How to become 50% more productive

There’s a little-known secret that, once understood, will absolutely change the way you run your life.

That secret is playing to your strengths by using your natural energy cycles.

When you work with your energy cycles instead of against them, you save time because you do things faster, with more clarity and with greater focus.

Quickly grab a piece of paper and answer these four questions:

1. Are you a night owl or an early bird?

If you’re a night owl like me, then plan your life so that you start the day off slowly and work up to your peak. Or vice versa.

2. When do you do your best creative work?

I don’t know if the real creative types will agree with me but I think that any form of writing uses the creative side of our brains.

When I need to do some writing, I’m generally great first thing in the morning (well, for me…) or very late at night (9pm onwards). If I try to write from lunch-time onwards, it takes me at least double the time, if not longer.

When I leave the project and do it at one of my prime writing times, the ideas flow easier and the quality is just better.

3. When do you do your best logical/ reasoning work?

This involves things like budgeting, playing with spreadsheets (that’s what I call it to make it seem more fun!), working with numbers, etc.

Figure this out and as best as you can, try and schedule these kinds of tasks when that side of your brain is awake and kicking!

4. When do you prefer to exercise?

Um, never 😉 Okay, let me rephrase: if you had to exercise, when would be the best time for you?

This usually works the same as number 1 but if you find that if you’re stuck, lacking motivation or just feeling overwhelmed, you might want to add in some exercise to jump-start yourself.

This week’s coaching challenge

a. Pick a task you’ve been procrastinating on or that you just can’t seem to get going with.
b. After you’ve identified the type of task, work on it at a different time of day.
c. Get it done 😉

You can do it!

Marcia Francois is a speaker and time management coach. If you want to break out of overwhelm, I’ll show you how to get more organised and save time by getting the right things done. Visit http://marciafrancois.com for your free Organising Success Pack worth $37.

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Comments

  1. It is definitely easier to tackle tough tasks when you understand yourself and how you work best. Thanks Marcia!

  2. Interesting, Marcia, I shall definitely prioritise my workload (and excecise 🙂 ) like you suggest. Thank you.
    Betty Cilliers-Barnard, SA artist of note, passed on today, and in a tribute broadcast on RSG, she said that her creative energy only started flowing after 9pm. New ideas would flow and develop easily by 11pm, when she was on a “run” working!
    Since my husband and I both are night owls, we cover a lot of work after 8pm! The only drawback is that we do not know when to stop working and go to bed…

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