Productivity is important.

Everyone knows that.

Most people would like to be able to get stuff done faster than they do, so they can spend less time working. (and some crazy people want to work the same number of hours but just accomplish more.)

Below are some excellent tips for being super productive. This is what I personally do to get a whole bunch done in a very short time, so I can spend very little time working.

Without going into too much detail and boring you, let me just say that before I started doing these things I was a total mess.

Never got anything done. I would “work” all day, sometimes 10-11 hrs a day, and never really got anything very useful finished.

I FINALLY started buckling down, and really focused on getting something important done every minute of the day that I was “working” - instead of doing “busy work” like I did before.

And wow did it help.

Nowadays I get done in 3-4 hours what most people take a few DAYS to do.

Only reason I told you that is because I find I’m more likely to implement something when I see it has actually helped another person.

Point is, USE this advice. Don’t just read it and say “that’s nice”, then go back to doing whatever pointless busy work you were just doing.

To-Do List Rules - Never write out your to do list the same day. This starts out the day unproductively. The day before, write out your list on a REAL physical paper - not in wordpad or your pda or anything electronic.

Prioritize your list

Put a maximum of 4 high priority items that must be finished that day. Write them in a way that it is absolutely clear which items are high priority. Begin the day by knocking out those priority items, then move on to the others.

Multi-tasking Myth - When people try to multi-task, most of their time is spent moving from one thing to another. Their focus is completely scattered, it’s hard to concentrate on any one thing, and practically nothing ever gets accomplished.

Focus on one task at a time. Don’t even think about the others until it’s finished.

Stay in control - In his “Time Management Action Secrets” teleseminar, Alex Mandossian gives a great piece of advice that I regularly follow. He talks about eliminating interruptions.

To do this, you set aside a specific period of time every day where NO interruptions are allowed.

Turn off the volume on the phone, close your email and instant messengers, don’t look at any regular snail mail, don’t check voicemail, and don’t allow any family members or friends to interrupt you. (Determine ahead of time what qualifies as an emergency situation, and don’t let anything else disrupt you.)

Commit to a specific time each day.

This makes it easier to enforce, and also helps you develop the habit. By doing it every single day for 3 weeks it will become a natural habit.

It will be difficult at first, of course. But it will become easier after time.

Batch Tasks - Create a daily habit of combining tasks. For instance, take the dog on a walk every day right after lunch. (or you could do it right before lunch…may be a good weight loss plan). Then pick up the newspaper/check the mail as you return home.

If it’s on the way, pass by your outdoor trash can before going back inside, and quickly toss out any junk mail, before it winds up in your “junk drawer”.

When inside, as you walk over to the trash to throw something away, glance around the room to see if anything else can be thrown away.

Improve Your Typing Skills - Obviously being able to type quickly means getting things done faster. This may make a bigger difference in your productivity than you think it will though. All of those extra minutes saved really do add up.

That’s all for now.

Rather than give you some giant list of productivity tips, I’d rather give you these few good ones so you can implement them and actually see some results.

Trying to change TOO many habits and patterns all at once is just a recipe for disaster.

My suggestion is to take ONE of these tips, implement it for at least a week, then start doing another one.

Before you click away, make a plan RIGHT NOW to implement one of these before you forget. Doesn’t matter which one.

Later I’ll share more tips with you. Hopefully you’ll be ready.