he key to happiness, satisfaction, great success, and a wonderful feeling of personal power and effectiveness is for you to develop the habit of eating your frog first thing every day when you start work.
Fortunately, this is a learnable skill that you can acquire through repetition. And when you develop the habit of completing on your most important task before anything else, your success is assured.
Here is a summary of eighteen great ways to stop procrastinating and get more things done faster. Review these rules and principles regularly until they become firmly ingrained in your thinking and actions, and your future will be guaranteed.
Decide exactly what you want. Clarity is essential. Write out your goals and objectives before you begin.
Think on paper. Every minute you spend on effective planning can save you five to ten minutes in execution.
Twenty percent of your activity will account for 80 percent of your results. Always concentrate your efforts on that top 20 percent first.
Your most important tasks and priorities are those that can have the most serious consequences, positive or negative, on your life or work. Focus on these above all else.
Since you can’t do everything, you must learn to deliberately put off those tasks that are of low value so that you have enough time to do the few things that really count.
Before you begin work on a list of tasks, take a few moments to organize them by value and priority so you can be sure of working on your most important activities. (A: must do, B: should do, C: nice to do, D: delegate, E: eliminate)
Identify the three things you do in your work that account for 90 percent of your contribution, and focus on getting them done before anything else. You will then have more time for your family and personal life.
Have everything you need at hand before you start. Assemble all the papers, information, tools, work materials, and numbers you might require so that you can get started and keep going.
You can accomplish the biggest and most complicated job if you just complete it one step at a time continuously.
The more knowledgeable and skilled you become at your key tasks, the faster you start them and the sooner you get them done.
Determine exactly what it is that you are very good at doing, or could be very good at, and throw your whole heart into doing those specific things very, very well.
Determine the bottlenecks or choke points, internal or external that set the speed at which you achieve your most important goals, and focus on alleviating them.
Make a habit of moving fast on your key tasks. Become known as a person who does things quickly and well. Imagine that you have to leave town for a month, and work as if you had to get all your major tasks completed before you left.
Identify your periods of highest mental and physical energy each day, and structure your most important and demanding tasks around these times. Get lots of rest so you can perform at your best.
Be your own cheer-leader. Look for the good in every situation. Focus on the solution rather than the problem. Always be optimistic and constructive.
Use technology to improve the quality of your communications, but do not allow yourself to become a slave to it. Learn to occasionally turn things off and leave them off.
Organize your days around large blocks of time where you can concentrate for extended periods on your most important tasks.
Set clear priorities, start immediately on your most important task, and then work on it continuously until the job is 100 percent complete. The power of focus is your real key to high performance and maximum personal productivity.
