Hide Notes 

Slide 1: Improving Productivity 6 Secrets to Improve Personal Productivity that will Transform your Business, your Health & your Effectiveness A Wealth – Health – Self production Wealth – Health – Self is an online publishing, coaching & information products organization. To sign-up for your free report entitled ‘SuperCharge Your Online Business’ & to receive the regular Ezine, please visit: http://wealthhealthself.com © 2012 Wealth – Health – Self. All Rights Reserved.
Slide 2: Background I developed this report as a result of a series of blog posts I wrote at http://wealthhealthself.com. My readers asked me to create a single report with the posts in it….. so here it is! It’s all about improving your personal productivity. If you take action as a result of reading this report, it may just transform your business, your health & your effectiveness. Time management, personal productivity or whatever you want to call it is never far from the forefront of the entrepreneurial mind. Why – because we want to get more great work done in as shorter timeframe as possible. That’s how entrepreneurial businesses create sustainable and profitable growth. Your personal productivity is made all the more difficult when we are constantly hit by those distractions around us…. I don’t have to remind you what they are! Here are the six posts in summary: 1. Part 1: 2. Part 2: 3. Part 3: 4. Part 4: 5. Part 5: 6. Part 6: Where Did Time Go? Your Daily Success Ritual. Spend Focused Time on the Important Projects. Eliminate Distractions. Dedicate Time for Reflection & Planning Every Day. Go Get Some Sleep. I recommend that you read each of the 6 sections in detail. It may just help you improve your efficiency. In fact, I guarantee it. If you don’t agree, let me know – just email me at: jr@wealthhealthself.com. Page | 1
Slide 3: Improving Productivity Part 1: Where Did Time Go? So here’s Part 1…. Leading a life where you are constantly rushing around will lead to health problems, burn out and poor relationships. It’s where I was not too many years ago… This is incredibly powerful. If you’re like I used to be (start each day with creating new goals every morning for weight loss, project completion, relationship building or whatever) then this article is for you. “There’s just not enough time in the day”. “I’m just too busy to do everything” “I start the day with the right intentions, but always fall off the wagon at the first hurdle”. “If I could survive on less sleep then I could get more done in 24 hours” I don’t know about you, but this is the kind of thing I was telling myself EVERY – SINGLE – DAY. Everything was urgent. It needed to be completed right now. Far removed from when I was a child when time always appeared to be on my side. So much more seemed to be possible in any single day. May be it was…. Okay, as you get older commitments change (for most of us, there’s a sharp increase in our obligations) – job, family, paperwork, etc. and there appears to be less free time available to do those urgent things. Page | 2
Slide 4: For a moment though just step back in to when you were a child and walk your way through a typical day. You’ll be amazed at what you actually achieved. Here is mine… • • • Up at 8:00am (reluctantly, of course!) School for 9:15am. 4x 70 minute lessons in the school day (that’s only 4 hours and 40 minutes work! leaving lots of social time & play time – great for relationship building). • • • • • • Finish school at 3:30pm. Play soccer with local team. Dinner with the family (remember what that was like!) Television / play time with friends. Homework – yip, I always did it somehow. Bed for 10pm (reluctantly!). Now look at a typical day when I was an employee… • • • Up at 5:00am (very reluctantly, of course!) In the office for 6:00am (first in, last out mentality) Catch up on email and plan for the day until 7:00am (good work, not great work). • 7:00am – 6:00pm wall-to-wall meetings (errr, believe it or not, yes… this was my daily life) • 6:00pm catch up on email and actually do some work (good work, not great work). • • • • • Leave office at 7:00pm (typically without seeing daylight). Home for 7:30pm (not much quality time with the family). Read the children a story each (not much connection time). 8:00 – 11:00pm vegetate; too knackered to do anything else. Go to bed at 11:00pm or even later. Page | 3
Slide 5: So I spent probably 3 times longer every day doing work as an employee than I did learning when I was at school. Quite horrifying fact! But this is what got me….. when I actually analyzed it. What I learned and did in those 4 hours and 40 minutes in school lessons was far higher than my output during a typical 13 hour day at the office. It blew me away….. and then I started thinking about the importance of improving productivity. How could I get from the day rather than just get through the day (that’s another great Jim Rohn quote). My role in the office was SURVIVAL – just make sure that I got through unscathed; nothing about efficiency or productivity or delivering great work. There simply wasn’t time. I was in bloody meetings all day! One more thing I tell people when they reflect on their childhood and how children think and act. It comes down to ONE word – SIMPLICITY. As over-burdened stressed-out adults, we tend to over-complicate life. It starts with the simplest decisions. We just can’t make them. Take it one step further and think about the comfort layer we put around ourselves every day. AND then think of your childhood. Nothing was ever too much – whether it was a new activity, new environment, new friends, you took everything in your stride. So why is it as adults we become so bloody anal! Think about it. It’s just so true… Here’s an exercise I ask you to complete before the next post. It won’t take more than 10-20 minutes. And you’ll be amazed when you find out where the day goes…. Page | 4
