How to become Stress-free Productivity Superhero

productivity superheroIf you did click this because of the headline. I’ll reveal one secret to you. Superman has a lot of stress. I know he has. He has all the things in the world to protect and he is alone. It won’t be easy and it’s tough job to be done.

And you know what? It’s never done!

It’s a bit like your life. You have so many things to be done. Your to-do list won’t get shorter and even if you try hard and fly high, it seems the evil guys are always faster and they fill your to-do list.

Superman will never get rid of his stress or become stress-free and to be honest,  you won’t either.

I’ve  learned to do a lot and feel that most of the time I’m stress-free. I am going to share how in this post.

How do you get more done?

It’s easy.

  1. Wake up early
  2. Work more.
  3. Work late.
  4. Work faster.
  5. Work harder.
  6. Work always.

And eventually you’ll get more done. What are you waiting for? Start working! Go and fly high Superman!

What? You don’t like my advice?

Let’s have another shot. Here are few things for you to get started.

  1. Work one thing at a time.
  2. Keep your to-do-list clean.
  3. Build productivity habits.
  4. Get rid of your to do list. 
  5. Use form to set your goals.
  6. Be proud of your work.

How to summarise all that?

The key to achieving better results is to go small. Forget everything you have in your to-do list and really start thinking what is the most important task you have. The task that will bring the greatest result OR the task that bothers you the most.

Pick the one thing for the day. The most important task you can imagine or the task that is not letting you go. The task that keeps you awake in the evening or the task that you keep thinking of all the time.

Your goal is to get that one thing done.

Now you may think, “That’s nonsense. “I’ve so many things in my list that I can’t possibly get everything done, if I forget all of them and start working one thing at a time”

Yes, I know. I also had a long list. Until I got rid of my to-do list.

And yes there are many things that are left undone. The main thing is to find and do only the most important things and then ignore the rest. Your goal is to do the things that will bring you the most results or give you the peace of mind. The goal is NOT to get everything done.

You need to learn to ignore low value requests from others. You need to learn to leave things undone. You need to learn to tolerate unfinished business and put all your strengths and efforts into the most important things.

(Now I have overused word “things.” Because the most important things are not just THINGS. They are DYNAMITE that will move you and your work forward in giant leaps!)

There will be a noise, when undone things try take hold of you and much resistance from yourself, when you try to jump into unimportant tasks, but that is the thing that separates you from the high achievers: tolerance of noise, requests and resistance.

The high achievers concentrate on the things that bring them the most value.

Most of the things you do won’t bring you the results you want. They are just food for the hamster in the running wheel.

Pick the one thing and focus only on that.

Before I go to work I plan my day. And before I go home, I plan my evening. Planning is fast and easy, because I only pick the one thing that brings me the most results. If you have mandatory damn important meetings, you need to pick the thing that fits your day or just cancel your meetings.

I’m not even trying to get everything done. Yes, there will be a lot of unfinished business and yes there will be unpainted walls in my old house, but it does not matter.

Do you think planning your evening is unnecessary? I don’t think so.

Picking the one thing for the evening and finishing it, gives me the great accomplishment feeling every day.

I’m not stressed, because I don’t think of everything I had on my list. I’m only thinking of the one thing I’m going to finish this evening and I’ll finish it.

It also gives me more time to relax with my family, because I’m not trying to do everything in my limited spare time. I do one thing at a time and after I have done that one thing, I’m free to do everything I want – even nothing – and spend time with the family.

Yes, the dishes may fill the kitchen and yes the living room might need vacuuming. (We have a robot vacuum cleaner btw),

But so what?

You are still accomplishing items that bring the value and you’ve time with your kids.

And if you finish something every day in your work and in your home, that amounts to hundreds of things in a year.


What happens to all these unfinished items? The simple answer is nothing, but let’s look a bit further.

  1. If they are important and significant, they’ll find their way to you. You’ll do them.
  2. They’ll disappear. If they have no meaning at all, they disappear. Would it  have been a great waste if you had done them. Insignificant things will stay meaningless or they disappear. An insignificant thing is still insignificant even if you do it.
  3. They’ll be resolved by someone else. Yes, that happens too and it’s not bad at all. If it did not bring any value to you, it’s better that someone else did it.

The surprising thing in life is that most things do not really matter. It’s only a few things that bring you the results, success or happiness. The more you find those things and the more you do them, the better your life will be.

The point is to find items that will bring visible results. Items that will create movement and items that create the biggest satisfaction to you.

Everyone has the same amount of time. And it’s time we’ll never get back. You better use it well.

 

Photo Credit Flickr and Suus Wansink’s

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