Aaron Kuroiwa is a Young Go Getter member and owner of a LeTranslator a business and legal language translation service that offers professional website translation services.
How to Get Things Done
One of the major factors of success is your ability to get things done. Billionaire Mark Cuban agrees. Recently he wrote a blog post about “Effort�. Now we all know that Mark can sometimes go on rants and be a little crazy but this time he is dead on. No matter what happens the one thing we can control is how much effort we dedicate to achieving our goals and creating success.
However, just exerting a lot of effort doesn’t mean that you are getting things done. You have to have focus and discipline to make sure that the efforts you are making are worthwhile and effective. Mark is right Effort is paramount but let’s take it a bit further and talk about getting things done. When I say things I mean important goals or even small seemingly insignificant tasks that we don’t like but ultimately lead to success.
Productivity Basics:
80/20 rule: 80% of our success comes from 20% of our efforts or clients. So identify that 20% that is making 80% of your success and focus on it. If the other areas show potential, great, make them a second tier priority and everything else 3rd or 4th tier.
Priorities: If you want to get things done you have to have priorities. Otherwise you’ve got a pile of things to do and no order. This comes back to the 80-20 rule. If you don’t know the priority of a work item then you could be doing all of the meaningless task first and the important ones are left neglected and still sitting in your to do list unfinished.
Application:
Alright so all of this theory is great but how do you put it into practice.
1. Identify: First you want to identify your responsibilities, goals and tasks.
2. Get organized: It doesn’t matter how or if you use a system. Simply find what works for you and stick to it. Have a system for keeping track of all of the things you have to do. I like to use index cards and just cross things off as they get done.
3. Plan: If you don’t plan succeed you plan to fail. I know it’s a corny old saying but it’s true. Prioritize and Plan your efforts. Look over your to do list and goals. Separate them into levels of priority based on 2 things. Time and Effectiveness.
a. Time
: First, how soon does this task or goal need to be completed?
b. Effectiveness: Next does this task fall into my most important 20% or is it an 80% task?
Does this task need to get done today or can it wait until tomorrow, next week or a month from now? Alright now you’ve organized to days to do list and put off the things that are not immediately important. You start with your 20% tasks and work done. If you get through the 20% tasks then you start the 80% tasks. If you get through those then you start on the next days or any other extra projects you need to get done.
Or you can just call it a day.
4. Eliminate Distractions: An important principal of the popular books “4 Hour Work Week� and “Getting Things Done� is about maximizing your work time. If you work really hard for 4 hours a day without distractions and get done what would normally take 8 you had an effective day.
5. Get to Work: Alright now it’s time to get to work. Start checking off things on your to do list. Start with the most important results driven tasks. The rest have to wait until those are done. Work hard and smart.
6. Personal Productivity Measurement: This is a measuring process you can do daily, weekly, monthly or annually. Simply do a quick inventory of how productive you were and how you can improve. Take note of it, blog it whatever it takes to make yourself accountable. Act on those things you feel need improvement, now rinse and repeat.
Additional getting things done thoughts:
Making Goals: In order to measure your personal productivity or ability to kick ass and get things done you need goals. Whether they are daily, monthly or yearly goals make them and hold yourself responsible for making them happen.
Check out: Getting things done free software.
Books to Read:
4 Hour Work Week – I personally have not read it but have read several reviews that essentially say that if you ignore the hype and focus on his productivity insights that it’s a good read.
Getting Things Done – Not the most exciting book to read but has some very good techniques for organizing and prioritizing your efforts.
Get Help – In the beginning you have to do everything because you don’t have money to pay people. However, once you can find someone who can work part time or to do the things you don’t like doing. Like the ones that fall into the 80% category of things that only result in 20% of your success. Whether you use a freelance marketplace website, hire your mom or hire a professional the important thing is that you get help getting the things done that keep you from focusing on your priority items.
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