Maximise Your Efficiency

We've all met someone who always seems to be on top of things. This is the individual who, whether a friend or a colleague, always gets their task done on time. The person who can complete hour-long duties in 20 minutes. People refer to them as a robot or machine since no person could possibly work as swiftly as they do. Nonetheless, these people exist, working at top capacity. What do these incredibly successful people have in common? What are their methods? It is no secret that they probably have good time management skills and higher untapped potential, but does it mean you cannot do it today itself?

It's easy to dismiss extremely productive individuals as machines (or wizards). However, by understanding how they work efficiently and conquer the problems we all face, you can improve your own productivity. How do the most productive people deal with problems like:

• Procrastinating on minor, annoying jobs as well as huge, difficult ones
• Work that is tedious but must be completed.
• Staying engaged and energised throughout the workday while responding to email and other messages
• concentrating on and completing the most critical chores on their to-do list

The 18 most important habits of highly productive persons are listed below. These productivity ideas will help you improve your efficiency — and get more done — by teaching you how to spend less time on emails and how to stay focused. It's impossible to become more productive overnight. You'll be well on your way to becoming more efficient if you make minor changes and adopt some of these habits.

1. Focus on The Essentials

Most Important Things is based on the idea that some tasks are more important than others on any given to-do list. If you only focus on checking items off your to-do list, you'll finish a mix of important and less important chores. It also exposes you to the risk of procrastination – it's all too tempting to spend the entire day checking off easy, less important tasks rather than getting down to business on the big things. Instead, take a few minutes in the morning to choose 1–3 MITs — tasks that you must complete by the end of the day, no matter what.

2. Distractions are Necessary – YES!

When you're trying to be productive, it's easy to get side-tracked by emails, social media, and a thousand little to-dos. Distractions are the plague of productivity, whether you're attempting to focus on significant work or merely dealing with lesser tasks. With so many distractions, it's difficult to maintain productive work habits. Making a "distraction list" is one effective way to reduce distractions. While you're working, have this list close, whether it's a Google Doc or a physical piece of paper. Write down any distracting thoughts you have on the list and get back to work. This strategy, which is one of the Pomodoro Technique's secrets, is effective since many of your distractions legitimately deserve your attention.

3. 80/20

The 80/20 rule (also known as the Pareto Principle) was discovered by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto and argues that in any endeavour, 80% of the results will come from 20% of the efforts. Highly productive workers identify the most critical 20% of their work to enhance efficiency. Then they look for methods to trim the remaining 80% of their calendar in order to devote more time to the activities that have the greatest impact. It is basic prioritization.

4. Be Your Own Teacher

Ensure that fast work is also good work is one of the obstacles faced by highly productive persons. Working quickly exposes you to the risk of making mistakes. Highly productive workers mitigate this risk by learning and improving at all times, so that generating quality work becomes second nature.

It's self-evident that mistakes teach us something (although of course valuable). When something goes wrong, examining the error and looking for solutions to avoid it is a hugely beneficial learning experience.

5. Plan Your Failures

It can happen to anyone. You have huge intentions for today — it'll be your most productive day yet — but then small fires appear and need your attention. Things go wrong sometimes, whether your furnace breaks and you need to call a repairman, a last-minute meeting comes up, or you forget to schedule in time for lunch. The planning fallacy, which states that everyone underestimates how long it will take to complete tasks, is acknowledged by highly productive people. According to research on the planning fallacy, we overlook to account for tasks or responsibilities that aren't yet on our calendars, which contributes to our underestimation.