Slide 6: Exercise: 1. Spend 10 minutes writing down a typical day when you were a child at school. Think about it vividly. You will be amazed at how much you can remember from your school days. 2. Spend 10 minutes writing down a typical work day right now. 3. Spend 10 minutes writing down a perfect day when you do GREAT WORK away from the distractions around you at the office. Check out the next article in this series over the next few days…. Page | 5
Slide 7: Improving Productivity Part 2: Your Daily Success Ritual I am sure you want to end your day as you started it? ….and that means productive! I was always in a rush. I woke up, showered, dressed and got into the office as quickly as I could. Not because I loved what I did. BUT because I foolishly thought that the longer I spend in the office the more work I actually did. Doing this occasionally is OK, but doing this every day is NOT CONDUCIVE to a long lasting happy life…. • • What happened to the healthy breakfast? What happened to the quality time with the family before they went to school? • What happened to the daily exercise you committed to before hitting the office? • What happened to your ‘self-time’ in the morning? If you’re struggling to answer any of the above, then don’t despair! You can change all that starting tomorrow… but only with a bit of strategic planning. Before we jump into developing a daily success ritual, let me explain why I believe it to be so important to complete it FIRST THING in the morning. What you do in the morning sets the context for how your day will develop. You will judge everything else that you do against the ‘framework’ you established in the morning. If you get the morning right, you’re likely to have a more successful and productive day. If you Page | 6
Slide 8: get the morning WRONG, say for example, you skip breakfast, and then you’re likely to start eating junk by mid-morning. I am sure that you know exactly what I mean! By having a great morning…. and then a great day, you start building MOMENTUM. A great day will lead to a great week, and so on…. this really works. You’ll start feeling good about yourself very quickly. Your morning success ritual will really help you become stronger. So let’s get into some specifics about my morning success ritual. Use this as a start point for developing your own or start with a clean piece of paper. My daily ritual includes: • • • • 15 minutes exercise. 15 minutes shower / dressed. 15 minutes learning something new (article, book, etc.). 15 minutes healthy energizing breakfast with the family. I comply with this routine 80% of the time. If I don’t comply, usually as a result of my travelling or I have a special engagement, then I am NOT AS PRODUCTIVE. I go from being pro-active and having everything planned, into a reactive mode…. this typically means getting less done. You should target GREATER THAN 80% compliance. It’s never going to be perfect. You’d be fool to punish yourself if you miss a morning. Just make sure that you quickly get back on track… don’t let any bad habits creep back into your lifestyle. You should start off easy with one or two items. Once these have become habitualized, start adding other elements to your ritual. If you Page | 7
Slide 9: start with a ritual that’s too complicated, you’ll fail. You’ll be back at square one again in no time at all. Also, make sure that you plan your morning ritual in detail. If you have exercise planned in your ritual, you don’t want to be spending 20 minutes trying to find your exercise clothing; prepare accordingly. Exercise: 1. Spend 30 minutes developing your morning success ritual. For the first week include only 2-3 items. Don’t over-complicate things! 2. Next, make sure that you DO your morning ritual every day for the next 14 consecutive days. Get it habitualized! Don’t take these exercises lightly. It doesn’t matter if you are the founder of your own online business, or an employee in a large corporate. Implement a daily success ritual into your morning routine… starting tomorrow! Once you’ve completed the above exercises, let me know how you got on. Page | 8
