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We are paid by the value we bring to our work, not by the hours or quantity. If you keep that in mind, it would be easy to understand that in order to make more money you have to work on yourself. To be more productive and more resourceful it’s what makes you more successful in your business.

It doesn’t matter what kind of job do you perform, you have to constantly work on your productivity so you can accomplish better work easier and with much greater value. While the quantity is still an important measurement, this comes by being more performant and more experimented in what you do. Therefore, you first bring the quality, and in time the quantity will increase also.

If you are a freelancer, artist or business person, you know even more how important productivity is. I will give you six simple tips to increase your efficiency in your area of work and reach your goals faster.

1. Single tasking work

We can’t multitask. Our brain isn’t made that way and we can’t focus on two things at the same time. When you are multitasking, you are in fact switching. You are going back and forth with two or more things. The problem is, switching is drastically affecting your IQ level and concentration. That means multitasking is affecting your performance. A study done at the University of London found that multitasking decreased the IQ of participants by 15 points. That’s the same effect or worse as if they were smoking marijuana or stayed up all night.

The best work you can do is when you focus on only one thing. When you manage to remove any kind of distractions and focus on single tasks, you are capable of bringing out the best of you, and you will even surprise yourself. It’s so amazing to see the capability of our brain when we laser focus on something that it’s important for us. Concentration is what amplifies our performance.

As an advice,train your concentration in any area. No matter the task you are performing: speaking on the phone, reading emails, doing your workout etc. focus on only what you are doing at that time. It’s hard these days with these tremendous distractions, but it’s the only way to boost your performance and it’s totally worth it. 

2. Compressed action

This is even a stronger tip, but it has a connection with the first one. It’s a powerful yet simple tip to drastically increase your performance. Set yourself to do packed compressed action with your singled task work. Even if you allow 50 minutes, 90 minutes, or even more if you have an important project, get to work without any other kind of distractions or interactions. That means no phones, no messages, no Facebook, no checking e-mail. Just pure plain focused work.

The best time lapse I’ve found to be effective is 50 minutes. I use these compressed action intervals to increase my productivity, give myself a sense of urgency and work at my full potential. That means I set my timer for 50 minutes and I start to work on my task without interruption, distractions or switching up to other things. Single packed compressed action at it’s best. When the timer buzz, I stop and take a break. When I’m ready to get back into action I’m back at it again 50 minutes.

There were also times when I had big projects to start and I even worked for days or weeks in a row. Any way you decide to do it, this compressed action will do wonders in time and will have a magnifying effect on your results.

You might also like: Success Is Proportional With Stress Management

3. Track your performance

The best way to increase your performance is by constantly tracking its current state. It’s easy to under perform when you don’t know exactly where your scale of efficiency lies. Even more than this, tracking your productivity will put a necessary pressure upon you, so that you will perform better every time.

Remember this: Urgency and pressure are your friends. You need these molding features to push yourself towards improvement and success. Without a sense of urgency and pressure upon you, is easy to slack off. 

If you want to make it even a more powerful motivation, share your performance status with other people. You can even ask them to check your results over time. It will give you more compulsion into giving the best.

4. Have a reward system

Even if you reward yourself or celebrate with others when you have an accomplishment, is critical that you have some kind of gifts that you will look forward to. Your goals might be huge (just like mine) so you will need something along the way to enjoy your hard work. Whenever you have an accomplishment and you checked something out of your list, reward yourself. Buy yourself that watch, that jacket you always wanted, or a meal at your favorite restaurant. It can be a small reward or big, the effect is truly motivating and it will boost up your performance.

From time to time, you can even get your friends out for a drink or your coworkers for a movie to celebrate a victory you had. Making your work fun and rewarding is what will give you the enthusiasm and desire to grow into better efficiency.

5. Have huge dreams and short time frames

This is a technique that even Steve Jobs used: setting up unrealistic time frames for his company goals. You see, most of the limitation we have is in our brain based on what we see around us. But when we give ourselves a very short time frame to accomplish our goals it will create a tremendous pressure that will get the best out of us. And we can achieve those goals that fast.

Think about your biggest goal right now. Now think about the time frame you can accomplish that. Got it?

Ok, now slice it in half. That’s your deadline.

6. Split it up into small pieces

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, of course. How do you accomplish big goals? One step at a time. That’s how you manage to do it. Write your goal down and split it up to small pieces. It’s much easier to go through them and it’s easier to achieve your goal now that you have a plan.

It’s also the most reward thing when you can cross those checkpoints on your diary once you do them. Makes dream chasing much more fun.

I hope you like this article. I would love to hear your opinion or any other great ideas about productivity that you might have. Leave your comments below. Have a happy productive life!