8/16/2014 12 Productivity Tips From Incredibly Busy People | OPEN Forum

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ARTICLE APRIL 05, 2013 LEADERSHIP
Bruna Martinuzzi
Author, Presenting with Credibility: Practical Tools and Techniques for
Effective Presentations
From Eric Schmidt to Danny Meyer: How super
successful, super busy entrepreneurs organize their day.
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12 Productivity Tips From
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APRIL 05, 2013 "Personal productivity is a key differentiator between those who succeed
in their chosen field and those who do not," says bestselling author Brian Tracy. Leaders
and entrepreneurs who are at the top of their game know how to achieve what they want in
less time than others. We can learn a lot from the tactics of these successful, and incredibly
busy, individuals on how to better organize our own days. Here are 12 top tips worth trying
out:
1. Have a si ngl e purpose focus. One thing many successful entrepreneurs have in

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common is the ability to focus on what matters most. Eric Schmidt, Google's executive
chairman, says, "I keep things focused. The speech I give every day is: 'This is what we do. Is
what we are doing consistent with that, and can it change the world?'" Jason Goldberg, CEO
of Fab.com, has this piece of advice: "Pick one thing and do that one thingand only that
one thingbetter than anyone else ever could." We can derive a great deal of power from
developing a laser focus on our top business priorities. It's one of the attributes that sets
apart the average businessperson from the more successful one.
2. Ruthl essl y bl ock out di stracti ons. Tennis legend Martina Navratilova says, "I
concentrate on concentrating." For those of us who don't have the willpower to be self-
accountable, there are several technology solutions for blocking out distractions. For
example, Rescue Time is an application that runs in the background of your computer and
measures how you spend your time so you can make better decisions. Get Concentrating is
another useful tool that will help you focus on important tasks by temporarily blocking
social media sites. (Are you easily distracted? If so, here are six more popular programs to
block distractions.)
3. Set a stri ct ti me l i mi t on meeti ngs. Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault and Nissan, is
strict on the timing allotted for single-topic, non-operational meetings: He allows a
maximum of one hour and 30 minutes. Fifty percent of the time is for the presentation, and
50 percent is for discussion. Gary E. McCullough, former U.S. army captain and now CEO of
Career Education Corp., gives people half of the time they ask for a meeting or
appointment. This forces them to be brief, clear and to the point. "By doing that, I am able to
cram a number of things in the day and move people in and out more effectively and more
efficiently," McCullough says. People generally don't need as much time as they ask for.
Meetings are time vampires. Be ruthless in managing this endemic productivity drain so you
can focus on high value tasks.
RELATED: How to Be Productive Working From the Coffee Shop
4. Set up producti vi ty ri tual s. Tony Schwartz, CEO of The Energy Project, provides four
tips for setting up rituals to automate behaviors that will make us more productive, without
depleting our energy reservoir. One of them is prioritizing one key task to accomplish per
day, and starting your day focused on that task. "Force yourself to prioritize so that you
know that you will finish at least that one critical task during the period of the day when you
have the most energy and the fewest distractions," Schwartz says.
5. Get up earl i er. Research shows that mornings can make or break your day. It's not
uncommon for successful CEOs to start their day well before 6 a.m. In 27 Executives Who
Wake Up Really Early, we see how incredibly busy peoplefrom Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE, to
Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCouse their mornings to seize the day. Use the mantra "mind
over mattress" to motivate yourself to get out of bed to pursue your goals. As Laura
Vanderkam says in What Successful People Do Before Breakfast: A Short Guide To Making
Over Your MorningAnd Life, while many are sleeping in, successful people are already up
and getting a lot done. If this is not your preference, Vanderkam advises to start with small
steps, such as getting up just 15 minutes earlier every day and gradually increasing the time.
6. Group your i nterrupti ons. This idea comes from restaurateur Danny Meyer. He has
his assistant group all questions that come up during the day in one list so she doesn't have
to interrupt him repeatedly during office hours. Take a cue from this and see how you can
ask others on your team to group questions, requests and other non-urgent inquiries so
you're not distracted by interruptions that don't add value.
7. Outsource personal chores. Highly productive people are selective about how they
expend their energy. They don't waste it on tasks that others can do. For example, Alexis
Ohanian, founder of Reddit, uses services such as Fancy Hands, an army of virtual
assistants. Others automate grocery shopping with sites such as Amazon's Subscribe and
Alexis Ohanian article Brian Tracy
Bruna Martinuzzi Carlos Ghosn
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Bruna Martinuzzi
Author, Presenting with
Credibility: Practical Tools
and Techniques for Effective
Presentations
Bruna Martinuzzi is the CEO of Clarion
Enterprises Ltd., specializing in leadership
and presentation skills training. She has
helped hundreds of individuals become
better leaders and more effective
communicators.
www.clarionenterprises.com
Save, or services that deliver groceries to your doorstep. Others even use services such as
Plated, which delivers perfectly measured ingredients for chef designed meals at home. Do
a cost/benefit analysis of how you spend your time and see if it's worth offloading some
repetitive tasks so you can focus on what will bring value to your company.
8. Set up emai l rul es to mai ntai n sani ty. Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna,
founders of Birchbox, insist that team members indicate when they need a response in all
emails. This simple tip helps with prioritization. Designer Mike Davidson has set up an email
policy that limits any email he sends to five sentences. As he explains, many email
messages in his inbox take more time for him to answer than they did for the sender to
write. Analyze your email habits and institute time-saving policies that work for your
particular situation.
RELATED: What Annoys You at Work Can Actually Boost Productivity
9. Capture al l creati ve i deas. The world renowned scientist Dr. Linus Pauling once said,
"The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas." Most leaders and entrepreneurs
are visionaries who generally don't lack good ideas; however, capturing all these ideas is
often a challenge for busy people. Evernote is a popular, free program for collecting ideas.
(Here's a list of other tools to consider.)
10. Increase your effecti veness through technol ogy. There's a wealth of programs to
make a small-business owner more effective in increasing productivity. A few popular tools
some of which are freeinclude Dropbox to store files online; Any Meeting to host a
webinar; Basecamp for project management; Trello for keeping track of projects and
deadlines, and Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule your social media postings.
11. Don't l ose i t: Read i t l ater. Don't miss out on important information because you're
in a rush and have no time to read. Two programs help you scoop information to read later.
Get Pocket allows you to put articles, videos and any other information into a virtual pocket,
saved directly from any site. Another worthwhile program is Instapaper, which allows you to
save long Web pages to read later when you have time.
12. Learn from others. Consider subscribing to Lifehacker's How I Work series, which
asks highly successful people to share their best time-saving tips. For example, Eric Koger,
founder of ModCloth, shares his nerdiest way to save time: His keyboard layout is Colemak.
Learning Colemak is a one-time investment that allows for much faster typing. This site
provides an abundance of advice on how super busy, successful entrepreneurs salvage
time.
Read more productivity articles.
Bruna Martinuzzi is the founder of Clarion Enterprises Ltd., and the author of two books:
Presenting with Credibility: Practical Tools and Techniques for Effective Presentations and
The Leader as a Mensch: Become the Kind of Person Others Want to Follow.
Photo: Getty Images
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Comments From The Community (2)
Lynette Hammond Copywriter and Social Media Manager, Vivalution
Some great tips, something that's needed when returning from the holidays! I also
think it's important to keep your office and your desk tidy and organised too,
Something so simple can make all the difference.
http://www.commercialpropertyblog.co.uk/2013/08/an-organised-desk-for-
productive-mind.html
Greg Smith
Awesome!
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