THE HARD TRUTH

We all work hard to get to our goals. Sometimes it feels like there isn't enough time in the day. Productivity is what we do, isn't it? Then why is it that often, at the end of the day, it feels like we haven't made much progress?

Once in a while, it's a good idea to take a step back and look at what we spend our days working on, and to see if we are being as productive as we think we are. In this article you'll be presented with a few ideas that can help you to discovering ways you can get more done in less time.

"For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned." –Benjamin Franklin

You’re NEVER going to be able to do it all. Let that sink in.

Just knowing this alone is very freeing. Time and energy are finite. The key to getting the most out of life is to narrow down your goals to what matters most.

Step 1: Write Down Your Goals

From your business to your family to your health… and so on. Do NOT hold back. Write them all down. Put it all on paper.

Do not type it out on screen. You must feel the process, which can be cathartic to some extent and is crucial because it helps to clear your mind.

Step 2: Prioritize Your Goals

In this step, you’ll rank your goals and desires in descending order. Right at the top will be the goals that matter most… and towards the bottom will usually be the goals that are fun, but you would be fine even if you didn’t attain them.

Step 3: Choose 3 goals

In this step, you’ll choose ONLY 3 goals which are MOST IMPORTANT to you. This will be a very personal decision and one you should contemplate on. There’s no shame or blame here.

 For example, the lady who is 30 pounds overweight, may feel like it’s more important for her to lose the excess fat rather than get the promotion at work. She thinks about her weight daily and it’s always at the back of her mind – making her feel insecure and inferior.

Another lady might feel the total opposite and prefer to excel at her career because even if she’s overweight, she believes in loving one’s self.

So, your decision will be a very personal one – but if you choose what matters to you most, you’ll not go wrong in the long run. Go ahead and choose 3 goals.

Why Choose Only 3?

As mentioned earlier, you’re never going to be able to do it all. Here’s the caveat – you can’t do it all if you scatter your efforts on all.

Instead, you’ll focus hard on 3 goals until you achieve them, or at the very least, make considerable progress. The goal is to focus on these 3 goals for 12 weeks straight.

During this time, only 2 things can happen:

1. You achieve the goal. CONGRATS!

2. You still need more time.

If you find yourself needing more time, you’ll work on it for another 12 weeks. In 24 weeks, you’d have either reached your goal or made considerable progress for you to systematize the process. (We’ll cover this later).

You can then take on another goal or two – but no matter what, you’ll only be working on 3 goals every 12 weeks.

How Goals Impact Each Other

This is an issue that’s rarely discussed. Most self-help gurus and books tell you what to do and leave you to deal with the consequences. There’s no attention to how changes create resistance and impacts several areas of your life.

For example, if your goal is to lose weight, you’ll need to eat clean and exercise. That is a given and it’s the usual advice dispensed by everyone and their neighbor.

What they don’t tell you is this:

• You may have mood changes when you change your diet.

• Your energy levels may dip and affect your work productivity

• Exercising before work tires you out… but after work, you don’t have energy to exercise

• You need to sleep more because your body needs more rest 

• Planning your meals takes time because you can’t eat with abandon

• And much more…

So, if losing is one of your 3 goals, it will affect other spheres of your life too. Problems inevitably arise when one tries to do too much too soon during the goal setting phase.

Let’s look at an example… (purely hypothetical, of course).

Let’s assume that you’re a fiction writer and losing weight might be one of your 3 goals.

To achieve this, you may decide to exercise for 45 minutes in the morning (daily) and to reduce your carbohydrate intake.

Your second work-related goal might be to write for 4 hours daily… and your third goal might be to spend an hour every day with your family (no interruptions).

Your current situation

You eat whatever you want. You’ve not exercised regularly in years and you’re 40 pounds overweight.

Workwise, your approach to writing is haphazard and at most you only write 2 hours a day. You want a fixed time and you want structure. So, you decide to ramp up your productivity by deciding on a specific time to write. You’ll exercise self-discipline and write for 4 hours now.

As for your family, they’re around – but you’re always looking at your phone when you’re engaging with them. You’ve not gone out as a family in ages and so on. You decide to spend an hour a day with them. No phones. No thoughts of work. Just family time.

When reality kicks in…

Over the next few days, you decide to do your best and give it your all. You want progress. You want change… but this is what happens…

Since you’re new to exercise, the 45-minute sessions daily are leaving you exhausted. Your body aches, you’re breathless while working out and it’s just a dreary chore that you can’t wait to get over with. You think about skipping your workout daily.

Because you’re already tired, you can barely write for more than 90 minutes. You may sit at the computer for 4 hours, but your work is sluggish. You keep watching the clock and your writing is distracted.

You may even visit social media sites and waste chunks of time during your writing period.

As for your family, you’re with them because you have to… but deep down you’re tired and irritable. Life just seems too tough and you’re losing willpower.

2 weeks from now, you probably quit and go back to your old ways. Your goals are long forgotten, destined never to be achieved.

This unfortunate scenario plays itself over and over in millions of people’s lives daily. They cannot become productive because they’ve not built the right habits… and they can’t build the right habits, because they’re taking the wrong approach.

You MUST factor in the impact of how changes in one area of your life will impact other areas. Change must be effected gradually, intelligently and with course correction when necessary.

This is the first step to increasing your productivity. You need to take a hard look at how you spend your time each day. Look for areas that can be improved. That's what you'll discover in the next step by going to this article...

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