7 Simple Steps to Extreme Personal Productivity

If you want to complete a major project, tackle a task you’ve been putting off, or just knock out a lot of work in a relatively short period of time, there’s an easier way.

And it’s free.

Say you need to complete a task you estimate will take, oh, 10 to 12 hours. Here’s how to pull it off in one day:

Tell everyone your plan. This step is an absolute must since interruptions are productivity killers. So is the, “How much longer do you have to work?” guilt trip family members sometimes can’t help but lay on you. At a minimum tell coworkers and family, but consider letting important clients know as well. Send a quick email a day or two before explaining you will be tied up on Thursday and will respond to calls, emails, etc. first thing Friday morning. Some customers will contact you before Thursday; others will mentally note you can’t be reached. Either way it’s all good. And you get an additional benefit from telling others your plan: People important to you know what you intend to accomplish — and will know if you don’t succeed. Peer pressure can be a great motivator. Use it.

Decide how long you will work. Don’t plan based on, “I’ll work as long as I can,” or “I’ll work as long as I feel productive.” Set a concrete target. Commit to working 12 hours or whatever period of time you choose. Then the longer the time frame, the quicker the early hours seem to go by. When I worked in a factory we typically worked 8-hour shifts; time before lunch dragged and the last couple hours always seemed like death. During busy periods when we worked 12-hour shifts the mornings seemed to fly by. Something about knowing you’ll be working for a long time allows you to stop checking the clock; it’s like you naturally find your Zen (work)place. When you know you’re in for a long haul your mind automatically adapts. Trust me — it works.

Start really early — or extremely late. Have you ever taken a long car trip and left really early in the morning? Like at 3 or 4 a.m.? Those first few hours on the road fly by because you’ve stepped outside your norm. The same trick works with accomplishing a major goal. Start at 4 a.m. or indulge your inner night owl and start at 6 p.m. to work through the night. An extreme productivity day is not a normal day; set the stage by breaking free of your normal routine.

Withhold the fun, at least for a while. Some people like to listen to music while they work, others keep an eye on news. If you like to “treat” yourself when you’re working, don’t, at least in the early hours. When your motivation starts to flag that’s when a little music can provide a needed boost. Each treat is like a personal productivity bullet; shoot too early and nothing is left when you really need ammunition. Whatever typically carries you through your workday, hold off on it for awhile. Delayed gratification is always better gratification.

Recharge early. When you exercise, If you wait until you’re thirsty to drink it’s too late. The same is true when you work. Plan to eat or snack a little earlier than normal. If you sit while you work, stand before your butt gets numb. If you stand, sit before your legs start to ache. Any time you allow yourself to feel discomfort your motivation and resolve weakens. And speaking of food, plan meals wisely. Don’t take an hour lunch break: Prepare food you can eat quickly without lots of preparation or mess. The key is to refuel and keep rolling.

Take productive breaks, not rest breaks. Momentum is everything. Don’t take a walk, or watch a little TV, or goof around on the Internet. You will need breaks, but breaks should reinforce your sense of activity and accomplishment. Pick a few productive tasks you like to perform — and gain a sense of accomplishment when you complete — and use those for your breaks. Spending even a few minutes in the land of inactivity weakens your resolve.

Don’t quit until you’re done — even if finishing takes longer than expected.
Stopping short is habit-forming. If you stop this time what will keep you from stopping next time? Success can be a habit, so make sure your first extreme personal productivity day is the start of a great new habit.

A great side benefit of an extreme personal productivity day: We unconsciously set internal limits on our output. A voice inside says, “I’ve done enough,” or, “That’s all I can do today,” or, I’m whipped — no way I can do more,” and we stop. But our internal limiters lie to us: With the right motivation, under the right circumstances, we can do more.

An extreme personal productivity day automatically ratchets your limits higher. After a few extreme productivity days you’ll perform better every “normal” day too — because you will have unconsciously raised your own bar.

By,
B-NET

How to Train Yourself to Be Cool Under Pressure..

Last weekend after giving the okay for special forces soldiers to raid a compound where the world’s most wanted man was believed to be hiding, President Obama straightened his bow tie and went off to roast Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Funny and unruffled, the President gave no indication he was feeling the strain of his momentous decision. He was, in short, a pretty cool customer.

It was an impressive display of calm under pressure and inspires the question — how does he do it? Is the ability to handle stress an innate characteristic like height or eye color, or is it something us mere mortals can learn to do too? According to Justin Menkes, the author of new book Better Under Pressure, the answer is very much the latter. “Attributes have a range of genetic influence and the ability to deal with pressure is on the far side of the continuum in terms of preparation versus genetics. Your ability to deal with stress is overwhelmingly about preparation,” he told Entry-Level Rebel in an interview.

Obama-level coolness is within all of our reach, says Menkes, who reminds young people not to be overawed by cool performances from those in senior positions: “It is indisputable that they can do those highly pressured, extraordinary things that they see the masters do. The masters have been preparing for 40-45 years. Excellent, expert preparation got them there. They weren’t born a star.”

