Why do some people like Elon Musk get so much done in the same 24 hours that you and I have?
I think everyone agrees that we have too little time. But you can hardly change the number of hours in a day. Well what you do in this time.
In the end it comes down to your priorities. If it really matters to you, you make sure you have time for it.
There are many people who do not exercise because they have no time for it. But all series that they follow are then neatly on track.
In recent weeks I have changed a lot in how I plan my days. All this after reading one book, Eat That Frog .
Below is a brief summary + additional tools that I use to improve my productivity.
1. Have a clear final goal
People are very good at thinking in the short term. But if you want to get more out of your life, you should start thinking in the long term.
Where do you want to be in 5 years / 10 years, maybe 20 years.
Most people's actions are only focused on the short term. If they do not see immediate results, they often give up because they can not look any further than they do now.
And with many things in life that goes against your work.
For a new project that I started last year, I already know exactly where I want to be in 5 years. Based on that, I also make my schedule.
A blog post now does not yield anything, but I do this for months / years, then this will eventually bring me a lot of money. I now invest for later. That costs money and does not mean anything to me now. This is difficult for many people because they feel like losing money. And that hurts for most people.
When you know exactly where you want to go, you make it much easier for yourself to decide whether a certain task will take you to that goal or not.
If you have a vague idea, you also get vague planning and it is often not clear why you are doing something. What makes sure you delay it earlier. If you know it's important, then you just do it.
So make sure you have a clear goal.
2. Plan your day in advance
I now make a week of weekly planning for the week afterwards. I participate every day.
Do I always do this exactly? No.
But it still helps me very much. Every morning I have to look at my white board and I can get started right away. Without first thinking what I will do.
Before you know it you're back on Facebook (tip: make sure you can not see a news feed ), in your mail or other low level tasks that do not matter at that moment.
1 minute plan saves you on average 5-10 minutes.
I myself put my planning on paper, so that I can also see it when it is ready. Yes, the dopamines also start to work .
3. 80/20 Pareto principle
The Italian economist Vilfred Pareto found out that 80% of the possessions in Italy were owned by 20% of the population. But this 80/20 came back in more ways:
- 20% of the children in the class provide 80% of the noise
- 80% of people visit 20% of the blogs on the internet (maybe my blog?)
- In Excel 80% of people use only 20% of the functions
- 80% of your income comes from 20% of your tasks
- 20% of the richest in the world have 80% of the assets
And there are many more. The most important thing you can learn from this is where is your 80%?
Which 20% of your tasks account for 80% of your turnover? Make sure you focus on that. The rest is not that important. Considering 80% of your other tasks but going to take care of 20% of your turnover.
4. You will find must-do tasks
There will always be tasks that really have to do because they will take care of, for example, financial problems. These are the tasks and you will have to determine each day in advance. For example, I have a webshop, so I will have to make the orders every day. Or ensure that there is enough stock at my fulfillment centers otherwise nothing can be sold.
Also the care for packaging material and the like sometimes become a must, even if it does not yield money immediately.
Paying your taxes will one day become a must-do task otherwise you can expect a high fine again.
Make sure you know your must-do tasks and also perform them every day.
5. ABCDE method
I have not used this method very much myself (only the A & B). With this method you will organize your day tasks into different categories. Here your A tasks are the most important. These are your must-do tasks so they always have to be done.
Your B tasks are also important but it is not a disaster if it does not happen, you will not experience any financial damage or the like.
It is important to look at every day what really are your most important tasks and to put your priority here.
6. Find your key tasks
Almost everyone has 3 tasks that are the most important thing. These 3 tasks provide the most results.90% or 80% (Pareto?) Of your tasks are much less important.
Yet many people do not know what these 3 tasks are for them.
In Eat That Frog they advise you to write down your tasks for a week. Then you will search for these 3 tasks. What are the 3 tasks that you can do best? Who will also ensure the most sales.
For my e-commerce business, for example:
- Marketing
- Product research & sourcing
- Sales B2B
I had never actually thought about it. I expect these 3 tasks to be the most important, so I would have to spend the most time here. Say 80% + of my time. Did I do that? Not nearly. When making your day planning, it makes sense to think about this.
7. Split your tasks into mini tasks
If your tasks are too big and too vague, you will postpone them earlier. So here is the power of good planning. For every major task, think about how you can bring it to a good end.
Do this with your 5-10-20 year plans. Which steps will you have to make?
Something like setting up a website is still rather vague. Do some mini tasks here:
- Find a domain name
- Register a domain name
- Register a hosting
- Download the latest version WordPress
- Install WordPress
Besides that this is a lot of easy, you start it much easier. When you finish one mini task and you can cross it you immediately feel better (dopamine yeah!). This is how the momentum starts and you quickly do the next task and that's how you go.
Where you were otherwise just clicking around, you now know exactly what to do. You feel good because you see progress. Progress creates a feeling of happiness.
8. Improve yourself / invest in yourself
Everyone was once a beginner. But the more you learn about a topic, the easier the tasks become. This in turn ensures that you can complete the tasks faster and become more productive. When you install wordpress for the first time, you may want to spend a couple of hours doing it.
Do you know exactly how to do it and if you make use of a checklist that you can finish then you might have finished it in 15 minutes.
I am therefore in favor of investing in yourself. It always deserves return. Do you want to know more about creating niche sites? Then take a look at Jacko's course .
Do you want to get started with paid traffic and even faster results? Take a look at the Affplaybook forum .
With more skills you get things done faster, better for each other and this ensures that you have more time left and will earn more.
9. Find weak points
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. With that you can do a few things.
- They leave as they are
- They improve
- Or outsource
As long as you do not do the first one, you're fine. Am more and more a proponent of outsourcing, but then you need the money. Of course it is never wrong to become better yourself.
But as indicated earlier, you can put your time better in your "key tasks". The tasks that you can do the best and that will bring you the most.
10. Find the times that you work best
Everyone is different and the one works best in the morning, the other in the evening and the other person just does not work at all.
All fine, but find out where you work best and then work on your most difficult + most important tasks.
You can also read low-level tasks like email with your half-fed head. You do not even have to think about that in the morning. That mail is still there at the end of the day.
Also make sure that you can not be distracted during this time. Install the news feed killer for Facebook, stop your phone or throw it in another room. Which you probably do not need at that moment.
11. Always work on one task
I think that it can make the most impact on me, but so far I have a lot of trouble with it.
Often when I work on a task, I think oh yes, I have to do that too and I quickly check something, or work on another task.
The continuous switching between tasks takes a lot of time. You get a lot more off if you really finish the task per task.
It might be an idea to put the tasks in your head to put on paper and look at the end of the day when everything is finished. If they were really important at that moment they should be on your list anyway and if they are not, then they are probably not important enough.
This is therefore something that I am trying to improve in the coming period. Also between Whatsapp (pussy group apps) and Skype costs me I think a lot of time. Anyway, there is always room for improvement.
12. Some random tips
It is for everyone to figure out what works best. We are all different.
I have worked with various online plan systems such as Google Calender and Kanban Flow . For me, they do not really work. I prefer everything on paper.
I plan in a different room than where my computer is. With pen and paper only. The shower is also the ideal place for me to think about the planning because there I have no distractions.
I also use a Pomodoro timer . In the morning I work in blocks of 50 minutes and sometimes 90 minutes (is on the task) and after lunch in blocks of 25 minutes. This works best for me and can be tried out for everyone.
Much from this article I have read from my last book Eat That Frog . Here everything is explained much more extensively (and better) than in this article. This is just a short summary so that I do not have to read the entire book every time.