So, who are you, anyway? First, let me tell you the end right now at the beginning.
When we come to the end of this article and you have learned a few things about yourself that you didn’t know, you’re very likely going to approve of the person you find.
Second, some of the exercises might ask you questions you haven’t thought about before but do your best to answer them because they will give you insight into your preferences.
An important part of overcoming procrastination is getting to a point where you want to do the things you need to do because you like them. The more you know yourself, the better you’ll be at framing your tasks in terms of your preferences.
This exercise should give you an idea about how you perform on projects currently. Think about a project you have successfully completed — at work, at home, or in a social situation. Answer the following questions:
This exercise will tell you something about your attitude toward goal setting. Which of the following statements apply to you?
Let’s talk about willpower and motivation next. To some extent, they go hand-in-hand because the more willpower you have, the less easily you give in to distractions and the more motivated you are to begin a task and to complete it.
Which of the following statements fit your personality?
It’s easy to put things off for all kinds of valid reasons. But if you’re procrastinating for other reasons, you need to identify those reasons. Do you really want to take on this project?
Try to understand why you are unable to start – or finish – certain tasks.
Fear of failure can stop you dead in your tracks even though everyone fails sometimes. It can interfere with your time management, your productivity, and even your relationships.
Answer often, sometimes, or never to the following questions:
The more times you answered often or sometimes, the more effectively you cope with failure. Feeling rejected or threatened when something doesn’t turn out as you had hoped is somewhat natural, but passion and anger can be destructive if they’re not managed.
Sometimes, we procrastinate because we believe we don’t have time, but the truth is that we don’t know how to manage our time or how to prioritize.
Use the following questions to assess your time-management skills:
No worries, these skills are ones you can learn.
In this exercise we’re going to think about what we do well. Make a list of all the things you are good at.
The key here is for the person you are asking is completely honest about your strengths and isn’t just telling you what you want to hear.
How assertive you are and how you interact with others can directly affect how much you procrastinate, and also how well you initiate and negotiate tasks.
Your answers to the following questions will let you know how assertive you are in four areas: at work, at home, in public, and with friends.
Now, let’s think about how you react in these situations.
Awareness about your skills and personality traits is the first step toward strength. You can’t change what you’re not aware of. So, take a look at all your responses and ask yourself what they tell you.
So, in the next article in this series, we’ll look at how to build on your strengths, improve on your weaknesses, and develop your skills.
One way to beat procrastination is to stay focused and many people struggle with this. If you want to learn more about staying focused, check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 😊
We live in an era of information overload. We are bombarded with media, technology, entertainment, and notifications every day. It seems there are hundreds of people and things competing for your attention at any given time. There is no wonder why in the last few years, our attention spans have become shorter and our ability to focus has decreased.
Let’s begin by examining some productivity maximizers that make us more productive. We will discuss tips and techniques to help improve your focus. Then let’s look at how holding yourself accountable can help you to improve your productivity today! Finally, we’ll look at how you can start to set time limits on projects to keep you on track.
Hacking your mind to increase your productivity is just one part of the process.
The next relies on maximizing that productivity. You’ll need to decrease burn out, as well as focus on the end results.
In addition, learning to turn your goals into processes will help you get more done.
Burnout is a very real problem that affects your productivity. The work-life balance is hard to achieve, but it is necessary.
Symptoms of burnout:
It’s clear that a burnout period can make it even tougher to get your tasks done. Thankfully, there are some tricks to help you get out of this slump.
Some of them involve taking time for yourself.
Not only will these activities help prevent burnout, but with them, you can overcome it. You’ll end up much more productive as a result.
What’s the end result of the items on your “to do” list? By focusing solely on the goal instead of the individual tasks, you’ll be more likely to get everything done.
The end result can be either big or small.
By changing how you think about your tasks, you’ll be able to achieve more. The process stops being about getting one thing done and instead focuses on meeting a goal.
Stop thinking about your goals as events, and instead, consider them processes instead. The difference lies in learning how to enjoy everything that it takes to meet those goals. Once you love what you do, you’ll want to work harder.
Now let’s take a look at accountability.
If you’re struggling to get things done, it’s easy to switch up your routine believing that will help you get back on track.
Sometimes this is effective, sometimes it only makes it harder to refocus our attention where it’s needed most.
What can we do to refresh and refocus so that our attention and energy is going on the things that matter? And where is that time going?
Were you spending too much time in email or on social media trying to respond to customers or provide instant support?