Slide 10: Improving Productivity Part 3: Spend Focused Time on the Important Projects before Doing Anything Else This is a big one! I hope you get this. If you do, you will transform the QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF GREAT WORK that you deliver. Let me start by asking you a question… What’s the first thing you do in the morning when you start your day’s work? No lies. No BS. Tell me the truth! In fact, you don’t need to tell me the answer. I already know. You open your email client and check your inbox. And after that…. you are more than likely to check a few News websites to see what’s going on in the world, or check the latest on your investment portfolio. That’s not really a great way to start things off on a positive footing… I’m going to start with email. Now, don’t get me wrong, email (when used in the appropriate way) is a great communication tool. BUT it is so often (if not always) abused. I can summarize email in one simple sentence…. “Email allows others to set your daily agenda” Page | 9
Slide 11: So it doesn’t matter how well you started the day or even planned the day, all that changes if you run off doing ‘urgent’ assignments as a result of reading your email. Forget it. Ignore it. Instead, I’ve got a much better proposition for you. Listen to this… “Spend the first two hours of the day focused 100% on your most important project that supports your long term goals”. I don’t propose that you work 2 hours solid without a single break period. Your mind can’t focus for that length of time. Here’s what I do… I work for 55 minutes, then take a 10 minute break (take a stroll, have some water, few push-ups…. whatever, just take a break) and then go again for 55 minutes. It doesn’t matter whether you are an employee or the founder of an online start-up company. Do some great work. You’ll be amazed at the results you’ll get if you do this EVERY – SINGLE – DAY. I can guarantee right now that you can easily get distracted. It’s oh so easy to open up your web browser and email client every few minutes or take that phone call from a friend or work colleague. That’s just not conducive to improving productivity. If you’re going to work, DO GREAT WORK! Results won’t happen instantaneously, but your important projects WILL get completed quicker. The quality of the work will Page | 10
Slide 12: be much better because you are focused wholly on the task at hand without being side-tracked all the time. Research has shown time and time again that if you are diverted (to quickly read an email, for example) it takes you ANOTHER 20 minutes before you are fully focused again. Wow! By now you should have kicked off your daily morning success ritual. I’ve now provided you with another great tool to improving productivity – focus 100% on your most important project for the first two hours of every work day. Here’s a great excuse I often hear… “The office environment doesn’t allow me to focus for two hours on one task first hand. I have meetings to go to, etc.” Simple answer here, get to work earlier. Get a head start on your competition by starting the day one hour before everyone else. Oh, and by the way, the first time I check my email… not before 12:00pm. And if you’re really worried about what people will think if you don’t respond to their email first thing in the morning, just let them know that you don’t do email in the morning If it’s something really important there are more efficient ways of tracking you down. Don’t give in! Exercise: 1. Spend 15 minutes writing down your TOP 3 PROJECTS you are currently working on that support YOUR long term goals (I would hope that you already know these). Page | 11
Slide 13: 2. Spend 15 minutes planning what you will achieve this week, and over the next month, WHEN YOU FOCUS 100% for two hours at the start of each work day on your most important projects. Go do it EVERY – SINGLE – DAY. Don’t dismiss these simple productivity tools. If you’re planning your escape from the RAT RACE, these tools will become crucial for you to succeed. Page | 12
Slide 14: Improving Productivity Part 4: Eliminate Distractions So you’re probably asking yourself right now, what the hell has a picture of Steve Jobs got anything to do with improving productivity? The simple answer is… EVERYTHING Just think of everything that guy delivered in his short lifetime: • Created Apple and popularized the home desktop computer. • Popularized graphical user interface, different text fonts, and the mouse. • Created NeXT and developed the operating system which would ultimately power every single Apple Computer. • CEO of Pixar that went on to create the Toy Story franchise. • Created the most beautiful Apple computers – have you ever used the Macbook Air? It’s phenomenal. • Brought to us the iPod… remember ’1000 songs in your pocket’? • • Revolutionized the mobile phone industry with the iPhone. …AND finally introduced the iPad tablet. … nothing short of incredible. A genius? Undoubtedly YES! But there’s more to it than that. Page | 13
