Has the speed at which business is transacted in the 21st Century completely overwhelmed you? Now that we’re approaching the end of the year, have you been as productive as you’d hoped for? Do you find yourself flirting with disaster by constantly brushing up against deadlines? Are your work hours increasing without a corresponding increase in income or satisfaction? Do you wish you had more time in a day? Boosting personal productivity is virtually the only way for professionals to meet their earnings expectations, keep their sanity by maintaining a balanced life, and meet the ever increasing level of customer expectations. In today’s post I’ll provide some tips for how to manage your day instead of having your day manage you.
Let’s face it, productivity is the standard by which most of us are judged in the business world. Whether you like it or not, in most business environments your destiny is likely to come down to a “what have you done for me lately” type of evaluation. My question to you is this: Are you as productive as you think you are, or even as productive as you used to be, and would your co-workers agree with your assessment? In the text that follows I’ll share my thoughts about the things that adversely affect your ability to produce, as well as some of the key items that can leverage your ability to optimize productivity.
Even though entrepreneurs and executives are typically bright, talented and motivated people known for being highly productive, studies have shown that most professionals, when objectively assessed, are found to view themselves as being more productive than they really are. This is even true with the classic over-achieving type “A” personalities. So, what separates the productive from the non-productive? In working with countless executives and entrepreneurs it has been my experience that those professionals who like to cover a lot of ground and consider themselves masters of multi-tasking are not nearly as productive as those who have an ability to focus (see previous post entitled “The Power of Focus“).
Okay, let’s examine an all too common scenario: A senior executive has 30 minutes before the beginning of a strategy meeting which he/she is facilitating, and as the executive begins to prepare his/her final thoughts they receive an e-mail from legal asking them to review the latest version of an important contract before they go into the meeting. As they begin to redline the contract the executive receives an IM from the CEO asking for their immediate attention on a key issue. As they start to respond to the CEO their assistant informs them that an important client is on the phone and needs to speak with them immediately. As the executive begins to take the phone call they glance out their window only to see a small line forming outside their office door, and just then their phone goes-off with a 911 from their spouse…
The sad part about the aforementioned illustration is that for many executives this is standard operating procedure. The pressure to become a multi-tasking phenom is in my opinion at the root of a decline in executive productivity. Multi-tasking is choosing to deal with perceived “urgent” matters rather than focusing on truly “important” matters. My father once told me that “part-time efforts yield part-time results” and I have found that with rare exception his premise is correct.
Inbound telephone calls, voicemails, e-mails, instant messages, meetings, drive-bys (unscheduled interruptions), cell phones, social media interruptions, and any number of other items that compete for your attention will consume your day leaving you wondering where the time went. The reality is that more executives and entrepreneurs are overwhelmed by technology than actually demonstrate an understanding of how to leverage technology to their advantage.
Bottom line…If you’ll adhere to the principles described above you’ll actually have time to get your work done and have a life. With virtually nothing to lose and everything to gain, why not give it a try?
This website uses cookies.