One ingredient to massive productivity that often gets missed

This isn’t a post about time-blocking or using your out-of-office responder strategically. While these can be effective strategies to put boundaries around your work, what I’m talking about here is a step before all of that.

First off - Is the work you’re doing…. the RIGHT work?

I can hear you saying – yes absolutely!

Before you exit out of this page, I want to challenge you to really think about that.

Are you doing the work that will move you towards your goal?

You see, some will define productivity as ‘getting through the to-do-list’.

And others will define productivity as being able to get the important things done. 

The dictionary defines productivity as: the effectiveness of productive effort…, as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input.

So if you are aiming for ‘productive effort’ then what does productive effort mean to you? Is it the number of emails you got through, the number of meetings you completed or how few items remained on your to-do list at the end of the day? (I have been guilty of this one)

How do you know you’re doing the right, or important, things and achieving a high level of productive effort? You certainly know that you have emails to respond to, calls to return and things to schedule – so yes, you are busy.

This is where I want to challenge you.

The most important things you do in the run of your day needs to be directly related to your goals. I would argue that the greatest productive effort is the effort you expend in working towards your objectives. Whether it’s training your team, building your client list, marketing your products/services etc.. 

So if the true measure of productivity is the measure with which you are accomplishing activities that bring you closer to your goals each time, this prompts the question….how clear are you about your goals?

And, how clear are you about the activities that will help you achieve those goals?

Some of you will have revenue goals, some will have new product/service creation goals or project completion goals. 

Whatever YOUR goals look like, consider these questions:

How developed are those goals?

How frequently are you reviewing those goals?

Most of us know WHAT we wish to accomplish.

Have we clearly outlined HOW we will hit them?

First, is understanding your goal so completely, that you know exactly what you are striving for.  It needs to be specific and you need to be able to envision it.

What will it mean to hit your goal?

What impact will it have on your business/career and your clients?

What measures do you need to hit so you know that you’ve hit your goal?

By what timeframe do you want to achieve it by?

Then, how you will accomplish it (you may not have every exact step – that’s ok, but you know the main steps to get there). This also has to be very specific. 

Example:

GOAL: If you wish to hold a workshop by the end of the quarter, your goal might look like:   

To fill (fill=30 attendees) and conduct a workshop for clients by March 31. My workshop will be on ‘x’ (topic) and will be geared to ‘y’ (client - type). It will help my clients by giving them the tools and strategies they need to become more effective at managing their own processes and to make business decisions so they can sustain and grow their business. It will impact my business by having clients who are better tuned into their own business needs and will help our company make more of an impact and get greater results for our clients. Our clients will be inspired as they see the outcomes of their efforts, they’ll be in better position to make impactful decisions, with confidence, and achieve their own goals; aligning with our compay’s mission. The measures of success will be: # of participants, a survey score average of 4.0/5 and 4 will want to work with us longer-term.

HOW:

• Create my online/offline marketing pieces by Jan. 25.

• Create the content by February 28.

• Send invites by Feb 1.

• Call my clients and prospects by March 1 to personally invite them.

• Roll out my online and offline marketing between Feb 1 and March 30.

• What I need to do daily:

• What I need to do weekly (working back from March 30):

• Etc. etc.

See how detailed this is? You may even want to separate your actions between content creation steps and marketing and sales steps in this particular example.

There are a number of ways to write out a goal. You can write SMART goals.  (Specific, Measureable, Acheivable, Relevant, Time-bound) or use any other method you wish.

I encourage to you to be very specific though. Paint a picture of what it looks like. It helps create the inspiring image you’d like to see as you work towards a goal – especially if it’s a challenging one.

And, review it every day.

First thing in the morning.

After you review your goal – ask, am I doing these things? What are the actions I need to do today and this week?

So to loop back to the intention of this post – a key ingredient that often gets missed is having very specific timely goals and specific actions to achieve them.

Then, review this daily and ensure you have actions built into your day that allow you to complete each step (i.e. – book them into your calendar!). If this is a daily and weekly focus for you, get ready for the progress you’re about to make.

I would love to hear what else you do to ensure you are able to take massive action towards your goals.

NOW is YOUR time.

Ariana

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