1 Simple Technique for Improved Productivity

Is your life busier than before? Do you feel like you are on a treadmill?

One way to slow down the treadmill speed is to be more productive each day.

Instead of trying to do more each day, try to do less. That doesn't sound like it makes sense, does it? However, what you accomplish each day should be the high-impact activities. This way you'll use your time better and get more important things completed.

Start by taking one or two less important tasks from your list of daily activities. These are the ones that you could put off until another day, or even ignore completely.

This isn’t easy to do. We usually have difficulty saying no to anything or anyone. However, keep focused on what you will get from eliminating two less important tasks. You might get a moment to have a cup of tea, you could spend a few minutes enjoying your photography hobby, or you might be able to read a non-work article. Keep focused on your short term benefits, instead of trying to do everything on your list each day.

Have difficulty choosing the “less important” tasks? This could be because you don’t have an idea of what makes up your preferred mix of work, life, health, family, volunteering, etc. If you’d like to work on your life plan, to really get control over your life, then look at my life planning book: "Get Me Off the Treadmill!"

I know that without an idea of what I want my life to be like I can get buried in doing what others expect out of me, instead of what I want my day and life to be like. I simply jump from email request to email request without having a good picture of what I want to accomplish in the day. At the end of these days I feel like I wasn’t productive at all. Of course I wasn’t, I tried to do everything without a plan.

Try this technique for one day and watch your productivity soar!

Photograph by Valerie MacLeod