{"id":6373,"date":"2024-02-03T12:48:35","date_gmt":"2024-02-03T16:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/your-simple-guide-to-massive-productivity-in-the-new-year\/"},"modified":"2024-02-03T12:48:35","modified_gmt":"2024-02-03T16:48:35","slug":"your-simple-guide-to-massive-productivity-in-the-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/your-simple-guide-to-massive-productivity-in-the-new-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Simple Guide to Massive Productivity In the New Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Profit<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

\n

Most ambitious and successful people set goals and use task lists. I\u2019ve seen those task lists.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re usually handwritten on lined paper \u2013 pages and pages of \u201cthings to do\u201d with no way to sort out what\u2019s important.<\/p>\n

I used to do that. But I was never able to accomplish my long-term goals that way.<\/p>\n

I doubt those people do, either.<\/p>\n

The time-management system I use now is more detailed. And it takes a bit more time. But it works. I mean it really works.<\/p>\n

Prior to using this system, I was able to accomplish my main goal, which was about achieving wealth. But I was forever putting off my other life goals. Had I still been writing down yearly resolutions and daily task lists, I am sure I would have continued to add to my net worth. But I doubt I would have done much if any of the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I wrote and had 30+ books published. (Two of them were\u00a0New York Times\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Wall Street Journal\u00a0<\/em>bestsellers.)<\/li>\n
  2. I wrote four screenplays. Three were made into movies.<\/li>\n
  3. I earned a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.<\/li>\n
  4. I started a family charity that funded \u2013 and is running \u2013 a $5 million+ community development center in Nicaragua.<\/li>\n
  5. I relearned the French horn.<\/li>\n
  6. I developed several financial products and services that have helped many people achieve their financial goals. (I\u2019m very proud of that.)<\/li>\n
  7. I started a boutique publishing company that has produced books for unknown writers who I think deserve to be noticed.<\/li>\n
  8. I am developing a 20-acre botanical palm tree and sculpture garden that I hope will one day be open to the public for free.<\/li>\n
  9. I stayed healthy, kept my friends, and enjoyed my family.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As I said, before I began using this system, I never had time to write poetry or produce movies. I never had time to get involved with charitable endeavors. I was very busy.<\/p>\n

    But my life was speeding by without any hope of being able to look back and think, \u201cI did everything that was really important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Determining Your Core Values<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Most people you meet on the street don\u2019t like their jobs, are unhappy with their family life, and want more money. They believe that if they could just do this or that, everything would be better.<\/p>\n

    Winning the lottery would make it all okay. At least that\u2019s what they think. But the truth is otherwise. Unless you live your life according to your core values, no success will be enough to bring you joy.<\/p>\n

    So before you attempt to set your goals, you have to spend some time determining your core values. What do I mean by core values? I mean the feelings you have about good and evil that are buried deep within your heart.<\/p>\n

    What does goal setting have to do with core values? It\u2019s all about ensuring your long-term happiness. If you set goals that contradict your core values, you will wake up one day and say, \u201cI did everything I said I wanted to do. But so what?\u201d<\/p>\n

    You don\u2019t want to end up being yet another highly successful but fundamentally miserable person \u2013 a fate so common it\u2019s become a clich\u00e9. Here\u2019s how to make sure that doesn\u2019t happen\u2026<\/p>\n

    Begin by imagining a funeral. It is taking place in an elegantly appointed room. The room is full of friends and family members who have assembled to talk about the deceased. You look around. You begin to recognize faces. \u201cWho is the deceased?\u201d you wonder. You look at the casket. Good grief, it\u2019s you!<\/p>\n

    So what are the people at your funeral saying about you?<\/p>\n

    Imagine specific people:\u00a0 a parent, a sibling, a neighbor, a business associate, and even a stranger. Don\u2019t be vague about this. Think about individual, real people. And imagine them making very specific statements.<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s not enough to imagine your nephew saying something like, \u201cShe was a generous woman.\u201d You need to imagine a second, qualifying sentence, such as, \u201cShe always sent me expensive birthday presents.\u201d<\/p>\n

    And be honest. Don\u2019t sugarcoat the pill. Say it like it is. For example, your neighbor might be saying, \u201cI thought he was a very inconsiderate person. He never picked up the mess when his dog crapped on my lawn.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Imagine everything the people at your funeral could truthfully say about you. And then think about the way their words make you feel.<\/p>\n

    If you don\u2019t feel good, it means that in those relationships at least, you are not living your life according to your core values.<\/p>\n

    Now, for every negative statement you just imagined, ask yourself, \u201cWhat would I like this person to be saying about me?\u201d The answer to that question will reveal your core values for that particular relationship.<\/p>\n

    The goal of this exercise is to create a set of about a dozen statements. Each statement will be an indication of what you think is important in a particular area of your life.<\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s say you imagined someone saying, \u201cHe was always struggling to make ends meet.\u201d That statement would make you feel bad, right? So then you imagine what you would\u00a0like\u00a0<\/em>that person to say about you. You might come up with, \u201cHe struggled for a while, and then everything changed. He became very successful and died a wealthy person.\u201d If that statement makes you feel good, it\u2019s reasonable to say that acquiring wealth is a core value for you. And you would write it down like this: \u201cI believe that financial success is a valuable and admirable accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Got it?<\/p>\n

