Effective Work Habits – Part 2

Last week we began a discussion about effective work habits, let’s finish it up shall we?

Some years ago Reader’s Digest reported on a study of genius. The study examined the life and habits of many geniuses in an attempt to determine what the common characteristics of genius were. The writers finally concluded that geniuses have three things in common.

First, is that all geniuses seem to take a systematic and orderly approach to problem solving. The second habit is that geniuses seem to have a sense of wonder, the ability to look at things in a fresh, almost childlike way. They keep an open mind and a flexible attitude on all subjects. The third quality of genius is that geniuses seem to have the ability to concentrate with greater depth and intensity than the average person. Someone once said that genius is simply an infinite capacity for taking pains.

In fact, my experience has led me to conclude that anyone who can discipline himself or herself to concentrate single-mindedly on a single subject until he or she masters that subject will begin to perform at exceptional levels in that subject area.

This applies to fitness, sales, management, parenting, negotiating, or anything else. High performance seems to be a matter more of perspiration than of inspiration.

Now let’s look at nine more ideas that you can use to increase your productivity and increase the rate at which you get things done.

Number One: Use concentration of power. This means that you concentrate your talents and abilities so they will yield the highest payoff to you.

In setting a personal strategy you’d want to focus on ROE, “return on energy”. Your job is to allocate your talents and abilities in such a way that you achieve the highest possible return on your energy invested.

This comes from asking yourself: What talents, skills, and abilities do I have that account for my greatest successes to date? What is it that I have done that has gotten me this far? Almost invariably there is a strategic key to any situation. There is a pressure point or a specific area where great breakthroughs are possible if it can be identified and exploited.

You must always allocate your time with the determination to be continually increasing your personal return on your mental, physical, and emotional energy invested.

Number Two: Concentrate on the few major areas where superior performance will bring outstanding results. Always apply the 80/20 rule to everything you do. Remember that it is often less than 5 percent of what you do accounts for most of your results. So continue asking yourself, what can I and only I do that if done well will make a real difference?

Number Three: Do things that you are better at. When you do things that you are better at, you have more fun, you make fewer mistakes, and you achieve greater personal productivity. So what are the few things that you do better than anyone else? What is it that you do that seems to be difficult for others? Focus on your unique talents and concentrate on the few things from which you can achieve superior results.

Number Four: Concentrate human strengths, your own and others’, on major opportunities. Focus on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the problems of yesterday. One of the rules for success in any organization is to concentrate the talents of your best people on your best opportunities.

Many companies make the mistake of putting their people to work to salvage the mistakes of yesterday rather than deploying them to maximize the opportunities of tomorrow. So ask yourself, what are my biggest opportunities for the future? Where can I make a real breakthrough if I concentrate?

Number Five: Fish for whales not minnows. Remember that if you catch a thousand minnows, all you have is a bucket full of fish. But if you catch a single whale, you will pay for the whole voyage. In business this is an important rule. Look at your marketplace and try to determine who the whales might be and then make a plan to go after them. Sometimes landing one big customer or selling one whale or an order will be enough to make a business or an individual successful.

Number Six: Identify your key result areas and work in them exclusively. Your key result areas is the answer to the question Why am I on the payroll? Each person has one or two key result areas where they can make an important contribution to the organization. It is in concentrating your efforts on your key result areas that will enable you to achieve the most significant results in the shortest period of time.

Number Seven: Set deadlines for important goals and stick to them. Deadlines act as a forcing system that causes you to work harder and more effectively as the deadline approaches. In fact, a goal or an assignment without a deadline is usually an exercise in futility. Promise other people that you will finish the job by the deadline. When you promise others, you motivate yourself to fulfill the promise. In this case, ego can be a wonderful thing.

Number Eight: Allow enough time to do everything well. Take the time to complete the task in an excellent fashion. Highly productive workers always allow enough time to do the job right.

Number Nine: Don’t hurry. Maintain an easy pace and work steadily. Remember the fable of the tortoise and the hare. Highly productive people work with a certain rhythm that enables them to flow through enormous amounts of work without becoming stressed or anxious. Remember, our great business in life is not to see what lies dimly at a distance but to do what lies clearly at hand, right now.

Peter Drucker says that a hallmark behavior of effective executives is that they do one thing at a time, the most important thing, and they stay with it until it is complete. In other words, they set priorities and they single handle.

Remember, in developing the ability to get things done, results orientation is a key characteristic of all peak performers. You can develop this ability to concentrate single-mindedly to practice and repetition over and over until it becomes an ingrained habit of success to serve you for the rest of your life.

Gregg Swanson is a human potential and peak performance coach and owns Warrior Mind Coach. He specializes in the development of mental strength and focus to achieve the flow state for maximum performance. You grab his complementary mini eBook, “Why is Change So Hard” by going HERE.