Shawn’s Friday Five: Five Ideas to Improve Your Productivity

1. Find a new environment. When you need to complete a task that requires your undivided attention, try finding a different place to work. While writing my book I leave the office completely and find a place of solitude away from all distractions.

2. Build your skill. Being productive and avoiding distractions is a skill, and as such it requires practice. Track your progress by monitoring how many items you have to complete and how diligent you are at setting time goals and completing on time.

3. Accountability. Get into the habit of asking yourself “Is this what I should be doing write now?” Being honest with yourself will lead to the realization that 2 hours a day on Facebook is a complete waste of your time AND one of the reason’s you aren’t as productive as you could be.

4. More speed, less thought. Spend less time thinking and more time doing. Over analysis leads to procrastination, and procrastination leads to more procrastination. Force yourself to take action immediately on important tasks, rather than waiting for “a better time.”

5. Build your confidence. If someone else has accomplished something, then you can too. It doesn’t matter what it is, if it has been done before, then you can do it. I didn’t think I could speak in front of others for a living, but I have seen others do it and now I am doing it to. We create the majority of our obstacles as a result of low confidence in ourselves.

© Shawn Casemore 2013. All rights reserved.