Maximize Your Daily Productivity
To maximize our daily productivity, we need to understand the battle we’re up against.
We have more distractions than ever before. The phone you likely have within an arm’s reach has been designed in tandem with psychologists to be as addicting as possible.
That’s scary, isn’t it?
Your phone is only ONE of the many distractions vying for your attention.
Thankfully, you don’t need to be a slave to technology and the distractions that come with it. After reading this, you’ll be armed with several of our favorite techniques we share with our coaching clients here at Early To Rise.
What’s the world’s most valuable resource? It’s time! We have 86,400 seconds every day. You, Jeff Bezos, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Elon Musk have precisely the same allotment of time.
You’ll learn that it’s not just about the quantity of time that you have, but what you choose to do with the time available.
Tip #1: The $4 Hack to Triple Your Productivity
Daniel Woodrum is the Head Coach at Early To Rise. He’s one of the most productive people I’ve met. He’s married to his wonderful wife Brittney, and they have a house with three young children!
On top of running a busy house, Daniel oversees our Early To Rise coaching program, the coaches within the program, coaches clients, and also works with Craig Ballantyne and Lynda Reilly to keep Early To Rise a well-oiled machine.
At one point, Daniel was overseeing the Early To Rise coaching program while also running a gym.
Whenever someone asks Daniel how he’s able to get so much work done throughout the day and still has time to snap a picture of every sunset from his front porch near beautiful Charleston, South Carolina – he shares his $4 hack.
Every morning, Daniel heads over to his local Starbucks and buys a $4 coffee.
He sits at a table with his laptop and spends three hours in deep, focused work.
Notice the words “deep, focused work.”
See, many entrepreneurs come to Early To Rise feeling overwhelmed, busy, and feel like they’re drowning in tasks. When we ask them how much time they spend working on a given day, they’ll mention that they’re working 10 and 12-hour days.
We don’t dispute that.
Those entrepreneurs (and you!) probably are spending long hours getting work done. The problem is that you’re likely not generating any momentum out of your time.
For example, when I sat down to type this article, I put my phone on Do Not Disturb and let my wife, Emily know that I would be unavailable for the next hour. Notifications are turned off, and there is no way that anyone can disrupt my flow.
Prior to receiving coaching at Early To Rise, I would have begun typing this article and a “ding!” would go off, distracting me from writing, stop my momentum, and then I’d have to go back to struggling through writing until another distraction pulled me away.
Follow the $4 tip from Daniel and go somewhere that you won’t be distracted.
If you’re unable to go anywhere, then set up your environment for success by:
- Shutting off notifications.
- Customizing your Do Not Disturb functions on your phone and computer so that only emergency calls can get through.
- Set a timer for the amount of time you need to do deep work so that you’re not worried about missing future appointments or deadlines.
- Put on headphones with music that has no lyrics to block out noise that may pull you away from work. I usually listen to EDM or Craig’s go-to, Gymnopedies by Eric Satie depending on my mood.
Tip #2: Tomorrow Starts Today – Write Your Movie Script
Craig recently published a video on his YouTube channel called “4 Mind Movies You Need To Watch for a Millionaire Mindset.”
If you haven’t seen this 12-minute video, please do so. Craig does a great job explaining why this practice is essential.
One of the best pieces of advice we give our coaching clients is to script their day ahead of time. Remember: Tomorrow starts today!
Just as a movie producer and a cast have a script they have to follow to create a motion picture, as an entrepreneur, you have the same ability when it comes to creating your perfect day.
Before your head hits the pillow to sleep at night, it’s imperative that you have your “movie script” for tomorrow written out.
- What time will you wake up?
- What is your day’s most important task?
- What are the Non Urgent but Important (NUI) items you need to tackle?
- Who do you need to connect with in order to make the week a success?
- What obstacles might you face? Do you need resources to overcome them?
These are all questions I’d encourage you to think about prior to ending your day. The more of these questions you have answered, the more effective of a “movie script” you’ll have and the increased likelihood of success.
Consider what most people do by default… They wake up, get dressed, go to the office, and then they sit down to think “OK, what do I need to accomplish today?”
If you’re doing that, you’ve already lost!
Your subconscious mind has the ability to begin making connections while you sleep, so by creating your Perfect Day script in advance, you’re allowing your subconscious to work on potential problems.
Tip #3: Embrace Parkinson’s Law
Parkinson’s Law is the adage that work expands to fill its allotted completion time.
In order words, if I give you a shovel and ask you to dig a two-foot by two-foot hole and let you know that it must be completed by 5pm, it will likely take you all day to complete it.
Why? Digging a hole isn’t fun. At least it’s not my choice for fun. So, there’s already resistance to completing the activity.
If I have all day to dig the hole, I could see myself finding other activities to do to put off digging the whole while still making myself feel productive.
I’d likely check my email, follow up on text messages, maybe sit down to write an article… Anything but doing the hard work of digging the hole. Remember: My deadline is 5pm.
How do we counter our human nature and get things done more quickly to maximize our productivity?
We embrace Parkinson’s Law and give ourselves a shorter deadline to complete the task.
Try this with team members when you’re assigning tasks. Do it with your virtual assistant. Ask your coach or accountability partner to hold you to a shorter deadline to force you to get a project completed in less time.
By embracing Parkinson’s Law you’ll work with greater urgency because you’ll be allowing yourself much less time to complete a task.
As you give yourself shorter deadlines, watch how much more efficient you’ll become and how much more momentum you can build in your business.
As Craig Ballantyne reminds us in his content, “success loves speed and delay kills dreams.”
Take action today by:
- Getting into an environment without distractions and do FOCUSED work.
- Write tomorrow’s movie script today.
- Give yourself shorter deadlines!
Be sure to come back to Early To Rise for more advice to help you lead a life well-lived!
Galel lives in Orange County, California with his wife Emily, their two children, and their chocolate labrador retriever named Mikey. He holds a Master’s degree in Performance Psychology, which has helped him coach fellow entrepreneurs and professional athletes. When not on Zoom calls, you’ll find Galel on the beach with his family, traveling in their RV, or umpiring a baseball game. Galel is passionate about helping coaching clients build systems to reduce stress and anxiety, boost sales revenue, and skyrocket their fulfillment and happiness. Follow him on Instagram @galelfajardo.