3 Quick & Easy Productivity Tips for Leaders
The Monday Morning Manager Series #16
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This article is part #16 of The Monday Morning Manager Series for new leaders. Check out the rest of the series plus the archives here.
As a leader, you know that productivity is key to success. But sometimes, it’s hard to find the time or energy to focus on getting things done.
Being organized and productive is one of the things new leaders must work out themselves. It is also something that many leaders need help with.
In my many years of helping people set goals at work, one of the recurring themes has been how to get things done on time without becoming stressed and despondent.
“Only check your email three times per day. Once when you get to work, once after lunch and once before you go home. Otherwise you’ll be forever messing around with emails and not focusing on a task that adds value.”
Learning how to be brutally efficient with your time to get the crucial tasks done takes time. But it can be done.
If you’re a leader who’s overwhelmed and you don’t know where to start, check out these three productivity tips: They’ll help you get organized and stay on track.
Implementing even one of these tips can make a big difference in your productivity. If trying all three at once is too much, try one at a time and see which ones stick.
Productivity tip one: Eat that frog
Making eating a frog the first task you do is an idea popularized by Brian Tracy in his book, Eat That Frog.
Don’t panic. There is no actual eating of frogs, live or otherwise. And no licking frogs either, no matter how much you crave mind-altering experiences.
The idea behind Eat That Frog is to do the most problematic of your tasks first thing in the morning. You know the sort of jobs — the ones you put off and don’t want to do.
Tracy recommends that you put your big girl (or boy) pants on and get on with it.