In the last post I talked a little about Time, and how implementing an effective Time Management strategy (.i.e. by having a well laid out Plan) can get ourselves organized and Increase Productivity immediately and move close to our end goals.

Well today I’d like to tease out this idea a little further and get into some specific techniques that you can easily use to take your Time Management and Productivity to the next level!

Remember we spoke about having an end goal in mind before you start off on your journey? And you were visualizing what you would like to have achieved in 12 months, 6 months and 3 months from now? Well, now it’s time to break this down further and start knocking these tasks out so you can start hitting your little landmarks, and achieving your BIG goals, in record time!

Increase Productivity with These Secret Weapons

Introducing…..the mighty “To Do List” and “Daily Did Sheet”

Now, I know some of you may be thinking that these are quite obvious and how much of a bearing can they have on increasing your Productivity?… Well, let me tell you that the significance of these 2 little gems is HUGE!

When my mentor, Alex Jeffrey’s, introduced me to the idea of making out a To Do List and a Daily Did Sheet everyday I thought he was just stalling for time… I thought how much of an impact can such simple procedures have on me achieving my online business goals? Luckily for me I chose to follow his advice and boy am I glad I did!

Every night before I go to bed I plan out the next day and fill out my To Do List. I put an estimate time scale on each task just to help me to stay focused and work as productively as possible. Then when I’m finished I fill out my Daily Did Sheet and you’d be amazed at how good it feels to be able see, right there in black and white, what you achieved that day.

Instant Increased Productivity!

You see, each productive task on that Daily Did Sheet brings me one step closer to achieving my goals. After doing this for a few days I was hooked and I know I’ll never go back to the haphazard, shot-in-the-dark way of working that I did before.

These two techniques couldn’t be easy to implement – as all you need is a pen and paper and you’re set! Just think about how much faster you could achieve your goals if you only spent your time working on the most productive and worthwhile tasks? I think sometimes we make things harder that they have to be, but by utilizing little techniques such as these we can keep things Simple and keep moving forward.

So moving on, the next thing I would like to touch on today is how to know what tasks you should be including on your To Do List to begin with. I raise this point because there is a big difference between spending your limited free time working on a Productive Task (i.e. one that will bring you closer to your end goal) and filling up your day “working” on things that you shouldn’t be doing and could easily be outsourced for pennies!

I think this would be a good place to mention mindmeister.com This is a mind mapping website which is the perfect place to Brainstorm and organize your thoughts and idea’s in an easy to follow format. Mind Mapping will see you increased productivity immediately as you can see all your tasks laid out clearly infront of you. Simply sign up for a free account and begin to put down all the information that you have running around in your head. You’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to focus once you can actually see what needs to be done, right there in front of you!

This is great for helping you to decide what to include on your To Do List and what to set aside for a later date or to outsource. It makes it very easy to separate the Productive Tasks from the Time Wasters which will allow you to increase your efficiency immediately.

So today we have discussed the importance of managing time effectively by utilizing the simple little To Do List and Daily Did Sheets. Now don’t forget to brainstorm in the beginning before rushing off and filling up your To Do List with junk! Visit mindmeister.com and sign up for you free account and get organized.

In closing, we all have goals and ambitions – all of which are achievable when we put our minds to it. Depending on what road we choose to travel on we can either get there in record time or run the risk of getting lost along the way and arriving late to the party…

I don’t know about you but I like to arrive early so I can have a good time 🙂 so add these Simple techniques to your arsenal and put yourself on the fast track to achieving your goals!

Do you have any other methods for managing your time effectively? Care to share? I’d love to hear about them so please leave a comment below and lets all move forward (faster) together! And remember it doesn’t have to be hard to increase productivity, sometimes the simplest method are the best;)


Noel
Noel

Easy going guy and founder of CunMark.com who enjoys traveling, live music and good coffee - as well as sharing tips and strategies on this blog to help others navigate the world of online marketing!

    15 replies to "Simple Ways to Increase Productivity"

    • Brooklyn

      FIRST!!! YAY

      ahem…. (Now that I’m done congratulating myself for 1st Place)

      Noel, I would love to see one of your mind maps for getting yourself organized. I am starting to use them for planning projects out and it seems to be helping. I am a lot like you as I use to just start working on random stuff.

