Personal Productivity is all about how we use our time. The better we use that time, the more productive we become. There is nothing worse than getting to the end of the day (or week, or month) with the feeling that you have achieved nothing, or worse, you have no idea where your time went.

Today’s champion tip comes from Andrew May and contains some great tips on how to improve Personal Productivity

Andrew May

Andrew runs Switched On, a consulting company based in Sydney and London. He is one of Australia’s leading experts on performance and gives keynote presentations around the world and coaches CEOs and senior managers. He also runs PT Plus, a mentoring and coaching business.

What are your top tips for dramatically increasing personal productivity?

The first thing I teach people to do is to work to their natural energy platforms. Then I teach the concepts of chunking time, the half-day lock-out, forced isolation and avoiding the Noddy syndrome.

Chunking - at first thought, multitasking seems a logical response to our compressed and tightly-packed schedules. While doing a couple of tasks at the same time might sometimes feel more productive, multitasking is not nearly as productive as most people think.

Chunking is about doing similar tasks at the same time. While this is a very simple concept, it can make a massive difference to daily output. For example, check and respond to emails at two or three specific times a day only, and block out time to work on proposals and reports. Modify these ideas to fit into your job responsibilities, I’m sure most people have a lot more control over organising their day and their precious time than they think.

The half-day lock-out - a lot of people who have participated in our corporate programs have picked up the concept of an uninterrupted half-day. This lock-out means turning off the mobile, not checking emails, avoiding constant interruptions and walk-ins, and is best completed when your energy platforms are at their peak. Focus on being present and attentive on the task. This works especially well when you have to write a report, finish a proposal or do some high-end cognitive planning.

Forced isolation - I use this concept when I have a big task to finish. A friend of mine has an amazing holiday house two hours’ south of Sydney in a little place called Gerroa. I regularly shoot down to Gerroa and chunk my time working on finishing an activity (thanks Gary Green - you are a legend!). I find that when I am in the office, interruptions just happen! There is no email access at Gary’s house and I turn off my phone and work in chunks of time. I usually give myself a small energy break every 45 to 60 minutes and a larger energy break, to walk on the beach or swim in the ocean, every few hours. Over two or three days at Gerroa I get more work done than I would working at home or in my office.

If you don’t have the luxury of having a mate like Gary, build forced isolation into your current environment. I used to set up a desk in my garage and lock myself away from all of the noise of my flatmates. Working from home on a normal working day is also a form of forced isolation. Just make sure you don’t settle in and watch the TODAY show and then read the daily papers before turning on Oprah or Dr Phil.

Avoiding Noddy syndrome - I think most of us suffer from Noddy syndrome - always nodding ‘yes’ to please other people. Sometimes it’s hard to say no because you feel like you might be letting someone down, but in the end if you say yes to everyone and everything else in your life the only person you’re really saying no to is yourself.

I like the old saying, ‘Sometimes you need to say no for a great yes down the road’. Be assertive with others and practise saying no to other people’s requests if they are not essential. Whether you are doing so many things for ego, because you don’t want to let people down or because you are pressured into doing them, there comes a time when you must learn to say no.

The Small Business Champions Club website contains even more great tips from Andrew May. Click here to read more.

Try using these techniques right away, and you will start to improve your Personal Productivity.

Until next time
Samantha

Following on from the Olympics and ‘fairytales’ we have seen over the last two weeks, I thought it timely to look at goal-setting.

Today’s success tip from Andrew May looks at steps for successful goal-setting?

After he founded Good Health Solutions, which is now Australia’s largest corporate health and wellbeing consultancy, Andrew continued to work with professional athletes and is now considered one of Australia’s leading experts on performance.

What are your seven steps for successful goal-setting?

1. Ask yourself the right questions - what do you want and why do you want to achieve it? How much does it really mean to you? What are the benefits of achieving the goal? Who will be affected? Are you prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve the goal?

2. Involve significant others - don’t keep your goals to yourself. Enlist the support of your partner, family, friends and colleagues. This keeps you accountable, while at the same time forming a support group to keep you on track.

3. Get anchored - write your goals down on a sheet of paper, simplify them into point form and then display them somewhere you can view them regularly - your diary, office, car, even on the back of the toilet door.

4. Small bites - George Miller, a 1950s psychologist, believed that we can only deal with seven bits of information at any one time. Any more than this and we need to group things into more memorable, manageable chunks. So when you create your master plan for the New Year, keep goals to a manageable number and group similar areas.

5. Set a plan - after you have written down your specific goals, the next step is to work out a specific plan. Identify the key steps you need to take toward accomplishing your goals and assign specific dates for their achievement.

6. Project the future - review your goals at least every seven days (every day is ideal) - and don’t leave it for another year. This helps activate the Reticular Activating System (RAS). The RAS is an inbuilt goal-setting device that tracks us toward our target and filters the type of information we let into our internal system. Spend time thinking about what it will be like once you have successfully achieved your goals. How are you going to feel? We really do become what we think!

7. Be realistic and reward yourself along the way - it is important to reward yourself along the way as you tick off your achievements. Give yourself a pat on the back for sticking to the process.

And remember, humans make mistakes, so don’t beat yourself up if you lose focus. If you find yourself breaking resolutions or experiencing distractions, sit down and go through the goal-setting process again, starting from step one.

This website contains even more great tips from Andrew May.

Click here to read more now.

Until next time
Samantha