Productivity isn’t about getting more done.
It’s about getting more important and impactful things done.
Here are six simple ways to become more productive today…and for the rest of your life.
1. Say no at least once a day.
Priorities drive productivity and priorities require you to say no.
When you force yourself to say no to at least one thing a day you learn to protect your time and get comfortable declining things that aren’t your most important work.
That’s the most valuable skill you can develop.
2. Delete one item from your To-Do list every day.
Not everything on your To-Do list should be there.
Remove the least important item from your list each day to free yourself up to spend time on more important things.
Decide that thing doesn’t actually need to be done…or at least doesn’t need to be done by you.
3. Do one thing you’ve avoided every day.
The things you avoid doing are often the ones that most need to get done.
When you commit to do one thing you’ve avoided each day, you’ll be blown away by how much more productive you become.
This is also a procrastination killer.
4. Pick your most important task and do it first.
All tasks are not created equal.
Identify the single most important thing you need to get done each day and work on that first before life, work, and interruptions can get in the way.
5. Use email templates.
Half the emails you send are probably similar to emails you’ve sent before.
Whenever you send an email about something you may have to say to someone else down the road, copy and paste it into a document where you can access it later.
Then you won’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you write an email — you can just go pull up a similar email you previously sent, make a couple tweaks, and hit send.
If you want to get a bit fancier, you can set up Gmail templates.
6. Subscribe to the For The Interested newsletter.
Here’s your chance to “borrow” productivity tactics from other smart people.
My free For The Interested newsletter features the secrets of the world’s most successful creators including how they set priorities and get their most important work done.
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