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The Truth About Productivity

Article by Tim Wade

One of my favourite sayings is from a speech given by Albert E. N. Gray in 1940: "Successful people formed the habit of doing those things that failures don't like to do." True Productivity is about doing what is necessary to achieve the desired result in a particular timeframe. If there is something lacking in your life or business, it is probably because you have avoiding doing what is necessary to get it. Here are 3 examples.

FATNESS
First is "Fatness". I don't know about you, but my mirror would always show me at least one area that has some extra padding that I wished would magically disappear. The truth is that I knew how to change it, I just didn't liked the process. So I avoided it. I busied myself so that I don't have time to do it. Alas, if only I had time. It's clearly Time's fault. Avoidance: successful. True Productivity: zero. Result: failure. So who is truly accountable? Time to accept the truth.

BROKENESS
Second, "Broke-ness". Recently I was speaking about priorities, processes, psychology and financial results with an audience of business leaders in Japan. At one point I illustrated how you can be earning a fortune and still be broke. This is often because we set a goal in our mind and we forget to reset it when we arrive.

"The Broke Cycle" is a very funny 3-minute clip illustrating this on my website. It shows how goals need to be re-set. Otherwise we unconsciously sabotage ourselves so that we can pursue the old goal again. That's why your income can plateau, or people stay in debt, or cashflow never gets past breakeven.

True Productivity comes from being very clear of the new objective and why it's important. What is your true outcome? Be truthful.

MESSNESS
Third is "Messness". Messness is a symptom of comfort experienced through disorganisation. Disorganisation is an indicator of inappropriate processes. Poor processes lead to wasted time. Wasted time means that more could have been done in that time. Doing more in the same amount of time is being more productive. If you want to be more productive, you need to learn and apply systems that will serve you. Don't comfortably insist that your current way works best for you while moaning about the poor results. Increase your awareness of the true reality. Clear up as much clutter as you can in twelve minutes. Then focus on what truly matters, distraction free.

NONESS
Success comes from doing more than is expected. While I said I'd give you 3 examples, here's a 4th to reward you for choosing to learn, understand and for committing to apply at least one of the things you have just agreed with.

"No-ness" is the habitual thought, or expression, of saying No to an opportunity or request. We say No a lot. We're conditioned to say No. Our parents said No to us when we were children to protect us from setting ourselves on fire. Yet these days we say No to all the wrong things. We say No to change, No to possibility, No to opportunities. We say No to exercise, No to saving, No to learning more. Most importantly, we often say No to accepting personal responsibility and accountability for our results.

NO! Wrong. It is nobody else's fault but our own. Accept responsibility. Seek learning. Attend programmes. Read. Learn. Apply. Yes.

YESNESS
Wow! You must be a committed person to get a fifth example! Well here it is. There are some people who say Yes for the wrong reasons too. There is a character in my V9 profile called The Sufferer. The Sufferer says Yes to everyone because Sufferers define themselves by the opinions of others. By saying Yes to the requests of others, they believe that they are more liked.

However, they can get into trouble when they end up taking on too much work and cannot complete on time. This makes them disliked. So they seek to be liked again by saying Yes to more things and they drown themselves in missed deadlines and feelings of inadequacy. They end up being extremely busy but unproductive.

Saying Yes is great if you qualify it by managing expectations and establishing clarity over priorities. Then focus on completion.

KNOWGODONESS
Let's complete with the words of Mr. Gray once more: "Successful people formed the habit of doing those things that failures don't like to do." To be a Truly Productive person, your habitual actions must (and will) speak louder than your words. And that's the truth. But you already Know that. Now: Go. Do.

Tim Wade is a motivational business speaker and productivity trainer, with clients such as Microsoft, Motorola, AIA and American Express. He is President of the Asia Professional Speakers Singapore. Tim Wade drew from his Psychology and corporate management background to develop the V9 profile. V9 helps individuals and teams determine their default mindsets and identify their behavioural styles which contribute to their positive or negative results. He then shows them how to improve productivity and performance with specific skills and strategies.

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