First Back To School, then Halloween, Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Happy corporate gifting season!

Last 4 months are the busiest most hectic times of the year. There’s not much room for mistakes. However there is a difference between being busy and being productive. As time management is of utmost importance we are actually never able to manage time but productivity and productivity is achieved by cultivating effective habits as experts say.

Here are 3 productivity tips that will help you have a successful season without getting depressed:

1- FOCUS. Focus on what’s most important on a daily basis. Ask yourself: What is the most important ONE (or max two) thing(s) to accomplish today to call my day productive? Realistically one can only achieve one big thing per day.

Pick your ‘magic time’ when you are most creative and energetic during the day and focus on that one thing until you finish it without getting distracted. Literally, there are four things you need for great work:

You need a clear task.

You need a distraction-free work environment.

You need a set timeframe.

You need a pen and paper – shut the computer. (Or, pen and your Dival notebook!)

2- TASK PRIORITIZATION. Look at the tasks at hand and ask yourself these questions:

Can I eliminate this one? If not,

Can I delegate this one? If not,

Can I automate this one? If not, do it yourself or can it wait?

If it can wait, wait until it becomes significant and then start the question cycle again.

3- 60 SECOND RULE. Sometimes you get a new idea that will make things better, faster, easier or you find a way to deal with a problem. Unfortunately, the idea or the solution fades away quickly if you can’t act on the solution immediately and you usually don’t because you’re too busy. What can you do in order to prevent this from happening?

The famous personal improvement guru Tony Robbins suggests that the fastest way of adopting a new way of thinking or making sure a new idea gets implemented is to put something small into action immediately. Something that takes only 60 seconds. When acted while the inspiration window is open a new behavior starts forming. So do something small like:

A quick phone call,

a short email,

an appointment to discuss it with others or

taking care of only the first item on the list

Do it so that ‘the arrow leaves the bow’. Believe it or not, the momentum gets started and you start following the lead of ‘the arrow’ before you know it.

By Sue Begum Bulut – Director, North America
07/08/2019