November 24, 2009
One of my favorite magazines, Inc., the handbook of the American entrepreneur, has bestselling author Jim Collins on its cover and a fascinating interview inside. Here are some of the insightful tips Collins shares, with some of my personal observations:
~ Accept the idea that work is infinite and time is finite.Now, think about that for a moment. The work, let's face it, never ends. It will always be there. That's a downer, sure, but knowing that you can't possibly get everything there is to do done in one day... is kind of freeing.
~ Manage your time and not your work.Since work is neverending but life is short, it behooves us to look at our day in blocks of time (instead of as 'getting all the work done.' ) Allocate your blocks of time toward specific tasks or projects (try using a timer; I use mine throughout the day), and then move on to something else.
~ Create a laserlike focus on doing first things first.How you choose to prioritize your to-do list is up to you, because your day is not exactly like anyone else's, but here are hints: which task on your list is the most potentially revenue-producing? and/or, which task on your list have you been postponing the longest?
~ Have a ferocious understanding of what you're not going to do.
These days, I try not to dwell on the negative, but I still find it helpful to know where my productivity weak-spots are, and the activities I should avoid until the end of the day (hello, Twitter!)
~ Sift through the blizzard of info that hits you nonstop.
My personal productivity increased the day I decided to take current-events news feeds off of my start page. News-surfing, if it lasts more than five minutes, can be a productivity killer.
~ Do you have the discipline to not have your email on?A lot of people have just given up on this one, and check their iphones or blackberrys every ten minutes. I find it helpful to go online and opt-out of all the emailing lists and newsletters that I don't read. I solve the problem at the source, by decreasing the amount of email that makes it to my inbox. I do this every other month; it takes about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, which of these concepts do you believe you would find the most challenging to implement? Please leave your comments below!
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