The idea of focusing on the final product is critical to efficiently completing your high-priority projects, which often are broad in scope and complex in content. The key word here is “tentative”–you should stop midway to reassess the final product in light of what you’ve learned so far. However, to apply this idea to your high-priority projects, you’ll probably have to overcome two constraints: your own tendency to procrastinate and your organization’s emphasis on hours worked.
No matter what your career aspirations are, you should begin by thinking carefully about why you are engaging in any activity and what you expect to get out of it. Here is a process to establish your highest-ranking goals and to determine whether your actual schedule is consistent with this ranking.
Brendon Burchard gives a great talk about “The Power of Personal Responsibility” and provides the summary as below:
Life blooms when we take responsibility for our full human experience. To be personally responsible and self-reliant means we have to get our sh*t together and decide to have command over these five areas:
What is our goal, our direction, our purpose? What is it that we are moving toward and organizing our lives to achieve and contribute? These are questions of the motivated and purposeful human.
Are the things we continually focus on bringing us joy, success, connection, growth? Or are we being distracted by a bunch of garbage and gossip in life?
Ari Meisel had an awesome creativeLIVE course called “The Art of Less Doing” in 2013/11. From one of the signup materials, he provided very helpful and valuable summary of the course. And it’s good to share his idea.
The idea of Less Doing is to reclaim your time and – more importantly – your mind, so you can do the things you want to do. Even little bits of time are important. It all adds up. By applying the practice of Less Doing to your life, you can free up the time and mental space to do the things you care about most.
For any challenge, the first thing to do is to optimize it. Break it down to its bare minimum, simplify it, and eliminate everything that’s not completely necessary. Once you’ve boiled the task down to its essentials, the goal is to break what’s left into bite-sized tasks that can be replicated and possibly delegated.
Tim Ferriss talks about his productive principles to Eric Barker at Barking Up The Wrong Tree. Below is Tim’s thoughts about productivity.
I try to have the first 80 to 90 minutes of my day vary as little as possible. I think that a routine is necessary to feel in control and non-reactive, which reduces anxiety. It therefore also makes you more productive.
…whenever possible, do not check email for the first hour or two of the day. It’s difficult for some people to imagine. “How can I do that? I need to check email to get the information I need to work on my most important one or two to-dos?”
You would be surprised how often that is not the case. You might need to get into your email to finish 100% of your most important to-dos. But can you get 80 or 90% done before you go into Gmail and have your rat brain explode with freak-out, dopamine excitement and cortisol panic? Yes.
Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life
John C. Maxwell
20090601
Good thinkers are always in demand. Good thinkers solve problems, they never lack ideas, and they always have hope for a better future. Good thinkers rarely find themselves at the mercy of others who might want to take advantage of them or deceive them. In short, good thinkers are successful.
Derived from John C. Maxwell’s How Successful People think, this interactive workbook will show you how to become a successful thinker, revolutionizing your work and your life.
There ain’t no rules around here. We’re trying to accomplish something. -Thomas Edison
We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own. -Ben Sweetland