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productivity

10 Ways To Get More Organized

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Organized Desk

Organization is the key to being productive. If you work in a workplace where papers are scattered everywhere, then you are not being as productive as you could be. Not only can being organized prevent your productivity from dipping lower, but being very organized also has the ability to enhance your productivity. In order to get organized, follow these 10 steps.

  1. Look at what is on your desk and see what can be removed. You don’t need to have a vase on your desk. Your desk is a place to work, not a place for clutter.
  2. Have sticky notes at all times. If you don’t have a lot of clutter on your desk, then sticky notes get more attention. Sticky notes are a great way to stay productive and identify what you have to do for the day. Here’s how you can optimize sticky notes and get the best results possible.
  3. Put inspirational things on your walls instead. It’s great to have an inspirational quote of Vince Lombardi, but why not put it up on a wall instead of leaving it on your desk? The more things you have to look at on your desk, the less work you will be able to get done. Your goal is to be able to look anywhere on your desk and either find a sticky note, a scorecard, or the material that your desk is made of.
  4. Move all of the clutter to one room. There is even clutter in the best of the clean freaks’ houses. In order to prevent this clutter from getting in the way of your productivity, you need to place all of this clutter in one room that you almost never visit anyway. Moving all of the clutter into one room will make all of the other rooms in your house–including your office–much cleaner.
  5. Record important data. Don’t you wish you remembered how much money you made four months ago? Recording the important data will allow you to remember how much revenue you generated in certain months. There are also other types of data that you have that are important enough to be recorded. Instead of trying to find your important data in the data hairball, you need to record your data using Word/Pages documents on your computer. Choosing to record this data on your computer also prevents it from getting lost or becoming a part of the clutter.
  6. Everything on your desk needs to have a purpose. Some people have iPads on their desks for no apparent reason. Those are the types of iPads that need to be taken off desks. Other iPads are on desks because videos are getting sent from an iPad to a Mac. Those types of iPads are the ones you need to have on your desk.
  7. Have more folders. Even if you don’t get clients and have to keep track of their reports, you still need to have folders. I use folders to store all of my scorecards so I can look back, learn from my mistakes, and identify my big strengths. There are plenty of creative ways you can use folders to store data. Just make sure there aren’t too many folders that end up on your desk.
  8. Have more envelopes. Envelopes can be used to store data and information that folders cannot store. I store all of my past sticky notes in envelopes. Although this particular use of envelopes is a clever idea for a giveaway, there are other ways that you can use envelopes to your advantage.
  9. Have a notebook. Instead of having 10 pieces of paper scattered on your desk, you can write on 10 pages in your notebook. All of that information stays in one place so you don’t have to search for it later. You can also get a subject notebook so you are able to separate different sections in your notebook for different topics.
  10. Have a desk with drawers. If your desk has drawers, then the likelihood of clutter developing on your desk decreases. However, you cannot just think of desk drawers as a way to remove clutter from your desk. You need have organized desk drawers so you can access more information quicker.

Being organized is one way to boost productivity. By implementing these 10 tactics, you will have a more organized workplace which means you will be able to get more done faster. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional tips on getting and staying organized? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

 

7 Habits Of Highly Productive People

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Completed Checklist

There are some days when we get our work done, and there are other days when we do not get any work done. While most people go through not getting their work for a majority of the time, others are able to get their work done on most days. These are the highly productive people. Those are the people who others envy when they can’t finish a project on time. Productive people come in many shapes and forms, but they all share these seven habits that allow them to be more productive than the average person.