So how do you go about building up nerves of steel? Very much like you would go about building up abs of steel, says Menkes, who recommends a progressive increase in strain for those who want to toughen up. But be warned, like with physical exercise, strengthening your nerve isn’t necessarily comfortable:

There’s no simple A, B, C. You can’t just read books — it’s not like that. It’s not ‘OK, I put a little post-it on my desk for a daily mantra “Remember you’re terrific!”‘ That’s useless. You have to build inside your brain, your consciousness and your stomach a knowing that you can handle it.

You have to put yourself in situations that elevate your sense of stretch, whether it’s a presentation, public speaking or a task that causes you fear like taking lead in a Monday morning meeting. Take initiative on something, but not something that is over your head because what is essential is that your experiences along the way are positive.

If you put yourself in situations that are just so extreme, then the probabilities are you aren’t ready and it can go badly. Then your memory attaches negative experiences to pressure and that doesn’t help. We want you to associate elevated pressure with a confidence that you can handle it, and you do that by elevating the situations of stress where there’s a risk of failure but you’re well enough prepared for it that odds are it’s going to go well. You put yourself in several of those and then you have that internal memory of ‘I can handle pressure.’ And then you keep elevating it.

It may sound like a less than pleasant process, but Menkes insists that becoming a cool customer is key for business leaders of the future. “The biggest distinction in the 21st century is an ongoing elevation of pressure and complexity,” he warns. “That’s not going to go away, so you have to find a way to find it invigorating. The people that will thrive it are those who understand it, accept it and take advantage of it.” Better get practicing then.

By,
Jessica Stillman

5 Ways Managers Can Become Real Leaders

When you’re new to something, you make mistakes. That’s how you learn. Young managers make lots of mistakes. It still makes me cringe to think about how incompetent I was as a young manager.

But hey, that’s just the way it works. You get out there, screw up, and hopefully learn from your mistakes.

Unfortunately, not everyone does … learn. That’s the business world’s natural selection process at work. Sometimes young managers self-destruct before their careers even have a chance of getting off the ground.
Here are five ways young managers terrorize their employees and sabotage their own careers:

1. Full of authority they think they’ve suddenly acquired with a title, they order people around and expect quiet compliance and obedience.

2. They put the micro in micromanager, becoming little Napoleon control freaks who don’t just tell employees what to do, but how to do it, too.

3. Thinking they’ve acquired something important that they’re afraid to lose, they stop taking risks for fear of failure.

4. Taking their perceived importance way too seriously, they become full of themselves, enslaved by a hyper-inflated ego.

5. They think they’ve actually arrived somewhere instead of realizing that they’ve only just arrived at the beginning.


And so on. In short, they act like children. We give children a lot of leeway because we figure they’ll eventually grow into mature, fully functioning adults. But like I said, young managers don’t always follow that template. Some make it, others fail miserably, and everyone else falls somewhere in between.

So, if that list of unsavory characteristics describes managers you’ve had or even have now, and they’re not exactly spring chickens, now you know why. Because they never grew up.

We talked about this in Are You a Dysfunctional Manager? or, as some call it, the 5 Stages of Management Development. But what we didn’t discuss is whether there’s some way for managers who are stuck in the “screw up” stage to get with the program. Actually, there is.

It’s counterintuitive, but most of the characteristics people tend to assign to youth are actually adult characteristics, and vice versa. Seriously, it’s true. Here’s the Counterintuitive Guide to Growing Into a Mature Leader:

* Lighten up. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Figure out where you left your sense of humor. Get over yourself. After all, you’re nothing special, just a flesh and blood manager trying to make it in a tough and highly competitive corporate world. Once you take the pressure off yourself, you’ll begin to realize how counterproductive it is to micromanage your poor employees.

* Let yourself fail. Make mistakes. Take risks. Believe it or not, you have less to lose than you think and, in fact, far more to lose if you don’t take risks. They say “no pain no gain,” and “no risk no reward.” But the truth is that, if you don’t take risks, your risk of failure actually goes sky high because playing it safe is a sure way to fail. I know it doesn’t make sense, but in business management and leadership, it’s true, nevertheless.

* Give up control over the little things. Just let them go. Instead, set your sites on the big picture. Set mid-to-high-level goals so you - and your employees - can actually use your brains and skills to achieve them, instead of constantly scrambling and reacting. Imagine accomplishing those goals by motivating, engaging, and challenging your people to do their best. Imagine that.

* Remember life. Most of us think we’re on a path to somewhere, but actually, we’re not. This - what you do every day of your life - is all there is. Life is about connecting with people. And business life is about satisfying your customers and stakeholders who also happen to be people. It’s also about doing a good job, which, incidentally, will make you feel good. They say life is short, but I think it’s long. No matter how old or experienced you are, you likely have a long way to go. Remember that.

By,
Steve Tobak