Slide 15: Do you think this guy was caught up with distractions as these product innovations were evolving? His single-mindedness in his approach and unwavering focus are legendary. He had a vision for his products and he eliminated all distractions to achieve that vision. It is key for improving productivity. You need to do the same if you are to succeed on your entrepreneurial journey. Unfortunately, the incredible technological advances over recent years have led to an exponential growth in the number of potential distractions that are put in front of us. They are all seeking to grab our attention at any time and take us away from completing our most important project. When I was (much) younger I didn’t have to worry about email. It didn’t exist. Neither did the internet for that matter. I just had the television to deal with. Oh, if only life were that simple right now! If only… Dealing with the television is relatively easy. Just don’t switch it on! Avoid the tendency to watch garbage soap opera programs that provide as much intellectual value as a typical tabloid English newspaper. I just quit watching television when I was setting up my own business. Did I miss out on life? I don’t think so… and I feel all the better for it. Even now, I only watch the odd game of English soccer on the box once or twice a week. OK, so that was the easy one. Page | 14
Slide 16: Perhaps the biggest hurdle to overcome is having ‘the need’ to always be connected… This is a difficult one that I only managed to cure myself once I quit my job. In the corporate world I was constantly worried about any emails, calls or messages that were coming my way. As a result my ‘Crackberry’ never left my side. First thing I did after I switched my alarm clock off in the morning (I used my Blackberry as my alarm clock) was to check my overnight emails! What a great way to start the day! So instead of spending quality time in the shower thinking about how cool the day was going to be, I was worrying about the consequences of what had just arrived in my inbox. TALK ABOUT STRESS! They were great days!?!?!? But eliminating distractions can have positive benefits for everyone, not just for the worried employee. Here are the two areas I’m going to be focusing in this post: • Eliminating distractions for 2 hours every day whilst you are focusing on your most important project; and • Creating a POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT around you that is conducive to improving productivity. 100% Focus for 2 Hours Every Day The number of opportunities for distraction is endless. The mind is constantly looking for them. It’s your job to eliminate them. To Page | 15
Slide 17: do that you need to go through an admission phase (openly admit what easily distracts you) and then assess how you can eliminate them one-by-one. Here are some examples: • • • • • • Email. Surfing the internet. See what your buddies are doing on Facebook. Instant messaging. Telephone. Colleagues in the office. The cutthroat way of dealing with the first four items is to work offline on your computer (i.e. remove any network connection) or don’t work on a computer at all. Trust me; this is difficult to do at first. It’s like giving up any bad habit. It takes time and a lot of selfcontrol! Okay so some of you may have to do some internet research as part of your most important project. If you do, then you MUST close down Outlook (or any other email client), Skype and any other internet messaging service and other online distractions such as Facebook. And once you’ve switched them off, keep them switched off! No excuses. You have priority work to focus on. You’re going to MISS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN LIFE DURING THOSE 2 HOURS. So what do you do about the telephone? Unplug it or switch it off. Simple! Alternatively go to an area or room where there is not a telephone to distract you. If you’re serious about improving Page | 16
Slide 18: productivity, then GET SERIOUS about eliminating these distractions. And finally… your work colleagues. If you don’t have your own office, this can be troublesome. One way is to get into the office earlier than anyone else (a trait of some of the most successful entrepreneurs) and really dive into your project. Alternatively, find a room or office where you have the agreement that you will NOT be distracted. Be firm with people, including your boss. Creating a Productive Environment around You Productivity killers are all around you from the moment you wake up to the moment you finally hit the sack. We’re all given 24 hours in a single day. Your ‘job’ is to make the most out of each day and to be successful in that, you need to MANAGE YOURSELF BETTER than you are doing today. Have a think about some of these examples and how they are impacting your productivity: • • How much television are you watching? Do you have friends and colleagues around you that are supportive in your endeavors? • Are you constantly living in a grey zone? (i.e. when you are with the family you are thinking about the next steps on your big project AND when you are focusing on your big project you are feeling guilty about not spending quality time with the family). Page | 17
