Within 48 hours (as of writing), the entire world was excited to bring in the year 2016. New years are what many of us use as a milestone to mark progress in our lives. With each new year comes new promises to do better, eat better, learn more, achieve more, grow further, but after 4 months or maybe only 4 weeks into a brand new year, many of us fall off and revert to old ways. We can do better than that. By keeping ourselves organized and free from distraction, anyone can make 2016 the most productive year ever.
Keep a calendar
One of my most favorite authors on success and leadership would have to be John Maxwell. John taught me over the years that one thing that successful people do, is keep a calendar. I can almost hear him talking directly to me right now saying, “Joe Olujic, remember it all comes down to what you do every day.” The best way to keep up with yourself and make sure that you stay on task is to plan your day. Keep a calendar, a notebook, or even a journal, and plan ahead, making notes of what you want to accomplish. If you are anything like me, I like to set my calendar up, filled with details. I like to schedule myself to do everything and even note the location. You don’t have to get that detailed, but as long as you know what you’re getting done…
Stop wasting time
Have you ever seemed to notice that the technological advances we have made throughout the past 9 years have shown promise in ways they could boost our productivity, but instead they destroy our time—our most precious commodity? That’s right, I’m talking about our mobile phones, our Internet, and now our wearable tech, such as Smart Watches. These things have great potential to make us better, but we have a tendency to let them become major distractions. Unless your job has you stationed at a computer, you have no excuse to be distracted by these things that are outside of you. If you are required to be chained to your computer, distractions will happen, but you can lessen the blow to your valuable time by tracking your time. Web Timer for the Google Chrome browser is an excellent extension that keeps up with the time spent on each website, and displays it in an easy-to-read pie chart.
Stop procrastinating
I know, it’s easier said than done. This goes hand-in-hand with wasting time with distractions and understandably so. Procrastination is what one of my mentors, David Schwartz—the author of the book, “The Magic of Thinking Big”—would call one of the deadly diseases of success. It’s a nasty trait that has a tendency to form into a nasty habit very quickly if not watched out for. Bruce Lee once said, “If you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it will spread over into the rest of your life. It will spread into your work, into your morality and into your entire being.” The same is true for procrastination.
With these few basic tips, you should be well on your way to making the best out of the new year of 2016 and every other year that follows. Did I miss anything? How do you stay productive? Let me hear about it in the comments and share the knowledge with others. Here’s to a healthy and productive new year!
Photo Credits
Photo by Joe Daughtridge – All Rights Reserved
Guest Author Bio
Joe Olujic
Gaming industry veteran Joe Olujic has years of experience working in executive level roles, having served as chief operating officer and assistant general manager of finance during his 15 plus years in the industry.
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