12 Tried & True Habits of Impressively Productive People

We all want to have a life so it’s critical to become very productive in a condensed period of time. Don’t just meander through the work day. Get things done and then go have some genuine fun.

Here are 10 of the best methods I’ve used and seen used that I would recommend incorporating into your life.

1. Weekly Goals

We’re all goal oriented, but it’s much easier to actually focus on attaining those goals if you write them down at the beginning of the week. 

2. Systems

Use systems for both your life and your business. That way, you just align your life so that great things will happen by doing the things necessary to achieve such a life on a consistent basis. 

3. Getting Things Done

Getting things done is extremely effective—and even more so by using endless number of ways to customize this approach. You can use Google Docs for it, but you can also use Evernote, Outlook, or even a paper system. 

4. Wake up Early

The early bird gets the worm, as they say. And it’s hard to deny the truth in this. There are no distractions so you can focus on improving yourself getting important things done without your phone or email blowing up.

5. Delegation

One of the best ways to get more done is to have other people do stuff for you. One part of the Getting Things Done system is to go through your inbox and decide whether to do something, defer it, throw it away or delegate it.

6. Lean Just Outside Your Comfort Zone

One thing that will kill productivity right in its tracks is procrastination. And one of the primary reasons for procrastination is fear. Often, this fear is of things that don’t make any sense, like being judged by someone you really couldn’t care less about. But this is how our minds work, so we must learn to deal with it.

7. Honesty

On the same token, another reason we have fear is a lack of candor. Hiding things creates a sense of paranoia: “What if I get found out?” If we are honest and straightforward, we don’t have to waste so much time beating around the bush.

8. Speed Reading

The method is actually quite simple:

1. Take a pen or similar item and track along each line. This keeps your eyes from backtracking, which normally happens about 20 times per page. Instead your eyes move in a consistent, linear progression.

2. Don’t pronounce the words in your head while you read. The mind can recognize words much faster than you can say them (in your head or verbally) so you can save a lot of time by skipping the pronunciation. This takes some getting used to, but is easier than you might think.

9. Weekly Time Audit

Unfortunately, almost all of us would be surprised by just how much time we waste every single day. That waste could come in the form of simply doing nothing or doing things of limited value. 

10. Hold Yourself Accountable

At the end of each week, you must hold yourself accountable by reviewing your goals and activities and thinking about how you could do better. Things that get held accountable perform better, as do people.

11. Cut Out the Clutter

These days, we are barraged by so much media, entertainment and news that it’s easy to get distracted. They are a giant time suck and don’t give you much back in return other than a short-lived dopamine hit.

12. Single-Task

Multi-tasking doesn’t work. Focus on one thing at a time. Close all those open tabs you have on your browser and FOCUS! Furthermore, come up with one overarching goal for your business and focus on that instead of 800 different small goals you will likely start and then stop shortly thereafter without accomplishing much of note. Use the 80/20 principle for this step.