It’s not that hard to be productive

Your path to better productivity.

How do you become productive?

It’s easy really. You need to get into action and get things done. BUT…it’s not always that clear cut. Sometimes the stumbling block to being productive is knowing exactly what it is you need to do.

Where a lot of us get hung up is that we have a large task on our list or something that is a project. A few business examples that I’ve worked with my clients on are:

• Increase revenue
• Network more
• Have more clients
• Get organized

And while all of these can be key to reaching success, they are just a line item so to speak. There is no direction, time parameters, measurements and it certainly is not specific.

It’s really a wish list. That isn’t going to lead to better productivity. And since productivity leads to results, it “ain’t gonna bring you that either”.

So what will?

Learn 3 TOP Steps for Productivity.

Productivity actually means to produce. In order to produce you have to take an action.

I’m going to introduce you to my 3 TOP Steps for Productivity process.

1. Time
2. Organization
3. Prioritization

When you put all three of those together you get productivity.

We’ll cover each of them more as we go along and a previous blog was about why time is not on your side. You can read it here.

The key is how much time do you have in your day, week, month and even beyond. You may be able to tell me how much time you have in a day but what about a week or a month and beyond.

How much time do you have for your work? It is limited, even if you work for yourself.

That’s where people get tripped up. First step, know how much time you have. 

Because how can you schedule things if you don’t know what you have to work with. That is why so many people have too many things left over to do every single day, week and month.

Next is organization, once you know the time you have for what you are doing you can then begin to organize your activities into the time you have available.

And prioritization goes hand in hand with your activities. You’ll want to make sure you prioritize your to-dos ahead of time in order to create your TOP action steps that you will be easily able to produce the results on those.

 

Don’t forget to be specific.

When you use the 3 TOP Steps for Productivity be sure to know exactly what you mean when you say what you want.

Example: Increase revenue

What does increase revenue mean to you? When my clients give me something like that, I ask them, “increase revenue equals what?” Until they are clear on what it means, well…

It means nothing. You need it to mean something specific.

Like a math equation, when you say you want to increase revenue what does that equal? You need to know this so you’ll know what the action steps to do. So do you…

• Need more clients
• Raise your fees/rates
• Create new programs, products or services

And then from there you’ll again ask yourself, what does that equal? What do I need to do in order to get there? Start with one and then go from there.

Here is a quick example of my process:

1. Increase revenue = need more clients
2. Need more clients = how many more clients do I need
3. I need x more clients = how do I get them
4. How do I get them = make calls to previous clients or new contacts
5. Make calls to previous clients or new contacts = chance of new clients
6. Chance of new clients = chance of increased revenue.

Can you see how it works? From this example, you now know where you need to start, which is from the end. Make the calls and you’ll have a greater chance of increasing your revenues.

Your goal now is to make calls. How much time do you think it will take? Where will you put it in your schedule? And it should be clear that this is the priority for you each and every day until you get to your end result.

You get the picture.

I’m happy to help, if you need help with your productivity.

I offer a free 30 minute Design Your Success with Purpose session. I work with business owners to elevate and excel themselves to greater productivity and greater success. In this session, you’ll apply the 3 TOP Steps for your greater productivity and walk away with a very clear picture of what to do to get to where you are going. Schedule your free 30 minute session now.