Slide 19: • How much time do you spend each day surfing the internet aimlessly. • • Do you spend quality time with friends and family? Do you protect 30 minutes every day for YOURSELF (reflection and planning time)? I could go on and on. It’s so important for you to assess your environment at home and in the office to assess where opportunities appear to eliminate distractions in your life. Once you’ve done this, the opportunities in improving productivity AND other aspects of your life are endless. Exercise: 1. Identify all of the opportunities for distraction that can hit you during your 2 hour major project time. Next, write down next to each item, how you are going to eliminate that distraction once and for all. 2. Identify all the areas in your life that create a disruptive or destructive environment. Next, write down next to each item, how you are going to eliminate these elements from your life. That was a much longer section than I was first anticipating, but understanding, and then eliminating, distractions are key to improving productivity. Page | 18
Slide 20: Improving Productivity Part 5: Dedicate Time for Reflection & Planning Every Day Today is about personal reflection time, grading your daily performance, & planning for the following day. It’s very powerful stuff. Most ‘average’ think all this self-time is all a bit ‘woo-woo’. Don’t listen to people like that, they only pull you down. All I can tell you right now, before we get into the meat of this article is that by using the techniques that I am going to show you EVERY – SINGLE –DAY, you will be improving your daily productivity. It’s guaranteed! By the way, I hope you’re enjoying this special report on Improving Productivity. My daily goal is to apply these tools and techniques with 100% compliance, but typically achieve around 80%. Trust me even at this level, you are 80% better than the everyone else, so don’t punish yourself and seek perfection; that only leads to a life of misery. So here goes, no pre-amble, just great content… Page | 19
Slide 21: Daily Personal Reflection Time You should dedicate 15 minutes every day to reflect… on today [once a week you should spend a longer period of time reflecting on the week and the month, but I’ll talk about that elsewhere on this W H-S blog]. Here are the questions I ask myself and my thoughts on how you should reflect on the day: • Did you complete your daily success ritual? Are there any areas you could improve? • Did you complete the task of focusing 2 hours on your most important project? Were there any distractions that you could help improve your performance tomorrow? • Out of your other daily priorities, which did you achieve and which did you fail to achieve? If there were certain tasks that you failed to deliver, UNDERSTAND WHY and put the corrective actions in place for tomorrow. • How do you feel? Do you feel energized and alert? Or do you feel sluggish because you didn’t sleep well or you have something bothering you or you have eaten garbage? What can you learn from this to implement immediately tomorrow? • If today was a day for doing some exercise, did you do it and did you do it well? Remember the principles for getting active… o Walk every day (15 minutes). o Do some body resistance training 2-3 times per week (15 minutes). Page | 20
Slide 22: o ‘Hit your max’ by sprinting once per week (15 minutes) Grade Your Daily Performance Reflecting on how you perform every day is excellent. But do be successful, and I mean really successful, you need to grade your performance. Measure yourself. I’ve written about this in detail at Wealth – Health – Self… You can find out more here: http://wealthhealthself.com/personalphilosophy-performance/ To make improvements in your life and in others, you need to perform at your best consistently. AND I KNOW NO BETTER WAY to know how well I am performing than measuring and tracking my performance. Here’s how I do it using the 10 Rules I Live By… For each of the 10 personal rules, you should grade yourself as follows: 2 = Delivered. 1 = Made the effort but didn’t quite get the end result. 0 = Failed miserably. Your maximum score is 20. You need to target a score of 16 or higher consistently to be performing well. Between 8 and 15, you are still learning and improving. Anything less than 8 and you don’t need me to tell you that some improvements in how you live your life are required. Page | 21
Slide 23: Planning your Day Daily So now you’ve reflected on your day and graded your performance. Now it’s time to implement what you’ve learnt AND integrate them with tomorrow’s priorities to ensure you have a really effective day. 95% of people don’t plan their day AND as a result, their major goal of the day becomes surviving the day rather than GETTING FROM THE DAY. You need to get from the day consistently to learn, to grow, and become successful. You want to be different right? Well just spend those quality 15 minutes at the END OF THE WORK DAY planning what you want to achieve tomorrow. These could be your ‘top 5′ work tasks or ‘how you’re going to live by your 10 personal rules’. It’s up to you as to how you plan. Find out what works for you. If you don’t do this, the inevitable will happen. Your day will become reactive and I guarantee that the first thing you will do to assess what you need to get done that day… You’ll switch on your email… and we all know what happens next! So in summary, at the end of each work day, commit to doing each of the following to improve your productivity: 1. Daily personal reflection time. 2. Grade your daily performance. 3. Planning your day daily. Page | 22
