Video transcript:
Hi there my friend, I am Cornel Manu, founder of AmbitionOasis.com. I have a question for you: Do you want to achieve greatly, increasing your productivity daily, while spending less time doing it and have more free time to enjoy life and those you love? I am sure you want that. We all want that.
When it comes to productivity, being high achievers and focusing so much on getting things done, we tend to sabotage ourselves and even make ourselves less productive by over stressing, over working and cluttering our minds. There is this mentality of hustling that I used to have as well. I truly believed that investing a lot of hours in doing what I needed to do is all it takes to achieve great results.
But here is the deal. I still honestly believe that effort should be consistent, but I now better understand that the quality of the effort is more important. You see, we are not robots. We cannot function at our best 24/7. So basically that means we can achieve more in 90 minutes of focused high-quality work than we do in 12 hours at a very low productive level.
Those that practice fitness or any kind of sport know this. While training is vital for the performance, even more important is the rest period. Because in the rest period the body grows in strength, not only recovers. Therefore, by alternating work and rest periods of times, we can achieve our greatest physical performance. If we overwork our body too much, we not only lose muscle strength and health, but we can also cause ourselves serious injuries.
If that is true for our muscles, why wouldn’t be true for our brain, the most energy-consuming organ, that takes about 20% of our daily calories? As I love simplicity and I think it’s extremely potent, I will provide for you 4 easy tips to get more things done in less time.
1st Tip: Have a Plan of Action
If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail, Benjamin Franklin wisely said. There is something powerful in organizing your actions that you need to make and having a clear step by step plan that you take action on.
Think about it this way. Every task that you give your brain is draining up the processing energy. So if you have to remember and rethink what you need to do at every single step, that takes a heavy load on your concentration. That means you are taking the action much less concentrated and more tired. Thus, less efficient.
Take the time to make a plan of action for the day. Put everything on it, starting from the most mundane tasks to the most important. Organize them by priority. Now when you take action on them you are giving 100% of your effort. That means greatest results.
2nd Tip: Remove All Distractions
Our mind doesn’t have the ability to multi-task. When you are doing several things at the same time, you are basically switching back and forth. One study shows that it takes about 25 minutes for us to completely refocus on a task after an interruption. Imagine that, 25 minutes to refocus.
Every distraction is an interruption. The SMS on your phone, the new comment you got on Facebook or someone simply asking you a question. Or, even worse, you trying to multi-task, interrupting one task and going after another one.
If you want to work at your best remove all the distractions once you start working, and work on a single project at a time. Only move to the next one after this is done. When I say remove all the distractions, I mean everything. Silence up your phone, close all social media tabs, shut down the door and put a Do Not Disturb sign on it, whatever it’s needed. Create for you these periods of time when you work uninterrupted on a single task, and you are going to see your productivity skyrocket.
3rd Tip: Work In Burst Time
You cannot focus too long on a task, and also you cannot be concentrated at your best too long. Overworking yourself to the exhaustion is actually making you drop productivity so much, that those extra hours doesn’t bring any good results at all. And most of the times, in these exhausted moments we usually make mistakes that will need to be fixed up later. Practice this for too long, and as you age you will actually get worse at what you do instead of improving yourself.
The best method I found to work at my best is to do these burst times. I work for 90 minutes without interruption, then I take a break for as much as I need to refill my energy, and then come back and do it again. This way I always work at my greatest potential, and I have achieved more in the last year using this method than I ever could dream about in the past. You can use a timer to let you know when those 90 minutes are over. As soon as the alarms go off, stop the work and take a break. Drink some water, move your body, recalibrate your mind. Then you can come back and crush it again.
4th Tip: Rest and Relax
Have you ever worked so much, that at some point it was hard to concentrate even on the smallest task? I mean, your mind would just randomly start to think about a funny video you saw earlier that day or something and you start to giggle inside. I know I did experience this. Our brain actually tries to save the little energy that is left in our mind by canceling concentration. You know, you still need the energy to survive and stuff. I know, our brain cares more about our survival than our work. This little traitor.
I can’t tell you enough how important resting time is for us. Without proper resting we start to lose so much productive power, that would be more productive for us to do nothing. This is the best tip I can share about resting: rest as long as you need to gain your strength. Don’t make resting a purpose either. But make it a priority for your productivity, and understand the fact that this is helping you work more and better. You rest so you can achieve more. As the song say: work hard, play hard.
That was it for today, I hope it was useful for you guys. Try these tips for at least one month and you will see great results much faster. Also, you will have more time to have fun and enjoy life as well. If you liked this video, give it a like and leave a comment below. Share it with those that matter for you because they might need it as well. Subscribe so you can get notified when new videos arrive. As always, you can find great success articles at AmbitionOasis.com. And if you want to support this show, you can go to paypal.me/CornelManu and donate. To your success and fulfillment! See you next time.
