Productivity is one of the most important skills to have when trying to be extremely successful. It’s rather simple, you have to figure out the best way to apply your skills, efforts and talents as it relates to time.
Early on in my entrepreneurial career, I was terrible with being productive. I was working 14-16 hour days and I realized that I still needed more time to get more stuff done. I quickly realized that it was a lack of productivity on my part that was causing this disparity in my life.
Since then, I’ve not only reduced the amount of hours I work on a daily basis but I am getting far more done than I ever have. I was able to accomplish this by taking a step back and finding a way to be far more productive. In this article, I share 5 strategies for having highly productive days:
1. Plan Your Day The Night Before
One of the quickest ways I increased my productivity was by being a little more organized. I did this by planning my days out the night before. I would set out a list of goals I had for the next day, what I had to get done and create a mini schedule the night before.
That single change made me extremely effective because I had a plan of action going into each day. Instead of trying to figure out the next thing to do the day of, I had a concrete schedule that allowed my day to fall into place. This saved me probably an hour, if not more on a daily basis.
2. Prioritize
The next most important thing for having a highly productive day is to prioritize your daily tasks from most important to least important. What are things that you MUST get done before the end of the day? What are things that you can get done later on in the day or aren’t crucial to the success of your day?
By prioritizing your days, you again have the ability to visualize what is important. Not only that, but entrepreneurs especially have a lot going on in their lives. It’s very easy to get distracted so prioritizing your tasks is a great way to stay focused while avoiding any outside distractions.
3. Exercise Daily
It seems crazy since you have to spend time exercising, but it makes a massive difference. When I began exercising, it not only created some balance in my life but it made me a lot more productive. That short 1 hour break I would take to go lift some weights or play some basketball made a massive impact on my work.
I was fresher and more focused from the break that I took in between my work. I was able to think more clearly and by getting my adrenaline pumped up, I was actually more motivated with my work. By adding an hour of exercise into my life, not only was it better for my health but it was increasing my productivity as well.
4. Learn To Say No
No is the most powerful word that you can use especially as you get busy. You have a vision and a goal for what you want to achieve in life. Anything that doesn’t align or somehow help you to your goals in life, you need to say no to that outside noise. Early on, I thought saying NO was some kind of taboo and I would say yes to everything.
As a result of that, my productivity was extremely poor. Once I learned to say NO to others and to things people asked me, all of a sudden I was far more productive. You need to be extremely disciplined with your goals, vision and plans so that you can stay focused on the path that you have created for yourself.
5. Don’t Multitask
If there is anything I can tell anyone not to do, it’s to not multitask. I was the biggest multitasker out there when I started out as an entrepreneur. I wanted to get everything done at once and I tried juggling multiple things every single day. Not only was my brain hurting, but I was getting less done than I should have been.
Focus on one thing at a time. Even if you have a ton of things going on at one time, take a break and focus on the most important one. From there, focus on the second-most important task and so forth. Do not multitask ever, spend your time focusing on one thing and your levels of productivity will shoot up.
Conclusion
In this article, I shared 5 strategies for having highly productive days. What are some strategies that have helped you have some really productive days?
