Master musicians may have to practice many hours a day, day after day, for a year or more to slightly enhance their skills. In fact, their skill level is so high, they might have to practice this much just to maintain it, let alone improve it. One classical musician commented, "If I don't practice for a day, I know it. If I don't practice for two days, my wife knows it. If I don't practice for three days, the audience knows it."
But when it comes to increasing our own personal efficiency, few of us are masters or even close. Therefore, we can achieve significant improvements in our personal productivity—10 to 25 percent or more—without enormous effort. This article out-lines incremental improvements so you can make tiny "baby steps" that will take little effort, but yield big results.
law of 10% : Feel the power of 10% more
The point is simple: The first time we try anything, we usually don't put forth our total effort. So we fall short. To increase your results, then, you can put forth a little more effort than you normally do, just by reminding yourself that's what you need to do to achieve the increased productivity you want.
Let's say you make widgets. You make 50 widgets each hour. Could you do 10 percent more...55 an hour? Probably. Almost certainly. So turn up your motor and do it! You won't need to revolutionize your production methods or gain super-human speed. Just work at it a bit harder.
You’ll find it's pretty easy to do 10 percent more of almost anything. Yet this simple effort pays big dividends. In our example, if you work an 8-hour day in your widget shop, a 10-percent improvement will increase yield by 10,000 widgets a year. If your profit is $10 a unit, that's an extra $100,000 in annual profit.
The law of 10 percent can improve your productivity in several different areas. The rest of this chapter will apply the formula to these areas and then offer practical suggestions for implementing the plan.
law of 10% : Increase efficiency 10%
Do you feel pressured? Do you feel like you don't have enough time even to breathe during the day? "Yes," you may be thinking. But it probably isn't really so. If you don't believe me, try this experiment.
Set up a video camera. Point it at your desk. Turn it on. Tape yourself working. Then watch the tape.
To your amazement, you’ll see yourself daydreaming, sitting at your desk staring into space, chatting idly with colleagues, making prolonged personal calls, drinking coffee, fussing with your hair, and doing all sorts of time-wasting, inefficient activities.
While you're caught up in the busyness of the day, you don't mind these things; they're necessary breaks to alleviate stress. But on video, they're painful to watch. And the tape will clearly show that you can easily cut down on wasted time at least 10 percent without getting stressed.
How can you spend your time more efficiently? An article in Money Making Opportunities magazine offers the following tips for increasing the efficiency of your daily routine:
* Create blocks of prime time when you can concentrate on your hardest tasks without interruption. Let everyone around you know that during these certain hours you are completely unavailable.
* Schedule easy tasks outside of this prime-time block. Writing notes, reading trade journals, filing, and administrative chores can all be done at times when you're not completely focused on a project.
* Keep your prime-time block sacred. If your prime time is 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. don't even think about scheduling a dentist appointment at 3:00. This would break up your block.
Evaluate the value of each task. Is all this work necessary? Or are you meeting some arbitrary standards that could be bent? You might take a close look at some tasks you thought were necessary and end up eliminating them. Or if someone else thinks these tasks are necessary, let that person do them.
law of 10% : Add 10% more productive hours to your day
You can't literally cram a 25th hour into a 24-hour day. But you can shift activities and priorities so more time is available for essential tasks.
Many people complain "There aren't enough hours in the day." But when you examine their days carefully, you find that there are more than enough hours to accomplish what they want. The problem is that they're frittering away those hours on nonessential tasks.
Set in front of you all the materials you want to read but never get to—circulars, direct mail, newspapers, books, consumer magazines, trade journals. Then read them for fun. Have a pen and scissors handy; if an item warrants more careful stud or filing at the office, clip it and bring it to work with you the next day. Reserve this time for pleasurable reading only; read only what interests you. Do this and you will gain relaxation and pleasure similar to what you gain by holding phone without wasting the time.
law of 10% : Gain 10% more energy
here are some things you can do to give yourself an incremental lift in energy while you're working :
* Drink cold water, juice, or other fluids throughout the day. Medical experts recommend consuming six to eight glasses of water for a variety of health reasons. But drinking cold liquid also has an immediate, refreshing effect.
* Wash your face. Another revitalizing effect of cold water is its feel on your skin. If you work at home or are lucky enough to have an executive bathroom with a shower, try a mid-day shower. If not, wash your hands and face when you feel yourself tiring. It has a nice wake-up effect.
* Go to bed an hour earlier. Sleep has a restorative effect. If you're just sitting around at night, killing time, consider turning out the lights and going to bed. The extra sleep will pay dividends in increased energy the next morning.
* Eat breakfast. Even something small. Personally, I'm not hungry in the morning and the thought of eating breakfast repulses me. But on those occasions when I need more energy in the morning, a light snack about an hour after I get into the office helps revitalize me. I can't eat when I get up, but waiting the hour enables me to consume the snack without digestive problems.
* Avoid big meals in the middle of the day. They make you sleepy. "Grazing" is the practice of breaking your food intake into many small increments rather than the traditional two to three big daily meals; some experts think it's healthier. A study in Prague found that people who consumed their daily caloric intake in more than two meals had fewer heart problems. Dr. David Jenkins of the University of Toronto speculates that grazing could mimic the effect that dietary fiber has in helping the body absorb nutrients. In a group of test subjects who consumed their daily caloric intake in 17 small snacks, cholesterol levels dropped substantially.
