The Foundations Of Productivity

Now that you’ve done a mental dump on paper of all the goals you want to achieve… and you’ve chosen 3 goals to focus on, it’s time to ramp up your productivity. In order to do this, follow the process that is described below...

"There is no man living who isn't capable of doing more than he thinks he can do." ― Henry Ford

This 10 step list is your map to guide you through ways you can get to your productivity and time management goals. Let's get started with the 4 cornerstones of productivity.

1. Break Down Your Goals

Rome wasn’t built in a day… but you can bet they were laying bricks every hour.

Most worthy goals can NEVER be achieved in a day. If it was that easy, everyone would be doing it and there’d be no satisfaction in the reward.

Whether you’re trying to write your novel, or build your online ecommerce store or lose 20 pounds – the common denominator will be the time it takes you. Usually it will take you a few months, though some driven people may do it in about 3 to 6 weeks.

 Whatever the case, the goal is usually too big to complete and achieve in a day. Now that you have your 3 goals to focus on, you’ll need to break them down into smaller milestones.

For example, if you’re writing a book, break it down and take note of how many chapters your book will have. The logical step after that will be to decide on how many chapters you’ll write each day. Try not to take on too much daily. Aim for bite-sized chunks.

This will be how you decide on your to-do list (we’ll cover how to create one in the next chapter). It’s important to note that your daily to-do list is not something you create from scratch. It’s supposed to be a derivative of your goals - and the action steps you need to take to achieve the goal.

2. Control Your Environment

This is a critical factor that can make or break you. Do NOT neglect it.

If you want to be productive, you MUST be in an environment that encourages productivity. If you work at a desk, you should have a clock to help you monitor your time. You may want to have a bottle of water nearby so that you don’t need to leave your workstation to hydrate.

The room should be quiet and free of distractions. Ideally, you’ll want to start and end your workday at the same times every single day. This will establish routine and make it a habit. You’ll be able to ‘get in the zone’ faster when you start work.

Many entrepreneurs falsely believe that they can be productive anywhere. One day they’re at the café that’s noisy and filled with distractions, another day they’re at home typing in their bedroom… and sometimes, they’re trying to bring their laptop to the beach to work because they want to embrace the ‘laptop lifestyle’.

Since their environment is uncontrolled, their productivity will be a hit or miss because of plethora of variables impacting their environment. This should be avoided. Keep things strictly controlled and predictable with your work environment.

This approach applies to other goals too. If you’re trying to lose weight, throw out all the junk food and processed food in your home. Don’t let your environment tempt you.

If you’re trying to break your social media addiction, turn off the WiFi and place your mobile phone in a drawer and lock it. This will prevent you from acting on your urges and temptations.

Controlling your environment can be very useful for increasing productivity and breaking bad habits.

3. Be Consistent

Since it will take you time to achieve your goals, the key to succeeding will be consistency. Here’s where millions of people get it wrong – they try to do too much, too soon. The reason for this is impatience.

Let’s assume you’re trying to lose weight. If you work out for an hour a day strenuously and you also overhaul your diet totally and try to eat clean, you’ll be fine for the first few days. But after that, you’ll struggle to maintain the high standards you’ve set for yourself.

You’ll dread the workout sessions and start skipping them. You’ll binge eat at night because your body’s cravings for sugar is too difficult to overcome… and you’ll face other setbacks.

Within a week or two, you’ve given up on your goal. This outcome could have been avoided by aiming for incremental progress. You should aim to make measurable progress in reasonable time.

In this case, that may mean exercising for 15 minutes a day for about 4 days. This is much more manageable and less overwhelming. On the 5th day, aim for 20 minutes for another 3 days, and slowly work your way up to 45 minutes or an hour.

Increase the duration and intensity of your training gradually so that your body and mind get used to it. Don’t jump into the deep end straightaway.

The same applies to your diet or anything else for that matter. Like the saying goes, “Success is the sum of small efforts applied day in and day out.”

Do NOT RUSH the process. Unrealistic goals and expectations will sound the death knell on your goals. You’ll just be making life harder on yourself and sabotaging your ambitions by setting yourself up for burnout and quitting. You must have patience.

“Some things you have to do every day. Eating about seven apples on Saturday night instead of one a day just isn’t going to get the job done.” - Jim Rohn

4. Iteration

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary states that iteration is “a procedure in which repetition of a sequence of operations yields results successively closer to a desired result”.

This is a VERY IMPORTANT point to note… and something that so many people get wrong. You must be iterating daily.

You’re probably thinking. “Wait… what does that even mean?”

Here’s how most people set goals and daily tasks. Let’s assume you want to create an authority blog on finance. You want it to be one of the best around. That’s your GOAL.

So, you decide to write for 3 hours a day to create content for your blog. There’s only one problem here. You’re new and not used to writing.

Trying to write for 3 hours a day is draining your energy and killing your interest in the project. Most people would force themselves to keep at it until they finally quit. They’re not willing to negotiate the 3 hours. They’d rather throw in the towel.

Iteration will mean setting the bar at a lower height. Aim to write for just 20 minutes a day. For some people even that might be too much… and they may just wish to try for 5 to 10 minutes.

This was covered in the earlier point about incremental progress. Iteration means, you’ll analyze your daily work and see if it can be improved. After a few days of daily writing, you may be able to write longer without getting tired. So, you’ll push yourself and take note of your new timing.

The following day, your new timing is the standard to meet. This is iteration. You’re improving the process gradually and repeatedly. Iteration can be taken a step further.

You may discover that you write better and create content more easily at night rather than early morning. You’ll then change your routine so that your writing is done at night now. In some cases, you may notice that you’re able to write faster when it comes to some topics because you have more expertise, whereas you drag your feet with other topics.

Iterating will mean focusing on writing what you’re good at, and delegating the other topics to writers who can write for you. You’ll need to pay freelance writers to take up the slack for you – but your productivity and output will increase. This is iteration in action.

Consistency + Iteration = Productivity

Of course, the process never ends. You can hire better writers, focus on topics that are more popular, convert your written content into video and so on.

What you need to understand here is that you’re ALWAYS analyzing your day today, and seeing how you can do better tomorrow, without overwhelming yourself. If the goals/tasks are too hard for you today, try to do less tomorrow. The goal is to do what you can manage… but to do it daily. Consistency is more important than ‘going hard’ sporadically.

“Doing the little things well is a step toward doing big things better.” – Van Gogh

What next?

Now that you’re aware of the 4 cornerstones of productivity, it’s time to take your goals and turn them into to-do lists that you’ll execute efficiently every single day. Writing a to-do list can be tricky, but it will be time well spent. 

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