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1-Page Summary of Extreme Productivity

Overview

People think that they’ll be exhausted if they’re more productive, but in fact the opposite is true. The more productive you are, the faster you can finish your work and spend time doing other things. If you’re happier and refreshed from being productive, then it will make you even more productive.

Therefore, the best way to enter this positive cycle is by simplifying our lives. To be productive, we should develop a sense of busyness that doesn’t require much effort for maximum results.

Here are the key points from this article: Plan your work efficiently. Stop losing time and find focus. Work less than eight hours a day.

Big Idea #1: Prioritize your tasks and invest your time accordingly.

Planning ahead is important. It’s especially necessary for people who are busy and have a lot of work to do. They should plan their time in advance, because it will help them get more done and reach their goals faster than if they don’t plan at all.

To think more long-term, start organizing your tasks. Break up the task into smaller steps and divide them according to how long they take to accomplish. For example, a career objective might be expanding your business network or landing an executive-level promotion.

Objectives and targets are both essential for achieving larger career aims. For example, if you work in a shoe company, an objective might be to rebrand a sneaker line, while a target could be writing progress reports or finishing part of the project. Objectives can take between three and 24 months to complete.

It is important to prioritize your objectives. You should focus on the things that both you and your boss want to achieve, as well as those tasks only concerning yourself.

For example, if you want to meet more people in your industry and also want to re-brand your firm’s sneaker line to boost profits, then it would do best for you to focus on the re-branding first.

Then, once you’ve identified your tasks, it’s time to prioritize them. In order to do this effectively, you should keep track of how you spend your work days by monitoring how much time is spent on each task.

It is important to spend time on activities that will help you achieve your goals. Maybe you are going to too many internal meetings, and failing to prioritize the ones that are most important. It’s also possible that you’re procrastinating by putting off tasks until later, when they should be done now.

Big Idea #2: Fight procrastination with mini-deadlines that hold you accountable.

Some people get overwhelmed by the amount of work they have to do and just don’t know where to start. It’s important to break down large projects into smaller tasks so you can create mini-deadlines for yourself. This way, you’ll be more likely to start working when the pressure starts building up.

Instead of waiting until the last minute to finish your work, you should set smaller deadlines. This will allow you to reach your goal more quickly and avoid procrastination. For example, if you have a report due in four weeks that’s 6,000 words long, set up weekly word quotas for yourself instead of having one big deadline at the end of the month.

You can hold yourself accountable for your deadlines by sharing them with your boss. When you share a deadline with your boss, it adds some pressure and makes you more accountable. For example, if you tell your boss that you’re working on an analysis of the company’s competitors and plan to split the task into four chapters, then it would be harder for you not to complete those tasks by the time given.

Once you’ve decided to begin, it’s best to tell your boss that you’ll have the report ready by Friday. You could send her a calendar invitation so she has no doubt about when the deadline is. This approach ensures that you will deliver on your promise because you don’t want to disappoint your boss. However, once you meet the deadline, treat yourself with something nice like a good meal or an interesting book as a reward for doing well.