There have been many days where we wake up planning to have a very productive day. We start our day thinking of all the work that will get done on our to-do lists, only to find ourselves distracted and unproductive. It doesn’t matter how great our intentions are, something always comes up derailing our “fool-proof” plans, ruining any chance of getting things done. There are only two ways we can increase our work output: put in more hours, or work smarter. Successful entrepreneurs do both, with a focus on the latter.
To find out the hacks to a more productive workday, I spoke with seven high performing entrepreneurs. They provided excellent insight into what they do during their work week.
There’s more room for increased productivity by applying these hacks:
Tip 1: They say “No” to almost everything.
Everyone wants to be successful, because of that inexperienced entrepreneurs tend to say yes to everything. However, Ultra-Successful Mongol, Com Mirza, and many other successful individuals say no to almost everything. We only have a short 1,440 minutes in every day. Don’t give them away to just anyone. Invest those minutes into people and activities that matter.
Multi-millionaire Entrepreneur Mirza once said, “The contrastive between wealthy people and very wealthy individuals is that very wealthy people say ‘no’ to almost everything.”
Tip 2: They don’t use to-do lists.
Throw away your to-do lists. They are useless; instead, schedule everything on your calendar. Only 41% of objectives on to-do lists are ever actually done. Put another way, that’s 59% of productivity going to waste. And all those unfinished objectives lead to unwanted things like stress and insomnia because of the dreaded Zeigarnik effect.
Jeff and Jess Samis, founders of The Profit League, manage Facebook ads for over 25 successful business and are educating over 500 entrepreneurs on the ins and outs of Facebook ads. In order to do so, Jeff and Jess need to be effective with their time. Professionals put everything on their calendar and then work and live from that calendar so it’s safe to say that $1.5 million dollar day was scheduled. It’s like oxygen. Utilize a calendar and plan your whole day into 15-minute pieces. It sounds like a torment, but this will set you up in the 95th percentile of work wrapped up.
Tip 3: They Time Travel
Successful entrepreneurs like Zain Jan, Co-Founder & Chief Revenue Officer Sungrade Solar, beat procrastination with unique approaches such as using techniques like the ones mentioned in Chicken Soup For The Soul called time travel.
Your future self can’t be trusted because we are all “time inconsistent.” We may buy vegetables and think we’ll eat servings of healthy mixed greens all week; then, a week later, we toss out veggies spoiling out mush. What can you do right now to force our future selves to do the right thing? What argument can we come up with that will vanquish our future temptations of laziness and unproductivity.
Tip 4: They follow the 80/20 rule.
Entrepreneurs and Marketers follow the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, which states that generally speaking 80% of outcomes come from only 20% of activities. Ultra-productive people know what drives the best results, and focus on those and ignore everything else.
Ultra-productive individuals don’t ask, “How can I do this task?” Instead, they ask, “How can this task get done?” You must take the “I” as much as possible. For larger size companies, efficient individuals don’t have control issues and they are not micro-managers. What most people don’t realize is that in most cases, sufficient is, well, good enough.
Less is more when it comes to being productive during the workday. Stick to the basics for reaching productivity and may you finish months of work in a single week!
Tip 5: They focus only on one thing.
Extremely productive individuals center on their Most Vital Assignment (MIT) and work on it for one to two hours each morning, without intrusions.
Michael Leyson, Founder, and CEO of the Leyson Report states “Always start on the hardest and most important task of the day. It’s then equally important for you to train your mind to feel an insane amount for happiness when you complete a task. This way, over time, when you focus on only one task and complete it, you will feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment because you trained your mind to do so.”
What assignment will have the greatest effect on coming to your objective? What achievement will take your business to that next level? We invest ridiculous amounts of time into our work. To achieve excellence, you must invest the first part of your day towards executing your number one priority that will help build your business.
