Introduction

In this 2-part series of articles I will be revealing some of the tactics I use to maximize my time effectively, and increase my ability to be productive.

Time management and productivity are arguably the key skills any business needs to develop and maintain its competitive advantage: there are 86,400 seconds in every day, and each business - the employers, employees and outsourcing team, should all buy into how important effective productivity and time management are.

Before I continue, let me ask you this: Why is it that one person seems able to do four times as much as another, and in half the time?

What 'secrets' do successful people employ in order to maximize their focus and manage their time so easily? And how do they maintain their focus when there are endless ways to become distracted with modern communications?

I'll share with you my 7 secrets by way of answering this question, in the context of what I do in my business. By no means are these the only strategies I use, but they are amongst the best I've found to date.

Secret 1: Discover your most productive 3 hours in each day

This secret does what it says on the tin: in short, there are only a certain number of hours each day when your brain is operating in its most harmonious fashion. Without going into the reasons why, the main take-away here is that you need to find that time, and work on your most important, core parts of your business during those hours, free from interruption and distraction.

A good way to think of the time you have in each day is like a jar, which you fill with stones; the larger the stone, the more important the item.

If you run a business, you are your own boss. Whilst this sounds like true freedom, with it there comes a responsibility: You are in charge of your income production, and the ultimate success or failure of your business, no one else is.

So, fill your first three hours of each day with your most important business-building activities. Usually these will be aspects of the business to do with creation rather than maintenance (though this is not a strict rule, more an observation).

Putting your biggest 'stones' in the jar first might mean that you don't have so much time to do other tasks, but this is the whole point. The less important tasks can be left until later, and if you find there are always a number or type of tasks that tend to be neglected, or poorly done as a consequence, then these are the very things that you should look to be delegating to others in your team.

If you run a home-based business, then it's quite likely you might be operating alone, or perhaps with a partner. In this case, you should be looking to outsource those other tasks to people who can manage those processes, leaving you to concentrate on the business-building essentials.

Secret 2: Power of Habit, Ritual and Systems

It has been estimated that over 90% of our brains are operating unconsciously - the remaining 10% is the part that we are aware of in our thoughts. This being the case, you must learn to take advantage of the power of the subconscious mind, and tap into its creativity and energy.

The single, biggest way to do this is through the power of habit and systems.

Habits are things that you physically do, every day, day in, day out, without even thinking about them. This is how you need to run the most important parts of your business.

Roughly speaking, it takes 30 days to form a new habit, and until that time it is quite hard to maintain this new type of activity. Over time, it becomes progressively easier, until in the end, you are able to do those particular tasks on autopilot.

At this point, the subconscious mind has completely taken over the running of those tasks. You no longer have to think about how to do them. They have become part of your daily ritual. Now you can shift your focus in to new areas of mastery, and so on. This is probably the single-most effective way to increase you productivity over time.

Note: there are NO short cuts!

What aboutsystems? These are things that are done, either by others, machines or both, which again, run on autopilot.

The most famous and often-quoted example is that of McDonald's: an incredibly effective system and management set of processes was put into place so that anyone who was trained by the company properly could churn out fast food.

The most effective way to grow your business is though the development of systems which work together, allowing the whole 'show' to run, on autopilot. Think of systems, then, as an extension of the power of habit, but encompassing the whole business rather than just yourself.

[This article continues in part 2].