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Biggest Productivity Tip

July 22nd, 2008 by Andrew

Productivity tips are everywhere.  Anywhere from productivity videos to productivity blogs to productivity books.  Everyone wants to be more productive yet I rarely ever hear this big productivity tip mentioned.

Why does everyone want to be more productive?  Lack of time, everyone wants more free time.  Well what uses up our free time in the first place?

Mostly useless, ineffective, boring, mundane, necessary tasks.  This is why the biggest productivity tip is Elimination.  And here is a list of things you can start eliminating from your life right away that will free up your time so you can do more productive things…

  1. Eliminate Watching TV.  It numbs out your emotions.  Say what?  When you watch too much tv, you start living your life through the characters in the shows and movies you are watching.  You feel their emotions, you live through their actions, and you achieve their goals.  In other words, you forget about your life, things you need to take care of and the goals that you need to accomplish.  Start gradually watching less TV and watch your productivity increase.
  2. Eliminate Worry.  Worry is useless.  Often we worry about things we can’t control in the first place.  We worry about possible future events.  We worry about what others think of us.  We worry about what others are saying about us.  Stop worrying, start doing, and watch your productivity increase.
  3. Eliminate Perfectionism. We often want to be perfect.  We want to look perfect.  We want to dress perfect.  We want to talk perfectly.  And the list goes on.  There is nothing wrong with self improvement.  This is a self improvement site.  However there is always good enough and then there is perfect.  Good enough is often sufficient.  Trying to be perfect is usually a waste of time.  Here is an example.  If you are thinking of buying a car, you could spend months researching everything about cars, their features, their ratings, their safety etc.  You can then test drive different makes and models and finally buy the perfect car.  What did you do?  You wasted lots of your valuable time.  Instead, why don’t you just buy a car that’s good enough?  Decide the 3 most important factors in buying your future car, and research only those three factors.  Save time, and do more productive things.
  4. Eliminate Indecision.  We often want to make the best decisions.  I even remember this stupid little video we saw in school that went on for 2 hours about how decisions basically make up your future blah blah blah… While decision are important we often wast too much time making them.  Being decisive is a trait of very successful people.  Make decisions quickly and adjust them based on the results.  This will help you create more free time to do the really productive things in life.
  5. Eliminate Blame.  Want to get no where in life?  Play the blame game all the time.  We all do it to some degree.  It’s when we blame our current life situation on other people, on circumstances, on nature, or basically on anything else we can’t control.  As a result we focus on things we can’t control, rather on our own actions, thoughts, and decisions which we can direct.  Blame less, and take responsibility more.  This will free up a lot of your wasted time and energy which you can put towards more productive things in your life.

Got any more elimination productivity tips?  Share in the comments or write your own guest post.

This article was featured in The Twentieth Edition of the Carnival of Improving Life
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6 Responses to “Biggest Productivity Tip”

  1. Carnival of Self-Mastery - August 12, 2008 Says:

    […] presents Biggest Productivity Tip posted at Personal Hack, saying, "Productivity tips are everywhere. Anywhere from productivity […]

  2. Mike King Says:

    Absolutely agreed! Elimination or simplification as some call it are critical to peak performance. I would say to eliminate anything you have no purpose or passion for they are areas of little or no value then. Your specific items listed are definite productivity killers. Nice article.

  3. Balanced Living Carnival - Third Edition - 8/18/08 « One Organized Life Blog Says:

    […] be more productive yet I rarely ever hear this big productivity tip mentioned.  AndrewB presents Biggest Productivity Tip posted at Personal […]

  4. Bill K. Says:

    Good list. Eliminating indecision is a big one. I’ve been working on that one lately and find it quite liberating. Gives me more energy and focus to get rid of that kind of mental clutter.

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