Learn to Manage Your Time
It’s difficult to be successful if you always procrastinate and can’t seem to get large projects done in a reasonable amount of time. Big projects can certainly be intimidating, and we’ve all been there… but, you can’t do the bare minimum and expect to succeed beyond your wildest dreams.
With that said, you certainly don’t have to work all day, every day either. We all have 24 hours in a day. How is it that someone with the same 24 hours you have is dramatically more successful than you are? It’s not because they’ve magically invented more time. It’s because they use their time better. In fact, they likely get a lot more done than you in a much shorter amount of time— leaving them space to sip margaritas on the beach, as is the common image of the wealthy.
If you want to become more successful, you need to get much better at managing your time. Part of this comes from knowing where you’re going. It’s important to plan things out. That’s right—actually create a business plan. Set solid, specific, measurable goals. Create a plan for how you’re going to get there.
Then, you can figure out exactly what you need to do to make that happen. This is a huge, huge part of the process right there. Do this and you’ll already be way ahead of the game.
Learn to Break Your Projects Down
I’ve mentioned this in books and articles I’ve written in the past. It will really help you to manage your time if you break your projects down into smaller chunks. It makes things so much more manageable. It’s a lot more practical and really helps mindset-wise as well. I wish I could convince everyone to work this way because it’s the only way to get large projects done in our fast paced society.
It’s way too intimidating to try to get large projects done when they’re looming large in front of you. Where do you even start? It seems impossible and will cause you to give up more often than not. Break it down instead. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
Break your very large projects down into small chunks you can easily complete whether you have a large work session planned or just a few minutes. Make incremental progress and even the most intimidating projects will be done in no time at all. I promise this will help you a lot- it’s quite possibly one of the most important time management and productivity tips you’ll ever come across. Try it—it will help you out, instantly.
Make the Right Decisions More Quickly
This is a big one. So many people stew about decisions large and small. They take forever to make even the most basic decisions during the work day and it eats up a lot of time when they could actually be… working.
Many people do that— but not very successful and highly productive people. They quickly access relevant data and make their decision.
The next time you have to make a decision, consider this. Your spouse asked you to pick up strawberry jelly. You go to the store, only to find that they have an entire wall full of strawberry jelly. They have it with seeds, without seeds, organic, local, homemade, mixed with blueberry, combined with peanut butter, with sugar, without sugar, naturally sweetened, and artificially sweetened.
How in the world are you supposed to make your decision in the face of so many choices? Having too many choices is the death of decision-making.
That’s why you can’t give yourself forever to stew over any one decision. Figure out the facts, sure, but don’t allow your mind to invent 50 different kinds of “jelly” before you can make your choice.
It can really help if you set a timer when making smaller decisions. Force yourself to make the choice in 30 seconds or 60 seconds and then move on. You need the relevant information and then a limited amount of time to make the decision. This forces your mind to be more efficient and you’ll usually end up making the right choice. Try it— it’s a surefire way to make the right choices and one step further to becoming more successful.
Don’t Wait Until It Feels “Perfect” to Do Your Work
Have you ever noticed that when you’re on fire, you’re on fire? It seems like you can do anything you put your mind to. You’re highly productive, happy, and seem to achieve everything. Why doesn’t this feeling last?
It’s easy to imagine that more successful people always feel good about their work. It’s easy to imagine that they are always on fire— that it’s always easy for them because they get so much done. But that’s not how it works.
They deal with feeling down about their work just like you do. They have very frustrating days just like you do. There are days where they don’t feel like doing anything at all just like you.
So, why are they able to accomplish more? It might be that you’re a bit of a perfectionist. That might be surprising to you if you procrastinate, but many people who are perfectionists do. It’s because you want it to feel “right” and “perfect” whenever you’re working. You think you’re doing it wrong if it doesn’t feel like that.
The trick is that you have to push forward anyway. There are always going to be tasks that are less fun than others. You have to break them down to make them more manageable and power through them anyway. Develop this mindset and you’ll be able to get a lot more done.
Get started with just one thing at first. Give yourself permission to stop after that, if you need to. I think you’ll find that as long as you do that one thing, you’ll want to keep on going. And since you’ve broken your project down, it will be easy to keep going and going. Before you know it, the project will be done. And it all started with that single step.
Give this, and the other suggestions I’ve given you today, a try.
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