12 Secrets Of The Most Productive People

Some people are incredibly effective and efficient. They get lots of work done without making mistakes and often times leave others in awe. To be fair, everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. Whether you’re Beyonce or Kobe Bryant, they have the same amount of time as everyone else.

The truth is that you can massively increase your own productivity by understanding and using the secrets that highly productive people know. In the United States of America, people work an average of 45 hours a week and consider 16 of those hours unproductive. That amounts to more than just bathroom and coffee breaks. When you consider the opportunity cost of 35 percent of work time being unproductive, employers and employees need to take notice.

After having the opportunity to study the habits of super productive people, I’ve learned a lot about mastering productivity as an entrepreneur. Here are 12 secrets of the most productive people:

1. They Plan Their Day

Life is demanding. There is a steady stream of emails, texts, calls and ads that are screaming for your attention. If you are not able to focus on a set task, you’ll spend all day doing things that are not productive towards your goals.

To be uber-productive, you need to be vigilant about planning your day. Either the night before or first thing in the morning, make a short list of key tasks that you have to accomplish and map out when you plan to complete them. Without a specific plan, you have no way of knowing if you moved the ball forward or not.

2. Understanding “Peak” Times Of Day

Productive people have a good sense of their daily rhythm, which requires them to know when they perform the best. They recognize that not all hours are created equal and they maximize their ‘peak hours’ for the toughest tasks of the day.

Do you know when your ‘peak hours’ are? If you don’t, try doing the same thing each day at different times for a week. Figure out when you feel the most comfortable and most efficient with certain tasks. Understand yourself and work your daily schedule around your own strengths.

3. They Follow The 80/20 Rule

Known as the Pareto Principle, in most cases, 80% of outcomes come from only 20% of activities. Super productive people know which activities drive the greatest results and they focus on those while ignoring the rest. You have to figure out what the most crucial items are to your goals and focus on them!

4. They Delegate Almost Everything

Ultra-productive people don’t ask, “How can I do this task?” Instead, they ask, “Who can get this task get done?” They take the “I” out of things as much as possible creating more time in their lives. Productive people don’t have control issues and they are not micro-managers. They can let go and put other competent people in charge of things when needed.

5. Focusing On One Task At A Time

Productive people understand that multitasking is a nightmare. They don’t try to juggle five things at the same time. They focus on one task, the most important one at that time. Perhaps you’ve fallen into the trap of trying to work while you’ve got Facebook and Twitter open.

I know when I first started out, I’d check my inbox every few minutes, reply to text messages, watch television in the background and browse through my social media feeds. By trying to multitask, I started losing focus each time I had to switch between things. Pick one task to work on and see it through to completion. Then, pick the next task.

6. They Say No

If you can’t do something, say NO. Becoming a yes man is one of the most dangerous things that you can do. Productive people know how to draw boundaries and say no if there’s too much on their plate. Research shows that the harder time you have saying no, the more likely you are to experience stress, burnout and even depression.

Stop using phrases like “I’m not sure” or “I don’t think I can.” No is a powerful two-letter word, and if you want to be more productive, you need to get comfortable using it. Embrace the word NO and don’t feel bad using it because it’s best for you.

7. Eating Healthy Food, Especially At Lunch

Productive people know that they need to carefully manage their physical energy throughout the day. This honestly means fueling their bodies with good, nutritious food. What does your usual lunch look like? If you scoff down fast food at your desk, you’ll get a quick energy boost from all the simple carbs. However, you will also crash just as hard shortly after.

If you go out to a restaurant and eat a three-course meal, you’ll struggle to stay awake later in the day. Aim for a moderate-sized lunch and focus on foods that give you sustained energy (like whole grains and protein). Try fruit, nuts or seeds as mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks.

8. They Touch Things Only Once

How many times have you opened a piece of regular mail up and put it away to deal with it later? How often do you read an email and mark it unread so that you can deal with it later? If it takes less than five or ten minutes to deal with whatever it is, you should deal with it and get it out of your life right then and there. It reduces stress since it won’t be in the back of your mind and you’ll be far more efficient.

9. Exercising Regularly

Productive people make time to exercise. That might be one of the biggest surprises you may find about the super successful. Many busy people like to use the excuse that they don’t have enough time in the day to exercise.

I am going to the gym or working out 6 times a week. I quickly realized that making time for exercising was beneficial in multiple ways. Not only was I doing good for my body, but I realized that I was more efficient from the break I would take by going to the gym for an hour. I would come back to work with a fresh mind and find myself being far more productive.

10. They Lead With The Pain

Uber-productive people don’t push off the daunting tasks on their to-do list until the end of the day. If they procrastinated everything, these projects would never get tackled.

Do the least appealing and most dreaded item on your list first because that’s when you have the most energy. After you conquer the task, you’ll not only feel relieved but motivated to tackle another. Otherwise, you’ll spend the day with that task hanging ominously over your head.

11. Investing Time To Save Time

Productive people know that the smart choice is to spend a little bit of time right now in order to save lots of time in the future. If you start breaking down your schedule and you begin to focus on things that will save you time in the long haul, you’ll find yourself being far more productive.

12. Energy Is Everything

You can’t create more minutes in the day, but you can increase your energy throughout the day. This in return will increase your attention, focus, decision making and overall productivity. Highly successful people don’t skip meals, sleep or breaks in the pursuit of more success. Instead, they view food as fuel, sleep as recovery and breaks as a way to clear their minds.

Conclusion

If you want to boost your productivity, it’s not always about working longer. It often times involves working smarter. In this post, I shared with you 12 secrets of the most productive people.