    A Guaranteed Way to Achieve Your Long-Term Goals<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong>To be more productive and achieve more at work and in your personal life, you must begin with long-term goals that correspond to your core values. From that good start, you must establish yearly, monthly, and weekly objectives. Based on those objectives, you create daily task lists. Doing all that will help greatly. But if you want to really change your life, you have to learn how to prioritize your long-term goals relative to everything else in your life.<\/p>\n

    My most important lesson in this respect came from Stephen Covey\u2019s book\u00a0The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People<\/em>. Covey presented a technique for prioritizing that impressed me\u2026 and became a central part of my planning process. (I have since heard that he got this idea from someone else, but that\u2019s beside the point.)<\/p>\n

    Divide your tasks, Covey said, into four categories:<\/p>\n

    * Non-important and non-urgent<\/p>\n

    * Non-important but urgent<\/p>\n

    * Important but non-urgent<\/p>\n

    * Important and urgent<\/p>\n

    In the \u201cnon-important and non-urgent\u201d category, you\u2019d put such things as:<\/p>\n

    * Using your lunch break to shop online for personal items<\/p>\n

    * Answering unimportant phone calls<\/p>\n

    * Responding to unimportant emails<\/p>\n

    In the \u201cnon-important but urgent\u201d category, you\u2019d include:<\/p>\n

    * Returning phone calls from pesky salespeople<\/p>\n

    * Finding\/hiring a caterer for an office party<\/p>\n

    * Attending a required meeting that doesn\u2019t help your career<\/p>\n

    In the \u201cimportant but non-urgent\u201d category, you might include:<\/p>\n

    * Learning how to write and\/or speak better<\/p>\n

    * Working on your novel<\/p>\n

    * Getting down to a healthy weight<\/p>\n

    And finally, in the \u201cimportant and urgent\u201d category, you might list:<\/p>\n

    * Making last-minute preparations for an important meeting with the boss<\/p>\n

    * Making last-minute sales calls to key clients<\/p>\n

    * Solving a serious unexpected problem<\/p>\n

    When you break up tasks into these four categories, it\u2019s easy to see that you should give no priority at all to \u201cnon-important and non-urgent\u201d tasks. These tasks should\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>be done at all. They are a waste of time.<\/p>\n

    Even worse is spending time on tasks that are \u201cnon-important but urgent.\u201d These are things that should have been dealt with long before they reached the crisis stage.<\/p>\n

    The \u201cimportant and urgent\u201d tasks must be done, so you have no choice. They have to be on your list of priorities for the day.<\/p>\n

    But it\u2019s your \u201cimportant but non-urgent\u201d tasks that have to be at the top of your list. Why? Because these are the tasks that will get you closer to achieving your life goals. And because they are \u201cnon-urgent,\u201d you will keep pushing them aside unless you make a commitment to do them first.<\/p>\n

    Do the Most Important Work First\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong>Doing first things first is a simple discipline, but its transformative power is immense. So do this right now:<\/p>\n

    * Contemplate your future by dreaming your best dreams, identifying your core values, and then creating from them your life goals.<\/p>\n

    * Break down your life goals into five-year objectives.<\/p>\n

    * Break down your five-year objectives into objectives for the coming year.<\/p>\n

    * Break down your yearly objectives into monthly and weekly task lists.<\/p>\n

    At the beginning of every week, you\u2019re going to take a look at your weekly task list and break it down into daily tasks.<\/p>\n

    Then you\u2019re going to\u2026<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Prioritize your daily tasks according to importance and urgency.<\/li>\n
    2. Devote the first hour of every day to one of your \u201cimportant but non-urgent\u201d tasks.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Do that first task before you get to work. If you can\u2019t do that, come in an hour early so you can get it done before you are likely to be disturbed. If it helps you give it your full attention, keep your office door closed. When you\u2019re done, you can get to work on the rest of your daily list. And although you will have already spent an hour working hard, you will be charged with energy because you will know that you are one hour closer to achieving one of your lifetime dreams.<\/p>\n

      #<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Discover a proven strategy to dominate 2024 and achieve your biggest goals faster than ever before!<\/b><\/h3>\n

      Sign up now<\/b><\/a>\u00a0to get our FREE Morning Routine guide\u2014the #1 way to increase productivity, energy, and focus for profitable days. Used by thousands of fitness, business, and finance industry leaders to leapfrog the competition while making time for the people who really matter.\u00a0Learn more here.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

      \n

      Mark Ford<\/a><\/h3>\n
      \"Mark<\/div>\n

      Mark Morgan Ford was the creator of Early To Rise. In 2011, Mark retired from ETR and now writes for the Wealth Builders Club. Learn more at markford.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

      \"Profit<\/a>
      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Most ambitious and successful people set goals and use task lists. I\u2019ve seen those task lists. They\u2019re usually handwritten on lined paper \u2013 pages and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}