Slide 24: Don’t forget, I’d love to think what you think of this report; send me an email at: jr@wealthhealthself.com Page | 23
Slide 25: Improving Productivity Part 6: Go Get Some Sleep This section is the final one of this ‘IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY’ series. I hope you’ve been following all the tools, techniques and advice? If not, you’re clearly not serious about your life as an entrepreneur and how you can make each day more productive. Today I’m going to be talking about SLEEP, and why you seriously need to get more of it. If you are anything like I used to be, you’re probably thinking right now that that’s the last thing you want to hear. I used to try and train my body to get as little sleep as possible. Could I get away with 5 hours or even less? The answer is ‘of course’, but my bottom line productivity diminished at an incredible rate. Rather than spending quality time focusing on the priority projects, my mind was in a constant fuzzy state with a tendency to be wishing about the next time I could hit the sack. Not an ideal mental state for innovation or doing great work. And that’s the point. If your job is transactional in nature (basically doing repetitive tasks), stretching the mind is not required. But that’s not you. The conclusion to my ‘sleep experiments’ were pretty definitive. The amount of great work completed the day after less than 6 hours sleep was on average a whopping ZERO. Not only was I completely shattered, but I was short tempered, unsociable…. and after a while, felt pretty god-damned burnt out. I felt like Page | 24
Slide 26: crap, ate like crap and couldn’t really be bothered to do any exercise. Note: 40% of people in the USA get less than 5 hours sleep per night! Anything more than 6 hours (at least) stopped the yawning during the day and allowed a better level of focus. But to do great work – work that was going to make a difference – I needed a minimum of 7 hours sleep….. but to operate at my best between 8 – 9 hours was my optimum. Now this took a bit of shift in my thinking & my lifestyle. But the change in my productivity AND MY OVERALL HEALTH was incredible. I can only recommend that you do the same. I know that may be this isn’t what you want to hear, especially if you’re trying to restrict your number of hours sleep. I’ve just learned to live with it AND ENJOY IT. Sleeping is great and so is doing great work. So it’s a bit of a win – win all around! But there’s more to this than just my own experiences. Here’s the science…. Just think of your ancestors – their life was governed by the daily rising & the setting of the sun. That’s how we evolved and that’s how our sleeping & eating patterns evolved congruent with hormone secretions, brain wave patterns, & cellular repair & regeneration. Remember this was all based on a 24‑hour cycle. The introduction of artificial light interfered this, & as a result disrupts some of the processes for which we are dependent to be Page | 25
Slide 27: healthy, happy, focused & PRODUCTIVE. Now I’m not suggesting that you hit the sack as soon as the sun sets to be operating at your optimum, especially since the level of activity we get vs. our ancestors thousands of years ago, is significantly less. AND it’s not just about the quantity of sleep. Perhaps more important is the quality of sleep (uninterrupted and not medication or alcohol induced). During sleep, the recovery of muscles, organs and bodily systems are accelerated. This is driven by the sleep hormone called melatonin which increases in its production later in the day. As natural light increases in the morning, melatonin production is suppressed and serotonin production increases (your very own feel good hormone). The result – you wake up feeling great and refreshed. Some Ideas for you to get a Great Night’s Sleep • Create the ideal sleeping environment: Avoid any level of stimulation in the bedroom (apart from you know what…) – this includes televisions, computers, etc. • Go to bed and get up at consistent times: This will optimize hormone flow and ensure you have great sleep cycles. If you can, try and align your sleep time with natural darkness. • Start to relax before you hit the sack: Don’t watch the news or do any kind of work. If you are going to read, avoid anything heavy going and instead read a fictional novel. Page | 26
Slide 28: • Eat & drink the right things: Avoid anything caffeine or alcohol-related for 4-5 hours before bedtime. Don’t listen to those that tell you that alcohol helps them sleep. Instead, it severely disrupts the quality of sleep and you wake up feeling knackered. So that’s it….. you now have my complete set of tools to improving productivity. Implement them starting today. They won’t cost you a cent. I can guarantee that they WILL help you to reach your goals quicker than you thought possible. Let me know what you think about this report – I want to hear from you at jr@wealthhealthself.com. To sign-up for your free report entitled ‘SuperCharge Your Online Business’ & to receive the regular Ezine, please visit: http://wealthhealthself.com. Page | 27