To be more productive 8 things will encourage you.

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done” – Bruce Lee

Emperor Penguins are the epitome of productivity and focus. Every April they make an epic voyage. After traveling 50 miles to mate, the male sits on the eggs for 64 days while the female returns to sea. She finally gets to eat! Once the babies are born, the mother returns and the parents swap responsibilities. 

This ritual is about focus, mental discipline, and dedicating your time to what matters most.

Time management has become cliché over the past several decades. The problem, most people don’t own their time so it’s difficult to manage.

I believe any definition of success should include ownership of your time. Working toward controlling your schedule.

We have 24 hours in a day. Using it wisely becomes critical for balancing all the things that increase our prospects for experiencing more happiness.

“You’ve got to keep control of your time, and you can’t unless you say no. You can’t let people set your agenda in life” – Warren Buffet

Becoming more efficient at recognizing what deserves our attention is essential to using time to our advantage.

Here are 8 suggestions for improving our relationship with time.

Get it done. If a phone call. E mail. Bill or business decision requires your immediate attention. Get it done and move on. Many people review something, then defer their response. I would suggest tackling it right away.

Get the unpleasant stuff done first. If you address the unpleasant obligations first, you remove human proclivity to lament about getting it done later. This is a distraction and waste of valuable emotional energy.

 “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing” – Walt Disney

Get better at recognizing what’s important. Social media. E mail. Meetings. Unscheduled distractions. Inability to delegate. These are examples of things that often create the impression of requiring our immediate attention, but could easily be deferred in favor of more important priorities. Learn to let go of things that could be handled later or delegated.

Get used to saying no. Learn to say no to just about everything and you will make time for the things that matter most. Leaving the door open is a common mistake. Maybe later. Possibly. I don’t think so. Say no instead and remove any nubelace interpretation.

Research from the University of California in San Francisco indicates that not saying no, increases stress, fatigue, depression and a sense of burn out.

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose” – Bill Gates

Get used to answering e mail at specific times. Flag e mails from important customers. Encourage less e mail from your colleagues and more focused communication. Set up an auto response and call to action.  Don’t waste time checking and responding to e mail throughout the day. It’s a great way to keep your brain distracted.

Get focused. There is plenty of clinical evidence supporting the idea that multi-tasking destroys concentration. Electronic devices obliterate attention. Most people are constantly reaching for their phone at the expense of staying focused. Dedicate your attention to one thing at a time.

Get to know your body. We all function very differently. Some people require 8 hours of sleep, many can function just fine with 6. Some people are night owls and some people are larks. They love getting up early. Some people crash during the afternoon and fight the need to shut their eyes. Why fight through the fatigue of your body’s natural rhythm? Get to know your body and use that knowledge to increase productivity. 

Get disciplined. Most people aren’t lacking motivation. Most people want more money. Better jobs. Better health. More time with their family. The problem, they don’t have a plan and they lack the ability to stick with it consistently. That’s where discipline factors in. Discipline keeps you moving in the right direction, even when you don’t feel like it.

“Luck is only important in so far as getting the chance to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you’ve got to have talent and know how to use it” – Frank Sinatra

Sum it up

Everyone wants to be more productive and everyone wants more time to concentrate on what they love most. What are your tricks for being more productive? 

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, as I learn just as much from you as you do from me. Please like and share this article and include your thoughts in the comments section below. I love learning from you as well.

About Steve:

Steve Wohlenhaus is CEO of Weatherology, the leading company in the world at disseminating audio weather information.  Steve began his career as a major market television weather anchor in Minneapolis, where he received several Emmy Awards for science programming. Steve is an author and host of the post program Anatomy of Success. Reach out and connect with Steve on LinkedIn!