7 simple ways to improve your focus and productivity.

I'm a salesman in every aspect of the word. There's not a day at work where I'm not on my phone canvassing and prospecting. A lot of you will also know that I host a sales podcast that reviews a different sales text week in week out. When my co-host Jonny suggested that we read a non-sales book, 'Free to Focus' by Michael Hyatt, I was a bit skeptical - 'how much value can this add to my sales game?'

In fact, it was the MOST useful and relevant book I've ever read on the show. Managing your time and being productive is harder than ever. Colleagues, people we know and people we don't know can contact us on multiple different platforms. People are constantly vying for our attention and it's getting increasingly difficult to handle your priorities the right way, to avoid tasks that won't add any value.

Here are the top 7 things I've learned about productivity.

Notifications are a disease

I switch all of my notifications off. I notice when I'm around people, their phones are just going off constantly and I think to myself, 'how can they be doing productive work when they are getting distracted every minute, by different apps and different people demanding their attention?'

Block out time to go through emails, don't jump to respond to any unless they're vitally important.

Be present

Whatever you're doing, give it your full attention. You cannot do deep work if you allow yourself to get distracted by every pop up on your phone or chit chat with a colleague.

Deep work could include giving your friend that you're sat having a pint with your full attention.

Use your car time effectively

Many of the people we engage with are road warriors and I've always questioned whether being in your car is work or not.

Yes, it's tiring and yes you leave your house and get home later than you would for a typical office day. But are you actually working a 70, 80, 90 or 100 hour week?

The answer is probably no. You might have gotten home late and feel exhausted, but in reality, a 2 hour meeting and a few calls in your car isn't the most productive way to spend your time.

Use your car time effectively. Hands-free devices and apps are becoming increasingly smarter, make the most of this. Schedule calls into your phone, listen to podcasts to improve your skill set (there's an excellent one I know called IRC Book Club)

And actually, if you're on the road for these amount of hours, ask yourself have I said "no" enough?

Working 70 hours a week isn't what makes people successful

There's a lot of people hectically running around all day and constantly sending messages on Slack. If you're one of them, how much are you achieving?

Take a step back and think about how effective your technology and collaborative apps are?

Working smarter is much more productive than working longer and being busy doesn't always mean you're being effective.

Top performers know when to say "no"

"Accept the fact that you will be misunderstood" - Michael Hyatt

To be successful, you need to say no to a lot of things. People are going to get p*ssed off with you for doing so. But the top performers do it anyway.

People often say "yes" to customers because they want to please people, build a relationship with them and earn money from them. But if you know you can't help them, the best thing to do is to say no straight away and save you both a lot of time.

When you set time aside for a task, DO IT!

If you set half an hour aside to do a task - even a menial one, you need to do that task.

It doesn't matter if God himself phones, because if you get interrupted or you're not present in that task, then that half an hour task is going to take two hours.

If a client phones, call them back later. This may sound unwise, but I actually think that most clients would appreciate you saying "I wanted to finish my tasks so that I could phone you with a clear mind and devote all my time and attention on you."

Don't waste your time on something that won't add value

We wouldn't let somebody steal from our home but we'll let them steal our time with the nonsense that they invade us with.

A huge time thief is social media. LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook just suck time out of you because they're so well designed. Make sure that your time spent on social media is adding value in some form or another.

If you've found value from this article and you haven't felt like you were wasting your time and I was being a time thief, I'd really appreciate it if you could follow my company LinkedIn for all of IRCs latest jobs and content.