Discover Great Ways to Manage Your Time and Productivity - Part 1

I have found an interesting audio book on how to manage time and increase productivity. It is very useful for working executives, managers but others also can benefit from some of the tips.

Below are summary from the audio book.

21 Great Ways to Manage Your Time And Double Your Productivity from Brian Tracy.

1) Make A Decision
You need to be decisiveness on what need to be done and when it should be done. Once you have identified them, you need to discipline ourselves to do it regardless whether you like it or not.


2) Develop Clear Goals and Objectives
80 percent of success comes from being cleared of what you want to accomplish.
The formula of goals setting
i) Decide exactly what you really want in each parts of your life
ii) Write it down clearly and in details
iii) Set a deadline for your goals
iv) Make a list of things that you have to do to achieve your goals
v) Organize your list into a plan
vi) Take action on your plan
vii) Do something every single days that move you towards your goals
viii) Review them everyday


3) Plan Every Day In Advance
“Prior Proper Planning Prevent Poor Performance”. The first 10 percent of time used for proper planning can save up to 90 percent of time for performing the activity. Always work your plan on papers. Create a master list, weekly list and daily list. Cross the item once you have completed it. Working from the list will increase the productivity by 25% on the first day you use it.


4) Use the ABCDE prioritization method
Use ABCDE prioritization method and work on the most important task first. How to know which is it? Think about it if you do it or not doing it, what are the consequences of it?


5) Separate the Urgent from the Important
Every task can be categorized under
-urgent and important
-urgent and not important
-not urgent and important
-not urgent and not important
Always focus on “urgent and important” and “not urgent and important” to ensure high productivity


6) Practice the Law of Forced Efficiency
There is never enough time to do all the things but there is always enough time to do the most important things. You need to discipline yourselves to complete the important tasks by the deadline or in advance.
4 questions to increase efficiency and double your productivity
-what is the highest value used for my time?
-why am I on the payroll?
-what can you and only you do if you have done well can make a real different?
-what is the most valuable use of my time right now?
Ask those questions before you start your work.


7) Apply the 80/20 Rule
According to this principle, 20% of what you do will account for 80% of the values of all the things you do. Practice creative procrastination using 80/20 rule by procrastinate 80 percent of activities that contribute little to your live


8) Work at Your Energy Peaks
High productivity when you are at high physical, mental and emotion energy. Therefore, practice proper eating, exercise and rest.


9) Practice Single Handling with Key Tasks
Single Handling of task can boost 50% productivity on the first day using it. Always focus and concentrate when working on the most important tasks until you have completed it.


10) Eat that Frog
Mark Twain once wrote that, “The first thing we should do when we get up each morning is to eat a live frog; then we will have the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that can happen to we all day long.”
If you have to eat a live frog, it doesn't pay to sit and look at it for too long.
Job that can make significant contribution to your day is big and hard job which you tend to procrastinate. Therefore, make a list of task for the next day, the night before. Prioritize them, select the big and hard job (frog) and place it on your desk before you leave for the day. Next day morning, stay to work on that task until it is done


11) Organize your work space
Highly productive people work from clean desk and workspace. Research shows 30% time is been wasted looking for something being misplaced at somewhere. Techniques to organize
i) Throw away everything that you can before you are being bogged down reading thru it
ii) Delegate it to others if someone else should do it
iii) Place it in Action file if you need to take action in foreseeable future
iv) Place it in Reference file if the documents need to be available to you at the later time but make sure it is necessary.