If so, consider outsourcing support inquiries to a live agent or support desk so that you aren’t constantly distracted by people who need your time while still being able to provide prompt service.
P.S. Want to know more about outsourcing? Click here for a great post to read and you can also get a detailed outsourcing report here .
Did you fail to prioritize tasks and goals and ended up losing focus because you are constantly multi-tasking in an effort to catch up?
If so, consider using a product management tool that will guide you through each workday. The key is to develop a regular routine, along with work habits that improve your focus and workflow.
It’s also important to know when your struggle to focus is your body’s way of saying it’s had enough.
Instead, give yourself time for creative breaks so that you’re able to reenergize and boost that productivity.
Burn out is a real thing and it’s the #1 focus killer so learning to hold yourself accountable while still also giving yourself room to take those necessary breaks so that you’re able to boost creativity and output is important.
It’s easy to get caught up spending more time on a project that you initially planned. We can always find ways to tweak and improve our brand, services and products – but the problem is that not all of this time is wisely spent.
Let your market dictate the time you allocate to your projects.
Here are a few tips to help you improve focus and boost productivity:
Set time limits on every single task – no exceptions.
Lay out the groundwork for each project you are working on, including a complete overview of how to get from start-to-finish. Then, create to a schedule and stick to it!
Not only will doing this help you get more done in less time, but it will immediately improve your focus because you are allocating a specific amount of time to one thing – and following through with it.
We can easily waste a ton of valuable time by trying to get everything done at one but without creating a priority list that outlines the most critical steps in the process of reaching your goal, we can end up struggling to meet deadlines.
WANT TO Doesn’t Mean You HAVE TO.
When you’re running short on time and you’re struggling to focus, a priority list becomes even more important.
And by breaking your tasks down into chunks that are assigned a clear value, you’ll be able to zero in on the parts of your business that need more attention while freeing up valuable time.
Prioritization is a crucial skill to master so take the time to get used to it.
This is a critical step in staying focused. It begins with creating a strategy and regular routine based on when you are most productive, creative and able to produce without distractions.
Do you have to shut off your phone, close your email, or fire up a playlist in order to spring into action?
Your work environment is just as important as your overall workflow. You should do everything possible to separate your personal life from your work life so that you are able to eliminate distractions and focus on your priority list.
Boundaries are very important for productivity so try to make use of them if at all possible.
If you’re allowing negative thoughts and self-doubt to lead the way, you’ll never have enough faith in your abilities to see things through.
You’ll not only take longer to get ahead, but chances are you’ll never reach your desired destination.
Well, there is a lot more to be learnt about increasing focus and productivity; far more than can be covered in this short post, but if you’d like to know more about this, then click on the featured resource below where you can pick up a free report that covers this topic in more detail. Download, read it and take action 😊
There’s no doubt about it: outsourcing important tasks to qualified freelancers is the easiest way to free up your time and resources while being able to focus on the things that matter most.
But outsourcing is more than just time management and being able to spend more time doing what you enjoy.
By hiring qualified professionals, you’re able to tap into new markets, expand your outreach and test new products and ideas that you may otherwise not be able to develop on your own.
Think about the countless businesses that have benefited by hiring app developers, or companies that outsource all of their brand-building and marketing campaigns so they can focus on brainstorming new avenues and products.
We’re all good at some things and not-so-great at other tasks associated with our business so it only makes sense to hand over the reins to someone who can do a better job then we can.
That doesn’t mean that you’re giving up control of your business. Your freelancers will work behind the scenes for you, at your discretion. They will follow your lead and work hard to get the job done – with no credit.
Yet you reap all the rewards.
Now, let’s look at the importance of utilizing contracts in order to protect yourself and your business. You need to read this before you even consider hiring a freelancer.
Before you seek out potential candidates to fulfil the gaps in your business, you need to make sure you have all your ducks in a row – starting with contracts.
Contracts, such as NDA (non-disclosure agreements) ensure that your information, ideas or discussions are kept private and that freelancers aren’t able to discuss or share any part of your project with other potential partners or employers.
This is not only important when it comes to hiring authors and writers to develop content where you wouldn’t want them to share that work as samples for future positions, but it’s also important regardless of the type of freelancer you hire.
You want to make sure that all your ideas and creative output is protected and that whatever you discuss with freelancers remains confidential.
