How to Increase Your Productivity

 

How to Increase Your Productivity

What have you accomplished this year?  Have you maximized your time?  And perhaps more importantly, “What changes can you make to ensure the greatest possible gains in the future?”
Measure Your Productivity
To increase your productivity, you must measure your productivity.
A simple way to do this is to conduct a “time audit” (or an audit of your time) based on your goals and your priorities.

First rank your top priorities; as an example:

1. Spending Time with Family and Friends
2. Working
3. Giving Back to the Community
4. Sleeping and Eating
5. Personal Time (Reading, Shopping, etc.)
6. Personal Development and Growth
7. Health (e.g. Working Out)
8. Goals (e.g. Writing a Best Seller, Qualifying for the Olympics)
9. Other (e.g. Taking a Shower, Running Errands)

Before proceeding, rank your priorities using the categories above (on a loose sheet of paper).
From that list, estimate how many hours you spend in a week working on those items, as well as the percentage of your time allocated towards each (by dividing the number of hours allocated in each category by 168).

1. Sleeping and Eating = 60 hours/168 = 36%
2. Working =  40 hours/168 = 24%
3. Spending Quality Time with Family and Friends = 22 hours/168 = 13%
4. Other (e.g. Taking a Shower, In Transit) = 17 hours/168 = 10%
5. Giving Back to the Community or the World = 7 hours/168 = 4%
6. Personal Time (e.g. Reading, Shopping, etc.) = 7 hours/168 = 4%
7. Personal Development and Growth = 7 hours/168 =  4%
8. Goals (e.g. Writing a Best Seller, Qualifying for the Olympics) = 7 hours/168 =  4%
9. Health (e.g. Working Out) = 1 hour/168 = less than 1%

This exercise will give you clarity on your current priorities!
You may think health is your priority, but this exercise will show your true priority.  Time is an indicator of value; show me how you spend your time, and I will show you what you value.
You will only have success where you have invested the necessary time; are you making investments today that will serve you tomorrow?
If you need to reallocate your time, make those changes today…tomorrow never comes!
Thank you for reading!