  1. They plan their day out the night before. Remember when it was bad in high school to start the big project the night before it is due? That problem does not apply to productive people when they plan out their days. Most productive people plan out their days right before they go to bed. If you plan your day in the afternoon, then you are losing time that you can be productive in. Your productivity wanes as the day goes by, and since productivity is at its lowest at nighttime, productive people use this time to write down their goals for the next time.
  2. They give themselves closer deadlines. Highly productive people give themselves 1 week to accomplish the same goals that take a month or two for the typical person to accomplish. A closer deadline gives these people less time to procrastinate and make mistakes. This allows highly productive people to realize how valuable time truly is. You may have read on this blog before that time is our most valuable resource or heard it from someone else. Giving yourself closer deadlines will allow you to fully understand why time is our most valuable resource, and with less time there is less fooling around.
  3. They write down their goals for the week. Highly productive people take one week at a time. They write down the goals they need to accomplish for the week and then use a tally/checkmark system to indicate how close they got to accomplishing everything on the list.
  4. They give themselves bigger goals. As the goals on the list become easier to accomplish, highly productive people challenge themselves by giving themselves bigger goals and less time to get those goals accomplished. The bigger goals further establish how time is their most valuable resource and gives them less time to procrastinate.
  5. They barely watch TV. Television is productivity’s greatest villain. The average American spends 32 hours every week watching TV. There’s so many things that can be done in those 32 hours other than watch TV shows (and some can be very depressing or teaching immoral lessons), and highly productive people know that very well. They take full advantage by limiting the amount of time they spend watching TV every week so they are able to find more time in their days.
  6. They wake up early. In a sense, productive people start their work “before life happens.” There are not nearly as many things to do at 7 pm as there are things to do at 7 am (other than work). In addition, the earlier someone wakes up, the more willpower that person has. Willpower is a big source of productivity that wanes as the day progresses. Waking up earlier allows you to tap into your full willpower and get the best of it.
  7. They don’t think they have enough time. Highly productive people do not think they have enough time to get their goals accomplished. Highly productive people are continuously raising the bar higher and making it harder for them to accomplish all of the weekly goals. As a result, when something unexpected happens to the time schedule, these highly productive people feel uncomfortable losing all of that time. These highly productive people may be doing seven or more hours of productive work every day, but they feel as if they never have enough time to accomplish all of their goals.

Those are the seven habits of highly productive people. By learning to implement and develop these habits overtime, you will become a highly productive person. What are your thoughts on the habits? Do you have any additional habits you have that keep you productive? Please share your thoughts and your own habits below.

 

The Power Of Setting A Date For Your Goals

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Deadline Approaching

The biggest lies are soon and later. I’ll start this soon. I’ll work on that later. Those are stallers that make an attempt to hide the fact that you don’t want to do anything that you say you will do soon or later.

Setting a date eliminates the problem of soon and later. Soon and later do not define a date. As far as we know, soon and later can range from a few days to a few years. Setting a date will be the only way you will get your goals accomplished.

Setting a date forces you to give yourself a deadline. When I decided to self-publish 1 book every month, I was able to do just that. Then, I started writing a book that I gave myself no due date for. That’s when my self-publishing career hit a bad note, but ever since I reapplied the 1 month rule, I have been able to write, and self-publish 1 book every month. Instead of saying soon or later, I made sure that soon and later meant by the end of the month.

If you continue to say soon and later, then don’t bother. Setting a date is the only way to tell yourself that you are serious about a particular goal and want to accomplish it.

 

How To Wake Up Earlier

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Morning Roaster

Did you know that your morning is a strong indicator of how productive you are throughout the day? Waking up earlier in the morning may be the difference between an unproductive day and a day when you are able to write 10,000 words. The logic behind it is that when you wake up, you have more willpower. When you wake up, there are less excuses. You have less to do at 7 am than you have to do at 7 pm. If you are wondering how you can increase your productivity, you should also wonder how you can wake up earlier.

Before I continue, it is still important to get the right amount of sleep. Based on scientific studies, 6.5 to 7.5 hours of sleep every day will lead to a longer, healthier, and more productive life. If you are sleeping below 6.5 hours, then you are not getting enough sleep. However, if you are sleeping for 8 hours, then you are getting too much sleep (yes, there is such a thing). That means you only want to sleep in between the 6.5 to 7.5 hour range. This is where waking up earlier comes in.

