Img source: goodhousekeeping.com
Charles M. Schwab, who used to be one of the richest man in the planet, asked the productivity consultant Ivy Lee for some advice that would help his employees increase their work efficiency. The advice he gave to the executives turned out to be something very valuable for which Schwab later paid Lee a sum that is now worth 400,000 dollars.
The advice that Lee gave consisted of these simple steps
- At the end of each workday, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. Do not write down more than six tasks.
- Prioritize those six items in order of their true importance.
- When you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task.
- Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day.
- Repeat this process every working day.
A simple Google search query related to becoming more productive can result with countless articles and tips from a lot of resources that are out there, but you do not have enough time to read, yet alone be able to apply all of them and see what works and doesn’t. A lot of books, a lot of articles from different people that claim to increase your level of productivity. Moreover, now there are a lot of apps that are intended to help you in this regard.
Even though it sounds really simple, this method was something that only three months after his employees heard about it, Schwab had seen many benefits at their productivity level, that he was ready to pay that amount of money. I think this 100-hundred-year old idea might apply even today for most of the cases.
Now, when things are moving too fast, we try to multitask and work on a lot of task simultaneously, because we think we can accomplish more, when in reality we are not. From the above method we learn the benefits from focusing on only one task at a time, and that it should be the most important one. When the most important task is done, a sense of fulfillment might inspire you for even more. Even if you are not able to finish the first task, you are more content when you get to bed, because you know that you did your best trying to tackle the most important task.
Of course, there might be urgent tasks that need your attention and that weren’t necessary to get accomplished a few minutes ago, this might not be always the case. You might still have time for your most important tasks, especially at the beginning of your day.
The reason why you are reading this right now is supposed to be because you were curious to know something valuable and beneficial that might serve you and improve your current level of productivity. I agree that this might not be the best advice that can fit all the cases, but If you like it, give it a try for a few days, and if you see that it is beneficial for you, then you can keep using it. You might not be missing the right tool, you might be missing the right strategy; Game of Thrones books were not written with the latest writing machines.
