How To Be Productive | Brian Tracy

Hello, I'm Brian Tracy and today I want to talk to you about how to create a productivity schedule. Every successful person will tell you how important it is to follow a routine. With a routine, they are able to essentially follow a step by step guide to achieve a particular goal. A routine allows successful people to focus more of their effort and energy on actually completing tasks instead of thinking about them. The specific routine I personally follow has helped me stay focused and productive throughout my life. It's taken me from rags to riches, from basically almost living in my car to living in a big house on a golf course in Southern California. It's so important you cannot underestimate it. This routine increased my overall productivity and that productivity led me to success. I'm excited to share these tips and tools with you to help you create a routine that leads you to success and higher income as well. Here are the most important actions I implement within my productivity routine. The first action I follow is the Touch it Once rule. The Touch it Once rule implies that you should complete a task or project from start to finish the first time that you touch it, rather than starting it and leaving it to finish later and going back to it and working on it and going back to it and so on. What they have discovered is that you can increase the amount of time needed to complete a task by 500%. That's five times simply by picking it up and putting it down over and over again and rather than simply starting the task and disciplining yourself to stay at it until it's 100% complete. While some projects may take more time, this rule can apply to most tasks or chores within reason. If you can commit to this rule, you will develop more consistent habits and eliminate procrastination as well. I can almost guarantee that if you adopt this rule, start and complete each task one at a time, you will feel like you can accomplish more than ever before. The second action I always implement and recommend that you do too, to stay productive is to physically write down your goals. I always say this. Write it down. Write it down when you think it. Ink it. It's so important. You've probably heard that writing down your goals is an important step towards the accomplishment of them. But did you know that neurological studies have proven that to be true? Studies have shown that vividly describing your goals in written form in the present tense is positively correlated with goal success. And people who very vividly write down their goals are anywhere from 1.2 to 1.4 times likely to successfully achieve accomplish that goal. Here's why that is, writing out your goals allows you to visualize the steps that you need to take to accomplish them and to track your progress along the way. So always remember to physically write down your goals. What I do is I write down my important goals in my personal journal and then I write down every day everything that I'm going to do that particular day. The first thing I do in the morning is I create a new list where I roll forward my old tasks, the ones that I haven't completed, and then write down new ones. The best time to do that, by the way, is at the end of the day before you quit, so that your mind will work on your goals all night long and the next morning you'll be bright and alert and ready to go. The third action I take and suggest that you follow as well, is to set small bite sized goals and then start with the hardest one. When setting goals, it's important to consider your capabilities and capacity. Avoid biting off more than you can chew, and make sure that you are setting small goals that are actually achievable within your desired time frame and focusing on accomplishing each one one at a time. While the desire to complete as many goals as possible may be tempting and seem productive on the surface, multitasking can actually be harmful to your productivity and achievement. By focusing on one goal at a time, however, you will have fewer distractions and you'll be able to produce high quality work each goal time after time. In the same vein, make sure that you keep your goals small and separate. Don't lump all your goals together into a giant, unattainable goal. This could end up discouraging you from moving forward and ultimately hurt your progress. Break up your goals into manageable tasks. While they should all lead to the major goal, they will be much easier to accomplish and keep track of as smaller goals. For example, if your goal is to write a book, break down the elements needed to reach that main goal and set them as your short term sub goals. These smaller goals can be things like researching the topic, writing an outline, writing a draft, and so forth. I have personally now written 91 books and I'm working on book number 92 and people ask me how is it that you can write so many excellent books that are published worldwide in 52 languages? And the answer is because I break it down into steps and follow each step at a time. And by the way, we have a list of 20 steps@briandracy.com that's available to you at no cost that will keep you on track. If you Want to write a book? Breaking down your goals into more manageable sizes also helps make it easier to start working towards them. I recommend you start and finish the hardest goals first to build up your confidence and your productivity. Once the hardest one is complete, everything else thereafter will seem so much easier to achieve. My fourth tip to stay productive is to set time limits to achieve or revisit goals. When creating your goals, consider the T in smart goals. The T refers to time related or time bounded. Without a deadline, there is no specification and when you hope to see your results achieved. Setting a time limit creates a much needed sense of perseverance and determination and pressure and helps keep yourself on track to achieve everything you set out to accomplish and faster than you had ever thought possible. If the goal needs to be revisited, your time limit will act as a boundary to assure that you're not procrastinating or wasting time. And the fifth and final action that I use to stay productive is to make a list of tasks and action items for the next day before going to bed or before finishing your work this day. This is the best way to set yourself up for success every day. Create a to do list the night before so that you don't waste much needed effort and energy the next day trying to figure out what you should do that day and when you should start. Utilize that energy and time to complete your tasks rather than think about them. You'll be able to wake up, jump out of bed and begin on your path of productivity right off the bat. If you're fired up about achieving your goals, have a look at my 14 day goal setting Challenge which is on my website and it's completely free. This challenge has everything you need to set and achieve the goals you've always been dreaming of. Don't procrastinate. Start now. Now. I'd love to hear from you. So my question today is what is your daily routine right now to help you stay productive and how can it be improved based on my tips? And of all of my tips, which one appeals to you the most at this time? Leave a comment below and I'll be sure to follow up with you. Thanks for watching. And remember, if you want to change your future, take action. And take action now. If you enjoyed this video and feel it was valuable in teaching you about how to stay productive, subscribe to my channel like this video and share this video with your friends. 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