Larry Broughton: My 3 Top Tips To Boost Productivity

High achievers are way too often like little kittens: we’re easily excited and distracted by the latest bright, shiny object, which can lead to piss poor productivity.

Life can often get overwhelming for high achievers and entrepreneurs, and we all seem to be pursuing the perfect work-life balance. The secret, though, takes a lot more than just leaving the office at 5pm each day.

Like high achievers, many entrepreneurs absolutely love their business and end up spending most of their waking hours working on their business, working in their business and talking about their business!  While this is great on some levels, it can also strain, or even destroy important relationships with friends and family.  Ironically, many entrepreneurs first got into business ownership to create a new life with more freedom for these important relationships.

So, how do we solve this dilemma?

My 3 Top Tips to Boost Workplace Productivity

1. Embrace Productivity Enhancers: One way to create more “time” is to get more done during work time.  Here are some tips I use:

•  Use Multiple Computer Monitors: This is a huge time saver. The amount time lost each year by most single monitor users in open, closing and switching windows is at least one full workweek. Using 2 or 3 screens is a big productivity booster. A great app to turn your tablet into another screen for your laptop is Air Display.
•  Only Return Phone Calls/E-mails 2-3 Times per Day: Another big productivity booster is turning off your e-mail/message notification on your computer and PDA and returning calls/e-mails at specific times each day. For example, you could return these between 11 am – 12 noon and 3 pm – 4 pm each day. When you’re focusing on a task, each interruption costs you 10-15 minutes of productivity time.

2. Only Work on Tasks Aligned with Your Strengths: Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should!  Many entrepreneurs waste enormous amounts of time on marginal tasks instead of outsourcing, delegating or deleting them because they either don’t have the right team or they aren’t using that team properly.  Don’t fall into this trap.

3. Schedule a “Digital Detox:” To achieve enduring success as a high achiever, you must schedule downtime.  Several of my friends, who are successful seven-figure entrepreneurs are fond of saying “the less I work, the more money I make.”  Regularly taking time away from your business by completely unplugging (no iPhone, social media, or e-mail) is crucial.  Letting the constant buzz or “white noise” of business subside actually improves your ability to think strategically, as it allows your subconscious mind time and space to operate.  Combining these strategic timeouts while spending time with family, friends and other important relationships is a powerful 1-2 punch.  If you can’t imagine this ever happening, I recommend starting with just one afternoon a week as soon as possible and expanding from there.  Ultimately, you should aim for taking 1-2 weeks (or more) away from your business several times a year!

Far too many of us procrastinate on boosting our own productivity, because we simply don’t see the long term benefit of committing to making the small, incremental behavioral or environmental changes to our lives.  So close your eyes and reflect on your answer to these questions: What’s the lifetime value of just one percent more productivity added to your life and projects each and every day?  What would you do if you could recapture four weeks of lost productivity in your own life each year?

Do you have productivity tips that have proven transformational for you? I’d love to hear about them and become better so please leave a comment below.