Here are a few resources I recommend if you’re looking for pre-made contracts and NDA’s that you can customize to suit your needs:
https://www.jotform.com/pdf-templates/contract
https://www.legalcontracts.com/
Keep in mind that these are templates designed to give you an outline but aren’t necessarily entirely applicable to your business. You should eliminate clauses that don’t apply to you or add new clauses as necessary before you ask anyone to sign them.
Next let’s look at the importance of properly managing a team.
You’ve assembled a team of skilled freelancers and you’re ready to put them to work.
What’s next?
Teamwork! Your freelancers will only do a great job for you if you manage them properly and build a cohesive team that includes you, your full-time employees, and your freelancers.
In this section, I’ll explain some of the key strategies you can use to manage your freelance team members and maximize productivity.
Communication
With it, you can do anything.
It’s important to set up lines of communication for you and your team members. Here are a few suggestions that you may find useful:
For example, you might let your team members know that you expect them to respond within one business day when you send them an email.
That takes care of the organizational part of communication, but I also want to talk about the kind of casual communication that rarely gets discussed, so let’s look at that now.
In the previous section we were talking about how to effectively manage a team of freelancers, but can you guess what one of the most common reasons that projects get delayed or deadlines aren’t met?
Lack of acknowledgement!
When a freelancer delivers work to you, always acknowledge it.
Make sure you let them know that you got it, and if you won’t be reading or reviewing it immediately, make sure they know that, too.
It’s also a good idea to give feedback on the work you receive even if you don’t have any changes.
Every freelancer appreciates that kind of communication and believe it or not, it’s rare.
Finally, you should also let your freelancers know that you (or someone you designate) can be available to answer questions at their request.
While you don’t want to spend too much time micro-managing your freelancers, it’s important that you open up a channel of communication and that you stay available during projects.
If you want a structured system for this to make it easier to manage, consider adding your team to a SLACK channel so that you can communicate both individually and as a team.
You can also set up a schedule so that your freelancers know when you’re available and when you’re not.
Well, there is a lot more to be learnt about outsourcing for efficiency; far more than can be covered in this short post, but if you’d like to know more about this, then click on the featured resource below where you can pick up a free report that covers this topic in more detail. Download it, read it and take action 😊
Let’s face it; we all want to be more focused because that way we can get more things done, right?
Your time is valuable. Not being able to focus can have a negative effect on how successful we are at work and in our personal lives.
So, let’s look at some ways you can dial in your focus so you can be more productive and hopefully more successful in whatever you are trying to achieve.
And this is especially important for those who have found themselves working from home and aren’t used to having all the homely distractions around them. If that is you, this is doubly important for you to grasp.
The first thing to look at is how you are spending (aka wasting) your time.
Before you can begin to learn how to concentrate better on the tasks that you need to accomplish each day, you first need to know where your time goes.
There are a number of time killers that destroy your focus without your knowledge.
As yourself this question and answer it honestly:
Do you pick up your phone every time that you receive a notification?
If you answered “yes” to that question, then you’ve identified our first time killer. By picking up your phone repeatedly throughout the day, you are destroying your focus.
There are several other important time killers to identify.
Some of these may sound familiar:
In order to identify the time killers that are destroying your focus, you need to spend a day observing your activities. Write down everything that you do, keeping a running list on a piece of paper on your desk.
Yes, this can be a time killer in and of itself, but it will help you see where your time goes.
For example, you might notice that you spent 30 minutes on your personal Facebook account, or that you stop what you’re doing and pick up your phone every time that it goes off.
By tracking your time and activities, you’ll know what you need to eliminate in order to improve your concentration.
The problem with these distractions is that they destroy your focus. Constantly starting and stopping an activity is no way to succeed.
You’ll spend more time getting back into the proper mindset than you do working on the task.
As a result, your list of projects will just end up getting longer.
Next, let’s look at a few powerful tips and strategies that will help you quickly improve your focus.
Improving your focus isn’t as difficult as you may think.
By now you should have identified some of the things that are killing your concentration. It’s time to learn how to overcome them by hacking your mind.
You need to hack your mind in order to become more productive.
Once you have put these tips to work, you will be able to accomplish more in less time! Don’t be put off by the simplicity of some of them; try them and you will be pleasantly surprised.
Not everyone is at their most productive in the morning. Some think more clearly at other times of the day.
By adjusting your schedule to coincide with your peak brain activity, you’re setting yourself up to get more done.
So do what fits your preferred schedule, rather than trying to force someone else’s onto yours.
The Pomodoro technique is a time management tool that requires you to break your day into specific 20-minute periods, called Pomodoros.
