3 Steps to Becoming More Productive

Many of us don’t think about how to maximize our potential or our personal productivity. We go to work every day, work hard and assist our bosses, colleagues and customers, but do we ever step out of our daily activities or our comfort zone and deliberately develop new skills, refine our productivity or write and manage our goals and priorities?

Most people don’t.

Tapping into your true potential takes creativity, determination and a lot of work … but it’s worth it. When you build personal productivity skills, you reward yourself over and over again. Here’s some ideas on how to dramatically increase your productivity, achieve more with less stress and effort and maximize your potential.

Know What You Want

In order to maximize your potential, it’s important to know what you want and why that’s important to you. Once you know what you want, the next step is to establish a strategic framework by developing a vision statement.

Your personal vision statement provides you with the necessary direction to chart your course personally and professionally. A personal vision statement is your road map to reaching your potential and maximizing your personal productivity.

To get started on your personal vision, identify:

The WHAT

• Determine exactly what future you want
• Create a picture of what it (the future) will look and feel like when you achieve it

The WHY

• Tie your vision to the “what” you identified
  
• Support it with your values

Focus, Focus, Focus

Keep in mind that the most successful people in life have a primary focus, and they never ignore it.  It’s not hard to be busy. You can work through your “to-do” list and get a lot of things done. It’s quite easy to become reactive and respond to everything that comes your way the moment it comes up. This, of course, is a recipe for chaos and disaster in the long run. Multitasking creates the feeling of lack of control over what you do, and it can drive you over the edge. Or, if that doesn’t do it, the pile of unfinished projects you leave on your desk and computer will surely catch up with you and cause all types of stress and chaos.

It’s hard to choose to do the most important thing, the priority. But identifying and becoming committed to your priority task is a powerful way to become much more effective. You will be able to make the most of your time and reach your goals without interruption and conflict of interest. Instead of working in chaos with of a lack of direction, you can move steadily and calmly in the right direction and be more powerful in what you do. You need a single priority focus.

When we don’t set a priority, we tend to follow the path of least resistance; this never helps productivity or success.

Take a moment to reflect on what you are spending your time and energy on and what your focus has been lately. Decide if your actions have made you successful. If not, there are ways to change the situation.

Build Your Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence can be defined as the ability to be aware of one’s own emotions and those of others and regulate personal emotions to facilitate effective thinking, action and relationships. Studies have shown that emotional intelligence has a much greater impact on career success than a person’s IQ. Even though a person may score well on tests and excel academically, how well does he or she handle disappointment, anger, jealousy and fear; the problems of communication; and all the ups and downs of relationships?

People with high emotional intelligence will have more confidence and trust in themselves and a greater understanding of others and, therefore, more empathy for them. So they will build stronger relationships and experience more achievement, love and joy in their lives.