How to be efficient and productive.

To-do items are never listed, and important tasks are always delayed.

You have a heavy workload, but your results aren’t noteworthy.

Your seniority is growing, but you have no specific achievements to show for it.

Your goals, plans and wishes are the same every year, but they are never achieved.

Do you have the above-mentioned problems? Do you feel burned out every day? Countless things continue to pile up, many things demand your attention, and tiredness always makes you unable to accomplish what you want to do. Do you want to escape this dilemma?

Here are 3 key points to help you be efficient and productive. They are emotional freedom, never stop learning, and take immediate action.

#1. Emotional freedom

Emotional freedom is an easy-to-ignore but important self-management ability, because everything you do becomes inefficient when you are emotional or moody.

‘Emotional freedom’, if it can only be described in one sentence, is: the broader your vision, the smaller your emotions. When your mindset gets bigger, the little things will not bother you anymore.

The cost of emotionalization is very high. Being emotional wastes time. Conversely, if you use that time to complete something that needs to be done, you can instantly save the time normally lost. 

How can you broaden your view? Maybe it's linking to a new circle, maybe it's a new skill, maybe it's reading a book and being touched by the content, maybe someone's statement opened your mind. All in all, you have to live a little differently than before.

I will share some ways to develop emotional freedom skills.

For example, you can build an emotional recovery list. When you feel emotional, take a look at the list and pick the things you want to do to ease your emotions.

If your favorite thing to do when you are emotional is to eat delicious food, then arrange a treat for yourself.

If the most effective thing is to talk to yourself, then tell yourself: this matter is no big deal!

If chatting with someone you like can help when you’re in a bad mood, then make a few close friends. For example, my habit is to chat with my sister. It calms me down and relieves my tension.

#2. Never stop learning 

‘Never stop learning’ does not mean to imply continuous studying, but to learn with the purpose of teaching. It is only through the process of teaching that we really ‘learn’, not just after we acquire knowledge. 

Learning through problems is actually limited, because you only want to solve the problems you encounter. Learning for the purpose of teaching should be the motive. Once it touches your heart, you will ask yourself, “What can I do, and how can I do it?” and then think deeply. 

The best career development recognized in the past, namely, was: Study hard → go to a good school → enter a large company → promote upwards → retire with honor. The straight path does not work now. Work itself does not bring about a sense of economic security. Only with good thinking, learning, creativity, and adaptability can you be invincible.

‘Lifelong Learning’ means learning every day. This is a long-term behavior. That is, absorbing knowledge to improve your skill-set, and using this knowledge in many ways through long-term practice and actions.

#3. Take immediate action 

Don’t just think, be bold! There is no perfect timing for dreams, only ‘immediate action’!

This world is very realistic and fair. If you only think about your dreams, you won’t have any results. In the end, you may only get more and more anxious. 

So, I often say that you must act. For example, if you want to read, you must first set a goal to read one page. 

Another example, if you can't persevere on your own, then join a group. Use the power of the group to boost yourself, and let it become your most powerful persistence and motivation.

Imagine just doing something for yourself, the chances of sticking to it might be low. But when you are leading a group of people to accomplish that same thing, this ‘sense of mission’ will make your motivation much stronger. 

Becoming the type of person we want to be is certainly not a simple matter. You have to make an effort that is easy for an ordinary person, but you will like the type of person you become afterwards.

Do you have any other ways to become more efficient and productive?Share it with me or leave your comment below.