The first thing you need to do to wake up earlier is to create a schedule that you are committed to implement. If you get to bed at 11 pm, then you need to commit yourself to waking up in between 5:30 am and 6:30 am. That does not sound like a lot of sleep, but that is because most people sleep longer than the recommended amount of sleep.

Now that you have the schedule in place, you need to have motives. How are you going to benefit by waking up earlier? If you can’t think of a benefit, then you will continue sleeping for 10 hours. We need to have a reason to get up every day, but having a strong motive will make you want to get up quicker every single day. Some strong motives could be getting work done faster, publishing more books in a shorter amount of time, doing the work now so you can spend more time with your family later in the day when everyone wakes up, and so on. Those are the types of motives that get you out of bed faster and allow you to be more productive throughout the day.

One of the easiest ways to wake up earlier is a two step strategy. Most people get the first step right, but almost everyone messes up the second part. The first part is setting an alarm clock. Everyone seems to do that. The second part which almost everyone messes up is leaving the alarm clock out of reach. If you can click the snooze button on your alarm clock while in bed, then the alarm clock is too close to your bed. Keeping it further away will force you to get up in order to turn off the alarm clock (which gets very annoying after a while).

If you want to be productive, what you do when you wake up will play a big role in how productive you are for the day. If you wake up and go straight to TV, then your day is not going to be very productive one. However, if you wake up and start the day off by writing some blog posts, then you are going to have a very productive day.

You have more control over your productivity than you think. What you do in the morning sets the tone for the rest of the day. By setting a good tone in the beginning of the day, you will be able to get more work done throughout the rest of the day. What are your thoughts on waking up earlier, and do you have any other advice about sleep? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

 

Mortality As A Motivational Tool

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End Of The Road

Everyone is looking for a source of motivation. Some people look for motivation in the music they listen, the books they read, and the inspirational quotes they get from the Forbes list. However, few people are able to keep the motivation they get from the songs and quotes they read and listen to on the internet. In order to gain and keep motivation, you need to think of a bigger picture that will almost force you to accomplish your dreams. It’s very easy to think of, but for most people, it will also be very scary. This kind of motivation is your own mortality.

Although not everyone agrees about where you go once time is up, it is agreed upon that we are by no means immortal. Many people want to think that they will live forever and only pursue dreams at an old age when they seem almost impossible to reach. Although there are success stories such as the one of 65-year-old Colonel Sanders founding KFC, most people give up on their dreams and do not get their goals accomplished at this age. Unfortunately, this occurrence is too common in every age group. Fewer people are pursuing their own dreams because they lack the motivation to do so.

I get my sources of motivation just like anyone else. I have an inspirational quotes app on my iPhone, watch some of Tony Robbins’ videos, and read success stories about people in my niche who make six figures every year. Then came a new way for me to gain motivation–thinking about my own mortality. In my opinion, one of the few problems (depending on how you look at it) technology will not be able to fix is our mortality. Technology has made us live longer and can make us live even longer, but immortality is out of the question.

If someone came up to me and told me about the motivational “secret weapon”, I would be very objective when I heard that the “secret weapon” was thinking about mortality. It’s scary and makes us realize that we don’t live forever. However, the person who used his own mortality as a source of motivation was the leader of a generation, Steve Jobs. I could go on about how he got kicked out of Apple and then ended up saving the day while doing other cool things along the way, but it is more important to realize what motivated him throughout his life. Some of the years he lived were very tough. He was adopted, dropped out of college because his family couldn’t afford it, and right when Apple started to become successful, Steve Jobs got fired. The difficulties he faced and his perseverance alone are incredible. Even when he became successful and regained his position as Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs continued to be innovative. The motivation behind his desire to do so much in his life was his own mortality.

His belief in using mortality as a motivational tool towards success was reflected upon in one of his most famous inspirational quotes, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

We all have an effect on the people around us, and some of us have an effect on people on a global scale. Steve Jobs had an effect on people in California, New York, Europe, and everywhere else in the world. When most people think of Steve Jobs, they think of the visionary that transformed Apple. There are also people throughout history who are remembered for bad reputations and villainous acts. People will remember you for how you lived your life and what you did while you were here.

