Brian Tracy shares five habits to get more done: plan tomorrow tonight, use the 80/20 rule to focus on what matters, block your time in chunks, cut time-wasters, and say no to low-value requests.
There's never enough time to do everything, but there's always enough time to do the most important things. Hello, I'm Brian Tracy and today I want to talk to you about daily success habits you can start forming that will help you to work smarter, not harder. The most successful and wealthiest people all practice these habits on a daily routine and adding these to your daily routine will contribute greatly to your success. Planning your day actually starts the day before. Set out what you want to accomplish before you even start your day. The last thing you do before coming home from work or retiring for the night is to plan your entire next day. When you plan your day the night before, your subconscious mind then goes to work on your plans and your goals. While you are asleep, sit down with a sheet of paper, notebook or mobile device and put down everything that you need to do the coming day. Preparing your daily list the night before will clear your mind and enable you to sleep more soundly, which will increase your productivity throughout the day. Now, when it comes to making your daily to do list, make sure that you're working from the 8020 rule. If you have 10 items to do on your list, two of them will be more important than the other eight put together. You can do this by asking yourself, if I were to be called out of town for a month, what is the top 20% of my tasks that I must accomplish today? By knowing how to prioritize tasks and working from a list, you increase your productivity and output by 25 to 50% each day. After you've made your effective to do list, make sure that you create time blocks dedicated to each task. Keep in mind that new tasks and responsibilities will come up continually. Phone calls will come in, emails will need to be dealt with, and meetings will need to happen. The key to working smarter is also setting aside chunks of time for those unexpected tasks that will come up. Scheduling your time this way reduces stress and makes you feel in charge of your life. Another task you should block time for is breaks. Every single study in productivity shows that you will be far more productive in the five or six days that you work if you take one or two days off completely than you ever would be if you worked straight through for seven days. The same applies on a smaller scale in the hours of your day. Taking a small break will clear your head and should give you some fresh thoughts to sharpen your focus. However, don't get too comfortable taking too many breaks or welcoming distractions. Most people spend 50% of their time doing non work related activities while they're at work Break the time wasting habits of browsing social media, checking email, taking long lunch breaks, and chatting with co workers. Time is your scarcest resource. You must work smarter to preserve it in every way possible and eliminating these time wasters will improve your time management skills and your quality of life. Look at every request for your time as time being taken away from the amount of time that you have to work and the time that you have left on earth. Spend your time like money. Even when you're not at work, your time is at least equal to an hourly rate. If a person or activity is asking you to donate your time, ask yourself, how important is this task to me and how much of my time and money am I willing to donate to it? If it's not important enough, you must discipline yourself not to do it. Just say no. You want to give any time to your priorities and the top 20% of your tasks for first, say no to requests for your time that don't move you forward or are not of high value. Ultimately, your top goal every day should be to get the highest return on your investment of mental, emotional and physical energy. That's the key to working smarter. If you enjoyed this video and feel it was more valuable in teaching you how to boost productivity, share it with your friends or anyone else who might benefit from this information. Before we wrap up, I'd like to leave you with a thought to share with your friends and followers. There's never enough time to do everything, but there's always enough time to do the most important things. Now. I'd love to hear from you. So my question today is what is the one important thing you're going to start doing today? 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 boosting your productivity, subscribe to my channel like this video and share this video with your friends and click the button on the screen for a free gift. Thanks again for watching.
