate their full message. It is
amazing how much time is wasted or lost because of continuous digression
from the subject, or distractions, such as a ringing phone or people walking
in. The more you can control these, the less time it will take you to have a
high quality conversation that achieves the results you desire.
Develop a Compulsion to Closure
There is something in the human brain that thrills to any completed task.
One of the most important habits you develop is that of closure, or
completion. Set specific deadlines for yourself and use them as a “forcing
system’ that enables you to concentrate single-mindedly on that task.
Discipline yourself to do one thing at a time, and then to complete that one
task before you begin something else.
Each time you satisfy your brain’s needs for closure, it releases endorphins
into your bloodstream. These endorphins give you a sense of happiness and
well-being. They increase your energy and creativity. They improve your
personality and make you feel good about yourself. Disciplining yourself to
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complete important tasks improves the overall quality of your life, and
dramatically increases your productivity.
Reward Yourself Regularly
One of the ways that you can condition yourself for task completion is to set
up a structure of rewards for each thing that you do. Just as they train
animals by giving them a sugar cube or a biscuit when they perform a
particular trick, you can condition yourself by giving yourself a little reward
each time you complete part of a task. You can then give yourself a large
reward for the completion of the total job.
Psychologists have found that 85% of your motivation to engage in a
particular action is determined by the benefit that you anticipate enjoying as
the result of taking that action. When you set up a reward system for
yourself, you motivate yourself both consciously and subconsciously to
continue working without distraction toward task completion.
Share the Rewards
When you need the cooperation and understanding of members of your
family, while you are working on a big task, or completing a major
assignment, discuss and agree upon a reward for the entire family when the
job is done. It can be something as simple as going to a movie or out for
dinner. It can be a vacation or a trip to Disneyland. When everyone knows
that there is a reward at the end of the road, the people around you will be
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more understanding and supportive, and they will even encourage you to
keep working at the job until it is finished.
Many companies with sale forces use this system of family rewards with
great success. They organize their sales contests and quotas in such a way
that the top producers go to a resort in Hawaii or the Caribbean if they hit
their targets. They send the brochures describing the resorts to the spouses of
the salespeople at their homes. The spouse at home, wanting to go to the
resort as well, will constantly encourage the salesperson to make the sales
necessary to qualify for the trip.
Rewards are wonderful incentives to high performance. You should create as
many of them for yourself as you can think of. Even if it is something as
simple as going for a walk after finishing a report, the anticipation of the
reward will drive you onward and help you to concentrate on the task.
Talk to Yourself Positively
You can improve your ability to concentrate on any task by the use of
positive affirmations to program your subconscious mind. Whatever
commands you repeat to yourself are eventually accepted by your
subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind then motivates and drives you
to behave in a way consistent with that command.
When you talk to yourself in a positive way, combined with the emotions of
enthusiasm and conviction, you find yourself internally driven toward higher
productivity. You can develop a trigger phrase when your attention wanders
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and you feel yourself getting distracted from your work. Keep repeating,
“Back to work! Back to work! Back to work!”
Whenever you find yourself getting distracted, or you feel like
procrastinating, just sit down in front of your job and say to yourself, “Back
to work!” This will jolt you into getting back on task, and keep you working
on the job until it is done.
When someone else wants to talk to you or distract you from your work, you
can break away by simply saying, “Well, I guess I have to get back to
work!” Whenever you say that you have to get back to work, the other
person will usually stop talking and leaves you alone.
Each time you repeat these words, you will be surprised at how easy it is for
you to return to your work and start concentrating again.
Practice Single Handling
One of the most powerful methods for getting things done is to practice what
is called “single handling.” Single handling requires that, once you start a
task of any kind, you resolve to stay at that task until it is 100% complete.
If you pick up a letter, or begin a report or proposal, or initiate a sales call or
conversation, discipline yourself to stay at it until it is finished. This simple
technique can increase your productivity by as much as 50% the first day
you start using it. It is one of the most powerful habits of time management
you will ever learn.
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Get Onto the Learning Curve
Take advantage of what time and motion experts call the “learning curve.”
When you do a group of similar tasks together, the amount of time it takes
you to do each subsequent task declines. If you have to do ten or twenty of
the same task, like telephone calls or reports, you can decrease the amount of
time necessary for the completion of each of these tasks by as much as 80%
by using the learning curve. Every time you do one of these tasks, you get
better at it and it takes you less time to do it even better next time.
The learning curve only works when you do similar tasks one after the other,
repeatedly, until they are all done. This is why it is essential to bunch your
tasks and do them all at once rather than sporadically through the day.
Personal Productivity Techniques
There are a series of techniques you can practice to increase your
productivity and performance, and improve the rate at which you get things
done. These are methods used by the highest paid and most productive
people in every field.
1. Concentrate Your Powers
Use the principle of “concentration of power.” This requires that you
concentrate your talents and abilities where they will yield the highest pay
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off to you at the moment. It is the key to personal productivity and is
essential to success in personal strategic planning.
In corporate strategy sessions, we focus on the goal of increasing “Return on
Equity (ROE).” The purpose of business strategy is to allocate the
company’s resources in such a way that they yield the highest possible
financial return on the equity invested.
In setting personal strategy for yourself, your goal is to get the highest
“return on energy (ROE).” Your job is to allocate your talents and abilities
in such a way that you achieve the highest possible return on the mental,
emotional and physical energies that you invest in your work. Your highest
return on energy is almost always that task where you combine your unique
talents and abilities with the specific needs of the situation. You then focus
and concentrate single-mindedly on that one task, which is the key to high
productivity.
Whenever you have a new job to do, ask yourself, “Does this job give me
my highest return on energy invested?” Discipline yourself to apply your
skills where you can achieve the greatest results and rewards for both
yourself and your company.
2. Concentrate Where Superior Results Are Possible
Resolve to concentrate on the few areas where superior performance will
bring outstanding results. Usually less than 5% of what you do accounts for
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most of your results. Continually ask yourself, “What can I and only I do,
that if done well, will make a real difference?”
Discipline yourself not to work at those tasks that, no matter how well you
do them, they cannot help you or advance you in your career. They do not
give you as high a “return on energy” as something else.
3. Do Things You’re Better At
Do things that you are better at. When you do things at which you excel, you
get more done, make fewer mistakes and achieve greater personal
productivity. Not only that, you enjoy your work more when you are doing
things that you do well. What are the few things that you do better than
anyone else?
What is it that you do easily that seems to be difficult for others? Focus on
your unique talents and concentrate on those few areas where you can
achieve superior results. This is the key to peak performance.
4. Focus on Opportunities
Concentrate your strengths and the strengths of others on your major
opportunities. Focus on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the
problems of yesterday. Concentrate your best talents and energies, and those
of your best people, on those few areas where major breakthroughs are
possible.
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Many companies make the mistake of putting their best people to work to
salvage the mistakes of yesterday, rather than deploying them to maximize
the opportunities of tomorrow. Keep asking yourself, “What are my biggest
opportunities for the future? Where can I make a real breakthrough if I
concentrate?”
5. Fish for Whales
Fish for whales, not minnows. Remember that if you catch 1000 minnows,
all you have is a bucketful of fish. But if you catch a single whale, you will
pay for the whole voyage.
In business, you must look at your marketplace and try to determine who or
what the whales might be. You then make a plan to go after them.
Sometimes, landing one big customer, or selling one whale of an order will
be enough to make a business or an individual successful.
6. Focus on Key Result Areas
Identify your key result areas and work in them exclusively. The key results
you are expected to get are the answers to the question, “Why am I on the
payroll?”
Each person has five to seven key result areas where they can make an
