Your personal success brakes

In one of my latest blog posts, I wrote that productivity is a habit and many have learned to be unproductive without realizing it – even and foremost senior managers. 

I received some questions regarding this provocative conclusion, because it is a rather uncomfortable idea for most of us:

We are consciously unproductive! Who wants this? The answer: In principle, we all do. Because productivity means that we produce results. And thus also bad results. 

In other words, higher productivity means more mistakes.

Since no one wants those, our brain has mechanisms that limit our productivity. 

Here are three ideas on how to release your productivity brakes: 

1. Force yourself to “imperfection”. Very often speed is more important than perfection. Rapid prototyping and other methods have taken up this idea. However, many people have not yet.
2. Beware Pareto: 20% of your activities generate 80% of your results. Surely you know that, but this simple law often gets forgotten. Apply the Pareto principle in your daily work.
3. Always think in goals, not in tasks. Too many (yes, also senior managers!) “work on” tasks (including meetings) that do not produce substantial results. Instead, work towards achieving goals. Always! This makes a huge difference.

Do you want to be more productive while having more free time and more fulfilment at work? You'll learn this and more in my 100 Day Success Challenge (click here to learn more).