      I always ended up with me having no idea what I had accomplished. I also had no idea where I was going wich usually was to the Warrior Forum to search for more answers on why I wasn’t progressing.

      I like that you write out what you are going to do the night before. I have actually changed from doing a morning list to an evening list. If I don’t plan at night, then my thoughts about what I wanted to accomplish the next day would keep me awake ALL night!

      I have found that setting it up for the morning feels like I am tucking my productive self into a nice secure cozy bed so we can both sleep like a baby the whole night through.

      Great job on finding your own way,

      Brooklyn

      • Noel

        Congratulations of commenting First Brooklyn! – I’d like to say that you’ve won a prize but sorry I’ve nothing to offer you at the moment:)

        I actually have a Mind Map open now just to help me keep my head in the Game! I’ll take a screen capture of it soon and post it here for you (next blog topic sorted – thank you;)

        I LOVE the MM – it’s great to have a visual plan and it’s def helped me a lot. I’m very easily distracted and often find myself taking a 5 min break to surf around and end up getting lost on the WF for hours 🙁

        I’m glad you find planning your To Do List the night before awesome too – I usually hit the gym in the morning and if I don’t have my day already planned out it just goes round my head and it’s hard to focus properly. And there is the benefit of getting a great nights sleep when you know your ready to rock n’ roll the next day!!

        Great stuff 🙂

    • Paul

      Hey Noel,

      This is a really important and I’m glad you’ve written about it, because so many people are stalling in every area of their lives simply because they don’t have the right productivity tools in place. I’ve followed a few of the top IMers out there and one thing I’ve seen them all do is use a ‘task sheet’, ‘to do’ list, etc.

      Ever since using a daily ‘to do’ list, I actually find myself accomplishing so much more in a few hours than I was otherwise completing in a single day – and even worse realized how very little I was actually getting done.

      I really like the ‘daily did’ idea as well, as it allows you to see everything you’ve done and how far you’ve actually come. This is something I’ll admit to not doing enough, but after being reminded by you I’m going to get on top of it again.

      Great post man, looking forward to more!

      Pauly C

      • Noel

        Cheers Pauly – your so right, all the top IMers plan their day, set their goals and work towards them. That’s why they’ve achieved such success in their lives. But sometimes this goes under the radar and although it’s very simple I thought it was worthwhile to bring it up again.

        I’ve been kinda kicking myself over not using these little gems earlier – think how further down the track we’d all be if we used these right from the start??

        The mind boggles Lol – Noel.

    • Sylvia

      Hi Noel,

      Great post again. I am glad to see someone else using mindmaps for planning.
      I can’t seem to get enough of them. They allow me to see all the parts and tasks of the whole project. I will layout all of the tasks of a project and then decide what is reasonable time frame for each task.

      I must admit my daily todo sheet does not always get completed:( I admire how you are getting everything done.

      :)Sylvia

      • Noel

        Thanks Sylvia! I love my Mind Maps too, such a great way of planning out your tasks!!
        Great to hear that you’re having success with them too – keep up the good work;)
        -Noel.

    • Dee Kumar

      Planning is such a useful tool. It help you not only prioritise tasks (which you mention) but it also has an effect on our subconscious. By writing something down, it forms a subconscious commitment to the tasks, it makes us accountable and responsible whereas a mental list simply disappears without any recourse.

      I like to write down all my items on my todo lists and then categorise them as 1, 2, or 3. Ones are my priorities, 2’s would be very useful to do and 3 would be nice but not really that useful.

      That has really helped to focus and be far more productive on the tasks that matter.

      • Noel

        Couldn’t agree more Dee – when it’s down on paper it becomes real and the chances of completion rapidly increase.
        Also the idea of prioritizing your tasks is another useful method because if you can allocate the most of your time towards the most productive tasks your really going to get a lot more done.
        – Noel.

    • Toney Amigon

      I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your blog. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a developer to create your theme? Excellent work!

      • Noel

        Hi Toney – thanks for dropping by and for the kind words;)

        No, I put it all together myself (very proud of myself for that!) It’s the optimize press blog theme and the only thing I outsourced was the site header for $5 on fiverr.

        Thanks for your feedback, hopefully I’ll have more interesting posts for you in the future:)

        Have a Good Day – Noel.

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