Explode Your Productivity in 3 Simple Steps
It does not matter what profession you have, if you are self employed or employed by someone else, you need some way to stay motivated. On the other hand, if you really are self employed you probably have a difficult time every now and then to keep performing tasks that make you money, day in and day out.
If you want to stay productive for as long as possible, keep in mind the 24-48 Hour Rule. Also make that extra effort to improve your typing speed, and do everything you can to put yourself in the right mindset.
The 24-48 Hour Rule came about when I realized that whenever I work on an article writing campaign, create a video product, or write a report or e-book, 80% of the work is completed within a 24 to 48 hour period. If I take any longer, my productivity declines considerably. Even if it takes me 3 to 7 days to write a book, I tend to drag my feet or focus on other tasks during that time.
You need to work inside a 24 to 48 hour box where you are not distracted by anything else. Stay up all night, wake up early, decline an invitation to hang out with friends, do whatever it takes during that time to finish. I say 24 to 48 hour box because I tell myself I am going to finish in exactly 24 hours, and end up going to 48. You need to set that 24 hour goal, and end up finishing within 48 hours.
Another bottleneck you are going to run across is your typing speed. You need to learn how to touch type using programs such as "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing." You might type a little slower the first few weeks, but if you can bring your typing speed up to 50 to 120 words per minute... any programming, copywriting, e-mail marketing, forum posting, or article writing you do will take a lot less time.
Finally there is the mindset factor. You need to be in the right mindset and train your brain to hate being poor or not having products completed. You also need to reward yourself after you have finished a job, so your brain associates your success with happiness.
Those are the three easy steps to exploding your productivity and getting a lot more accomplished.
Filed in: Productivity
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- Business Growth Strategies | May 1, 2009
Robert, great article. My first ebook was written in 2 days. It was very successful for me. My second book took a week to complete and every day after the first two days was a chore to get through the writing.
As a matter of fact I actually started and completed another project while working on the book. That project took me one day to complete and ended up out selling the ebook by over $1000.
I would definitely say that finishing a project in 48 hours is one key to success.
Kitwana
Have you considered trying Dragon Naturally Speaking to increase your “typing” speed? This could save you tons of time right there!
Lance
Robert, fantastic article. You have given me inspiration to get it done!
Lance, I have tried Dragon Naturallyspeaking in the past but even after 12 hours of training I only had about 33% accuracy.
In Dallas, Jeanette Cates told me the secret was the special dictation headsets. The newer versions come with the headset included. That’s just something to try on a day I feel like tweaking my system. Do you use Dragon Naturallyspeaking, Lance?
Robert –
Great article! I’ve battled procrastination forever. I strive to stay on target and follow thru – focusing on 24 – 48 hr window of intense activity seems like a good way to get more completed.
Thanks for yet another thought-provoking article. Always nice to read what you have to say on the subject. 🙂
Another great post Robert.
Procrastination is defenetly a problem all humans are forced to conquer or surrenser too. I never surrender.
If I have to I just keep pluging along.
I took typing classes in high school and can say that my typing speed hasn’t declined since. I still type 65 wpm. If I count spelling errors and typo’s it would drag it down to 55 wpm.
One thing that Gary Halbert mention on a podcast listen to the way he beats writers block is keep writing, bla,bla,bla, then go back and fill in the bla, ba’s later.
Keep up the great posts.
William
Good corollary of the general principle of “just do it” that I know you promote.
Giving yourself these deadlines helps in just getting thing to market.
Nice post
Andrew
Robert,
Fantastic article and video.
I actually used Dragon naturally speaking every day all day long.
I do not type without it.
You do need to have a fantastic headset for it to work well.
My accuracy is 99% or above. It is very rare that I need to correct things. If I do need to correct it is very minor
So, if you get the new version 10 and a great headset you’ll have no problem at all. I guarantee I can talk faster than anyone can type.
So, it explodes my productivity. I can easily write 4 articles and have them submitted within an hour.
In fact, this entire comment was written with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
Shannon Herod
Hi Robert,
Great article and very true.
I am using Dragin Naturally speaking with a noise cancelling mic headset. I find the time taken to do the set up is rewarded by the time saved to write a post/article etc.
What I particularly like about this software is the ability to have the system create MP3 files from written text, now thats really a cool advance on the previous versions.
Don’t give up on this software yet!!
Have agood one man and see you in Video class next week.
Kevin
http://truetrafficsecrets.com
Hey Robert (and Lance)…I’ve been using Dragon Naturally Speaking for about two months and it has increased my productivity in MANY ways. I answer emails really fast, and it helps me post to my blog WAY more often. I’ve been blogging 6-7 days/week instead of the old 2 times a week, and my blog traffic and adsense income has doubled!
I use an Andrea USB headset, and it’s fantastic. 95%+ accuracy ^_^
Robert,
Just to relate the idea of how significant typing skills can be…
My brother, now a CIO of a nationwide company, got “into computers” because in his first job he walked up to the computer terminal, put his hands on the keyboard and typed.
They thought he knew about computers because he had learned touch typing. Prior to that time, he had little or no interest in computers. So they started to assign him ‘computer stuff’ to do.
And look at him now.
Rightly or wrongly, people assume a certain higher level of knowledge to a touch typist, than to the ‘two-finger typist’.
Great recommendation, and all too rarely made.
Regards,
Jack
Hi Robert
As always, you have thought-provoking material in your articles, and it’s a pleasure to follow your blog.
Seasonal greetings. 🙂
Whoah.. that’s really weird… another Lance? It’s my evil twin I guess. Stranger is that Jason F. had my buy Dragon a few days ago and I am waiting for it in the mail.
Glad to see that it is working for some of you. I have a cordless Logitech Headset. I know that some of the people I work with use it and really like it. Hoping it will work for me.
LT
I don’t use Dragon YET. I have purchased it and it comes with a headset. I haven’t installed it yet because I need to reformat my hard drive, so I’m not installing anything new right now. All I have to do is go thru and find all the key codes to 12 million programs on my computer for when I reinstall them after the reformat!
Lance, great minds must think alike! Coincidentally(?) I’m on Jason’s list as well, but I don’t know him personally like you do. Nice meeting another Lance!
Lance
lmao… now I am really confused.. We both just bought Dragon.. this feels like a setup!
LT
Nice post Robert. I should have opened this first thing this morning.
I have gotten absolutely nothing done all day on any of the things I need to do. Too many irons in the fire.
I agree that it’s good to stay focused on a goal and work hard…but I have to admit that when I just take it easy and let an idea “languish” for a several weeks, I end up doing it much more intelligently.
I think doing any project within 48 hours seriously hampers the creative aspect.
Yea’, i’m a real pro at crastination.
The 2-day project idea seems worth trying.
I read a book by Og Mandino many years ago,
and he recommended “work benders”.
That is, every now and again, he would go flat out for a week.
I might give that one a try one day too
– probably in a year or so.
Rob
Great post Robert. Good seeing you last weekend. Enjoyed hanging out.
Blake and I both use Dragon Naturally Speaking and love it. Version 10 is unbelievably accurate. If I speak clearly, it’s probably 95% accurate. I’d recommend giving it a try. It’s well worth the time it takes to set it up.
Tim
Unfortunately I can type faster then I can think. But you do have an excellent point. Focus on that one thing first. Get it done. Great post.
Chick J