How to Be Productive and Really Accomplish Something This Year!

Wouldn’t it be great to really accomplish something big this year in your business or life? I am talking about something huge like writing a NY times best seller, scaling a business past the six figure level, and jumping so far ahead of your competitors it will be impossible for them to keep up? For most people, what’s separating them from taking the next big step in their lives is not a matter of knowing what to do, but simply having the time to do it. More often than not, millionaires got to the position they are in now not because they have a higher IQ or because they were ‘in the right place at the right time’, but because they were experts in managing their energy and accomplishing huge tasks like writing a best selling book in a small amount of time. They are masters of knowing how to be more productive. With all the new social networks, new avenues of communication, and ways to multi-task you would think it would be easier to accomplish more in less time. Yet, it seems the opposite happens for most business owners. Especially those whose work involves doing something online. Truth is, there are more avenues and ways of being distracted now than ever. Worst of all, many of these distractions are designed to give our brains no chance to resisted due to the way we are hardwired. This leads to us giving our limited energy and productivity to someone else. rnThe Truine Brain Theory and Productivity To learn how to be more productive, it is important to understand exactly how our minds work in the first place. Many established neuroscientists and evolutionary psychologists believe in what is called the Triune brain theory. This model states that our brain has evolved into three parts layered on top of each other. These parts are... The Reptilian complex: This part is responsible for instinctual behaviors like pulling your hand off a hot stove. The Paleomammalian complex: The part that is responsible for emotional feelings, reproductive behavior, and urges. The Neomammalian complex: The part which makes us human and is responsible for intellectual behavior like abstraction, planning, and preparation.rnIt is believed that these layers evolved on top of each other. rnMany of the distractions in life that keep us from being productive occur because they appeal to the paleomammalian part of our brain. Things like surfing Facebook, watching YouTube videos, clicking on an article with an interesting headline, and answering the cell phone all day ‘call’ to this chimp part of our mind. This forces us to drop what we are doing and pay attention. Corporations like Apple and large ad agencies know this and design their products and ads to force people to pay attention and split up their time. Things like iPhones, Youtube videos, and Yahoo.com slideshows are professionally designed to suck your time and made money. The key to really being more productive is to quiet the paleomammalian or chimp part of our brain, and use our intellectual neomammalian complex with what little energy we have during the day. rnTaking the First Steps Toward Being More Productive When it comes to being more productive, we only have about 2 hours of really good energy to apply per day. Unfortunately, most people spend it answering email, checking voicemail, and reading online articles instead of applying it to something that matters. The first part of being more productive is to eliminate distractions that take away from these 2 really good hours of energy. In the morning/afternoon when you feel the most alert, don’t waste time answering email, making routine calls, playing on the internet, or watching TV/online video Multitasking is a concept thought to improve productivity, but instead is a productivity destroyer. Do not carry around an iPhone/BlackBerry all day and answer email/texts 24-7. Set a later chunk of time to answer long emails and calls then turn off your business phone (carry a different one for emergency situations only). Let other business owners and customers know you this time you will be available to respond and when they should expect a response. Tools like Nanny for Chrome and Stay Focused allow you to put time locks on websites that can suck your time. Find a comfortable working space away from music, noises, and other workers that could potentially interrupt your work. Once you eliminate distractions, it is time to use your best energy to its maximum potential. They way to do this is what I call the 45-15-45 theory. rn45-15-45 Theory Start working with the task that means the most to your business or life. This is often a task which will need the most mental power and critical thinking skills. If you are not sure what task you need to apply the most effort to, list your business activities and assign each a level of importance on a 1-10 scale. Start with the highest number first and then work down to 1-2 throughout the day. 45-15-45 means you split up your work into a 45 minute segment (then take a 15 minute break), another 45 minute segment, (then take a break), and another 45 minute segment. Concentrate on your 10 and 9 activities for a 45 minute segment of time. Do not break up work and jump from project to project and then back again! Jumping from task to task is called fragmenting by productivity experts and is very detrimental to accomplishing big tasks. The reason for 45-15-45 is because the average healthy human can only focus for 5-45 minute segments of doing quality work. By straining your concentration, you will take steps backward in your business. It is essential to take breaks and free your mind from chunks of intense work to get more done. It is just important that you take these breaks correctly so they are not detrimental to your productivity. So in summary, three things that are destroying your personal productivity are FragmentationrnMulti-TaskingrnDistractions To combat these you must identify and eliminate distractions from your environment completely because our brains are hardwired to find and respond to these. It is also essential to concentrate your best 2 hours of energy in large blocks of 40-45 minutes with 15 minute breaks doing actives that require the most mental effort and are the most important to the success of your business and life. How are you going to be more productive this year? Let me know!