You may have a bucket list of all of the goals you want to accomplish. You may have the list of 100 places you want to visit before you die. You may want to make $1 million every month so you will be able to live a life without financial worries. You may want to become a bestselling author because it is something you strive for. You may want to run the mile in under four minutes for the glory of doing so. You may want to become successful at a faster rate and start moving instead of staying where you currently are.

We all want to accomplish many things in our lifetimes. However, we only have so much time to accomplish all of the things that we need to accomplish. There are more valuable things we can be doing with our times than watching 32 hours of TV every week. Time gets lost this way; time that you can never get back. Having efficient time management is one part of the puzzle, but a strong motivation the other part of the puzzle.

That motivation, the other piece of the puzzle, is thinking of your own mortality.

It’s something very scary. It’s something that few people ever want to think about. There are so many things uncertain about what happens when mortality creeps in. We have no clear idea of what happens after this stage and are forever left guessing until the time comes. However, there are events in your life that you can control. You may not be living the ideal life right now, but you can change that. Whether you are a stay at home mom trying to bring in more revenue, someone who works at three different jobs, or someone who gets fired too often, there is always enough time to change your life and fulfill your dreams. Colonel Sanders started KFC at 65 years old and got to live to be 90. He did not let the life he lived earlier prevent him from pursuing and eventually fulfilling his dream. Now we remember Colonel Sanders as someone who stayed true to his dream and never gave up on it, not someone who gave up on his life and stopped trying.

The leader of an entire generation used his mortality as a motivational tool to be very productive and accomplish his dream in a predicament where most people would have given up. Although avoiding the thought of mortality at all costs is the easier option, it may be the motivation you need to realize your time is so valuable and you only have so much of it in your lifetime.

 

Why Running Will Make You More Likely To Succeed

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running

There are many articles on the web that mention exercising as a way to become more productive. I started to read these kinds of articles during my freshman year when I recently joined my school’s cross country and track & field team. When I saw that exercising increases productivity, I was astounded. Increasing productivity was one of the (very small) reasons why I continued running track (the bigger reason is that I enjoy the sport).

One of the big things about cross country and track & field is that the committed athletes who love the sport always want to get better. In the running world, PR does not mean press release. Instead, it stands for personal record. When an athlete gets a PR, the athlete celebrates that PR for a day, but on the following day, that athlete wants to set another PR. I remember boosting my workout from 4-6 miles every day to 8 miles every day over the summer. Now, I plan to run over 16 miles every day in the summer (if it happens, I’ll be in really good shape). I quickly realized that the runner’s attitude towards getting more PR’s has been the recipe to success all along.

If you become an active runner, you will want to get better every time. You will want to run the mile faster this week than you did last week. Active runners decide to run longer distance and more challenging workouts in order to get better times. This constant need to improve leads to longer workouts which ultimately leads to a more successful running career–whether you are running for fun around your neighborhood or hope to make it to the Olympics.

Once you apply this mindset to one thing, it will be easier for you to apply this mindset to other places as well. One of the places you will be able to apply this mindset is your niche. When I found the time to think of my entire journey as a runner and entrepreneur, my blog started to improve in traffic and content as I ran more often.

The big spike in traffic for this blog (my blog went from 500 views to over 10,000 views in 5 months) started during my sophomore year of cross country (that’s when I started to take running very seriously). In addition, this is the same time when I went from gaining 50 followers every day to gaining over 300 followers every day. In addition, I found the time to write two blog posts every day weeks before the first cross country practice for sophomore year.

Just to prove that I’m not making any of this stuff up, Steve Scott (there are a lot of Steve Scotts in the world) is a self-published author who is poised to make over $300,000 every year from his Kindle books. It just so happens that Steve is also a marathon runner. Is it just a coincedence? I think not.

What are your thoughts about running? Are you an active runner? Do you plan to become an active runner? Please share your thoughts below.