A lot of people would like to be more efficient at doing things than they currently are. We envy that person who always seems to be getting things done and effectively.
Most people that you know or have heard about that like to get things done and work at their maximum efficiency have some things in common. They have paradigms that make them effective in every area of interest. Paradigm is something we can all relate to and change our ways of doing things and be more efficient.
What are those common things that these highly productive people have that you have been wondering about?
Let’s analyze together and try these couple practices for our effectiveness, stay motivated, and energized throughout the day.
1. Start with Your Goals in Mind (Most important thing first)
Knowing what to do is good, but knowing why you’re doing it is better. Besides knowing what to do, Effective people always know the ‘why‘. They set up long-term and short-term goals and ensure that their short-term goals support their long-term goals.
Highly effective people have a purpose and everything they do is enlightened by that purpose.
Instead of being routine-oriented, they are driven to accomplish their goals and entitled to eliminate obstacles faster and don’t let distractions get in their way to achieve their goals.
Always get your goals set, then define success on your own terms. When you have a clear view of your goals and you care much about what you want to achieve it becomes much easier to stay focused on that path.
Though highly effective people establish goals, they prepare their minds to achieve those goals.
2. Effective Mind Preparation
Like you need to warm up and stretch your body before an intense workout, you also need to warm up the mind to be fully ready for any challenge you will encounter in your journey to achieve your goals.
There are many things you can do to get your mind prepared. I will mention the ones that most experts talk about and advise you to do daily.
1. Good Night Sleep: Doctors advise getting at least 7 hours of night sleep as it is good for the body and the brain. It helps the mind to refresh for a beautiful new day. Lack of sleep is dangerous for the body but also for the brain as it slows the brain’s reaction time and responsiveness.
2. Daily Workout: Studies have shown that physical exercise is not only good for the physical body (muscles) but that it helps the brain improve memory and thinking functions, for as little as 15 minutes session. Then always allow ourselves to drink a good amount of water because our body and our brain function are better when we’re well hydrated.
3. Meditation: –Many research shows that listening to slow, and calm music is good for the body and the mind, meditation is a great way to calm the mind down as it allows a good flow of ideas and facilitates a clear thinking process. Most experts use some form of meditation as it allows them to be more creative, reduce their level of stress and anxiety, and boost the mind in the learning process.
4. Priming: I have watched Tony Robbins’ seminars, and conferences and read his books, something I noticed is that he gives his audience a couple of ideas on how to prime themself as he states that these technics have helped him energize over the years.
He said in some of his videos that to start a good day you to do these three things for at least five minutes:
- You need to stand up then breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, as you’re breathing at a rapid pace add on bouncing up and down using your calves to allow your entire body to feel the movement. Repeat this for about 30 reps or more. Then …
- Sit down and have your eyes closed. As you have your eyes closed think about 3 things you’re grateful for which allows you to say thanks for what you have and eliminate fear, anxiety, and stress in your life.
- Think of 3 things that you want to accomplish for the day and visualize yourself as if you’re already done.
3. One thing at a time (Don’t Multi-task)
It is hard to handle two tasks at once we all know that. the thing with multi-tasking is that your focus will never be 100% on each task and it slows down effectiveness. while doing one thing at a time makes you more effective. you can focus your attention on the most important task first then when you’re done you move to the next.
Many types of research have also shown that doing multiple things at a time doesn’t make you effective and can make you look stupid. You might agree or not but the reality is that you can’t be 100% focused on doing multiple things at the same time. Every time you switch from one task to the next it takes time to regain your full focus which becomes costly for you and any business you do.
Anne Ihnen and Carolyn Flynn have discussed the bad effect of multitasking in their book, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Mindfulness,” stating that multitasking does not allow your brain to rest between tasks, which wastes time in refocusing on the most important task that needs to be performed.
Attempting to perform too many activities at once can cause your stress levels to increase which can lead to burnout. Productivity can be reduced and has a negative impact on a company’s profits due to the level of anxiety associated with multitasking at the office.
Focus your full attention on doing one thing very well then once you are done with that do the other thing and so on.
Life happens and sometimes we can multitask like when working out and listening to audiobooks since both tasks use different faculties.
If you manage to eliminate multitasking you will for sure develop much more productive habits and become effective at your best potential.
4. Break your Goal into small pieces to Avoid Procrastination.
Procrastination is what kills people’s dreams as they miss to achieve what they really want and before they realize somebody else created what they failed at. Sometimes people procrastinate because they feel like their goals are too big to be achieved and end up discouraged.
Breaking down your task to achieve your goal into a small piece will help you do something every day on the road to realizing your dream. It will also help stop procrastination.
Sometimes it is because the task is large and not very specific that you don’t know where to start. If you break them into smaller and very specific tasks could allow you to get them done more effectively.
5. Practice intermittent learning.
Every day try learning something new that will move you toward your goals. Learning is a process inevitable in realizing any goal. Practice what you learn daily on your tasks as you go, because as Napoleon Hills says in Think and Grow Rich “Knowledge is only potential power. It becomes power only when, and if, it is organized into a definite plan of action.”
Also, sincere learning involves a permanent change in how you see the world around you and how you act in it. It changes your cognition and your behavior.
Also, know that anything you want to achieve today somebody already tried it before you, and also there is nothing wrong with using what is already available to achieve your goals.
We live in an era where you can learn anything you want. how you learn it depends on you. There are different forms of mentors to help you get there: biographies, audios, books, videos, and many other knowledge sources if you seek them.
6. Be Persistent
Most people fail to achieve their goals because they lack persistence. We tend to expect immediate results as soon as we are doing something while results sometimes take a little time to be seen.
A lot of people don’t understand that those who succeed also face hardship at some point in their journey. the only difference is that they don’t let themselves lose motivation, they are persistent in achieving their goals.
Most of the time success only occurs just one step away from where we encounter our failure, but a lot of people get discouraged and give up on their dreams. In fact, the bigger your goal is the longer it will take to achieve it.
Don’t give up on your dreams just because you’re not getting instantaneous results.
As you progress in your journey to be more effective at getting things done you will learn about more habits that highly effective people have in their daily lives, don’t be afraid to make changes as you go.
Innovation is key to improvement, and society always strives for better.