* Don't drink alcohol during the workday. Alcohol may make you drowsy and impair your mental abilities. At business lunches, order club soda with lemon or iced tea instead of wine or a cocktail.
* Take a multivitamin. Many people are "into" vitamins, minerals, and health foods today, and perhaps you could benefit from such a regimen. But even if you don't have time to investigate nutrition, at least take a multivitamin. That way, your basic minimum daily requirements will be taken care of.
* Take a cat-nap. If your work situation permits it and you feel the need, try a 15- to 20-minute nap when you're really tired. This can be especially effective if you don't get enough sleep at night. Keep the nap brief; longer than 20 minutes or so will leave you groggy for the rest of the day. Don't nap too late in the day; it can make falling asleep at bedtime more difficult.
* Exercise. Ashamed, I admit I am one of the millions of people who do not exercise. My wife used to be in that group too. But since she started walking and exercising, she looks and feels better and has more energy. Follow her example, not mine. Start a moderate exercise program right away.
law of 10% : Get out of bed 10% earlier
Don't oversleep. It wastes time and can make you groggy. In addition, if your biorhythm is such that morning is your high-energy period, sleeping late wastes the majority of your most productive time of the day.
How do you know when you are oversleeping? If you wake up naturally—that is, without an alarm clock—and you go back to bed, you're oversleeping. If you use an alarm clock and feel refreshed when you get up...but then fall back into bed cause' it's warm, dark, and comfy... you're probably oversleeping.
Want a simple, proven way to boost your personal productivity? Get up and go to work an hour earlier every day.
Rather than making you tired, this one-hour early start is an incredible luxury. You can get coffee, check your e-mail, read the paper, catch up on correspondence, or review yesterday's work—in peace and calm—before the office gets frantic.
law of 10% : Waste 10% less time
By now you may think I am obsessed with personal productivity. You're right. I particularly hate wasting time. Therefore, I dedicate myself to eliminating time-wasting activities from my life. Do I recommend the same for you? Yes. Time is a limited resource. Once an hour is gone, you can never get it back.
Here is a list of some major time-wasters and how you might eliminate them :
* Mowing the lawn. A high school kid could do this for $10 for you. Why waste the hour or let the summer heat sap your valuable energy?
* Raking your leaves. Same as above. If you rake because you enjoy being outdoors in autumn, at least wear a Sony Walkman and listen to a book or seminar on tape.
* Shopping. I rarely go to the mall, preferring instead to sit home and conveniently order products I need from mail order catalogs and Web sites. If you haven't yet tried e-commerce, I recommend it highly.
* Gift giving. I especially like mail-order shopping during the holiday season. Sitting at my desk with catalogs and Web sites at my fingertips, I can get all of my holiday shopping completed in less than an hour. Best of all, once I order, I'm done. The catalog houses and Internet sites gift-wrap my items for me, enclose a card, and deliver them right to each recipient's door. No more midnight runs to the drug store for more ribbons and bows!
* Personal errands. Running personal errands is a waste of your time. Consider hiring a personal assistant or using one of the many personal services firms that will do this stuff for you. There are people who will do your shopping, prepare your meals, walk your dog, water your plants, even take your clothes to the dry cleaners—for extremely modest fees. Why not try them? Their dollar rate is almost always well below the dollar value of your time. So you gain, not lose.
* Cooking. Shop at today's fantastic value-added super- markets. You can pick up a wide variety of prepared meals and other value-added foods (for example, cut and washed lettuce and chicken breasts seasoned and ready for the broiler) that reduce food preparation time virtually to zero.
* Housecleaning. Why every busy businessperson with the income to afford a cleaning service doesn't hire one is beyond me. Housework is pure drudgery and, for most of us, not the best use of our time. Not only does using a professional eliminate this time-waster, but the employees of the cleaning service will go about the task more energetically and enthusiastically than you do—precisely because that's their job!
* Home repair. Another major waste of time. Don't do it un less you enjoy it. You can spend countless hours tracking down problems—a leaky roof, knocking pipe, weak-flushing toilet, odd noise in the attic—that trained professionals can diagnose in minutes. Take advantage of their experience, pay their fee, and save your valuable time for more productive tasks.
* Community. Only participate in groups—PTO, neighbor- hood watch, coaching kids sports teams, church, volunteer fire department—if you believe in their worth and are personally enthusiastic. The more enthusiastic you are, the more you'll put into a group activity—and the more you and the group (or their cause) will gain from your participation. Don't join simply because you feel obligated to do so. Don't go through the motions and sit through the meetings without being a proactive participant—or even a leader—in the group. That only wastes your time...and theirs.
* Tax preparation. The tax laws are so complex today, it's a mistake not to hire a CPA or other professional to prepare your taxes if you're earning $40,000 a year or more. Yes, some accountants charge a hefty hourly fee. But they can do in a day what it would take you a week to accomplish. So even if the hourly rate is equal to or greater than the dollar value of your time, you'll still save. And often, the amount of the refund they calculate for you more than pays the cost of their services.
Think 10% faster
Thought impulses in the brain are transmitted as electrical signals between neurons. Electricity travels near the speed of light. So thought is nearly instantaneous.
Or at least, it should be. But watch people around you. Many are stumped by the simplest questions and can't make even the tiniest decisions.
What's the problem? It isn't that these people are stupid. They just haven't been taught how to think. Thinking, like anything else, is a step-by-step process. It can be taught, learned, practiced, and developed.
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