7 Action Steps to Productivity
Assess and Adjust. Life does not always go according to my plans. I can do several things when I meet frustration.
- I can ruminate on how unfair life is to me.
- I can blame other people for my frustrations.
- I can feel sorry for myself and play the victim.
On the other hand, I can look for ways that I can turn life’s surprises into opportunities. I make a list the actions and tools for adjusting to the change.
- What is my new situation?
- How practical is it for me to continue to pursue my goals?
- Should I make my goals larger or smaller?
- What things do I already know to take advantage of these opportunities?
- What do I need other people to do?
As life changes and my business opportunities change, I assess and adjust.
Finish. Some projects need an extra effort and attention. Sometimes completing the project is frustrating, boring, or even annoying. I enjoy writing programming language. Sometimes the projects are long and involve of a lot of detail. Often I take programming code I have used in one place and move it to another place. There is nothing creative about this type of process. Usually I find that I need to edit the code for the new place. It is easy to make errors. I have to concentrate to make sure that the codes are exact before they will work.
Further frustrating is that the codes may produce good results in one browser and not in other browsers.
To finish the project, I slow down. I focus on the details. I find that being patient and using the right tools, I finish the most tedious and frustrating projects.
My extra effort of adding new code makes the program much more appealing and effective for the reader. I enjoy the results of finishing these types of projects.
Act once and act now. I read so much material that it is easy for me to skim instructions for a project and then put the project aside.
If I continue to start and stop on projects, I do a lot more work than acting once.
If I cannot act on the project when I first come to it, I put it on my schedule so that I can start the project and finish it without stopping. The “act now” phase of the project becomes the time for which I have scheduled it.
By acting once and acting now, I do a lot work and have less on my mind.
Own your mistakes. Conflicts arise for everyone. Blaming other people sometimes may feel like the right thing to do. If I focus on the things I need to do I sometimes find that my own adjustments are all that I need to change to get the project completed.
Control your schedule. Whenever someone asks me to do something, I check my schedule. If the person is asking me to do things that I do not believe are the best things for me, I simply say, “My schedule is full.”
Take responsibility. I started a number of softball teams and soccer teams. I knew people who wanted to play, but no one would organize the teams and contact the City Parks department to schedule games and register the teams. I took responsibility for starting the teams and had a lot of fun taking a leadership role and from taking responsibility.
I have had clients who were slow to conduct interviews. I took the responsibility. I would find out when the hiring manager and the applicant were available. I would offer the hiring manager options for interviewing the applicant. “Here are the times. Which ones work for you?” By taking responsibility, I made the process of interviewing simpler for the hiring manager.