This is a well-known technique and has been shown to work, so give it a go.
The internet is a major time distraction. Put your computer on airplane mode so that you can’t go online.
Don’t underestimate the draw of social media; it will draw you in if you let it, so ensure you won’t be distracted by any notifications.
This is very closely linked to the tip above. Every time your smartphone goes off, it draws your attention to it, not what you’re working on.
This is one of the most important tips to get a hold of and can instantly increase your focus.
Multitasking has negative effects on the brain. Studies have shown that it lowers your IQ. It also forces you to take longer to finish your tasks and makes you 40% less productive overall.
The multitasking myth has been around for many years, but the most successful people are laser focused on one task at a time, and if they are doing that, shouldn’t you?
It takes at least 21 days in order for a new activity to become a habit. Begin these new habits now, and before the month is out, you’ll be more productive than ever.
As you can appreciate, a lot of this is dependent on the way you think and if you want to know more about developing a good mindset for success, please click on the featured resource below for a free Strong Mindset report; download, read it and take action 😊
As you are probably aware, the current health situation has resulted in many more people working from home for the last 16 months or so. But is this going to become the new normal for people?
Working from home can be a real benefit to some people, but there quite a few people who don’t like working from home because they feel less productive.
Working from home requires a lot of self-discipline and isn’t for everyone. You can also find yourself working longer hours because there is no commute to and from a workplace and before you know it, it is 6pm already and your spouse is calling you down for dinner!
So, can you be more efficient when you work from home? Well, I believe the answer is ‘Yes’ but it does require effort and a shift in thinking and the way you may approach your to-do list for the day.
Let’s take a look at how you can become an efficient homeworker by applying a few simple hacks to make the most of your work hours to get stuff done!
Working at home gives people the flexibility to be at home, while still being able to collect a paycheck. But, does working at home automatically make you get more done?
Being able to spend more time with your family is another benefit people associate with working from home. You can be home when your kids come home from school. You’ll be able to go their afterschool activities such as sports games.
People who work at home learn that it has unintended challenges associated with it. For instance, while it’s nice to be around your family, are they letting you get your work done?
Are you spending too much time with your family that is taking away from your responsibilities to your job?
You need to work with your family to set up boundaries. This means you should dedicate a space like an office that you use to work. When you are in the office, your family needs to understand that interruptions are off limits, unless it’s an emergency.
You will also need to handle interruptions by neighbors that may visit. While many of your neighbors will be commuting to work, there are more people working from home today. This increases the chances that some of your neighbors are working from home as well.
It’s tempting when you see them outside, to see what they are up to, etc. It’s okay to do this once in a while, but don’t let it interrupt your job.
You may end up working more hours even when you factor in the lack of commuting. Your boss may be inclined to call you up after work hours and ask you to handle some tasks. If she does this to all employees, then you may not be able to do much to change that.
However, if she is singling you out because you work at home and she believes this gives her permission to call upon you, this may be something you need to handle.
And while you’re thinking about efficiency while working from home, what about your house itself; can that be more efficient too?
There is a lot of attention given to being greener. Aside from the political ramifications of the initiatives, making your house more efficient can help the environment but can also save you a decent amount of money.
Appliances are rated using the Energy Star rating system. The better the rating, the more you will save money. But, it’s a bit more complicated than this. You need to factor in the type of fuel your house uses.
The better the system, the more you will save with these appliances. So, even high rated appliances won’t do as well with an inefficient system.
While it is true that efficient houses command a higher selling price, you may not get as much as you put into making your house efficient.
Of course, you may still choose to move forward with changes because you want to be ecologically conscientious. There is nothing wrong with that. But, if your motivation was to save costs as well, there are other factors to consider.
You should also speak with your local municipality to find out if there are any rebates or tax incentives when making your house more efficient.
This is becoming a popular trend. You do have to meet certain conditions, and again, you have to weigh what you are spending on the benefits you receive. Also, with systems like solar, electric companies may be required to buy back unused power from your system.
Energy companies are also offering deals and incentives. For instance, you may be able to get free installation of solar panels offered by solar energy companies. They make their cost back from the percentage of energy that you save, or they receive the amount the electric company buys back from you.
You should consider speaking with your utility company as they often employ experts who are familiar with all the variables that you will have to deal with. Be aware that these consultants often work for the utility company so their motives may come into question. You should consider hiring your own expert to keep them on the level.
All this talk of efficiency requires a positive mindset and self discipline and if you want to know more about increasing discipline, then check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 😊
