Tag Archives: Writing

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Increase Productivity by Reducing Distractions

Productivity is meaningless unless you know what your goal is Eliyahu Goldrat

Increase Productivity by Reducing Distractions

For as long as I remember I have always had to struggle to maintain focus and avoid distractions. I still do battle daily against the things that take my attention away from what I have set my mind and heart to achieve.

Believe it or not, but productivity increases inversely with distractions. If you have no ambition or big goals you want to accomplish, it is unlikely that you will derive any benefits from reducing distractions. So what is a distraction?

A distraction is that which divides your attention or prevents concentration.

When I set out to write my blog posts, my mind wanders and my attention is divided between what I am doing and the many other things I want to do. I constantly have to fight to get back on track and complete the task. This for me is energy draining and a cause of low productivity. So I set out to increase my productivity, get more done and achieve my goals by reducing distractions.

Here are 5 changes I made to my working life that has yielded big results.

  1. Create A Personal Work Space.

Your personal work space includes your desk, your chair, the walls around you, access to day light, room temperature and any other thing you can think of that makes for a pleasant environment. The more comfortable you are in your chair, the less you would fidget and the longer you will stay and complete your work.

Keeping a clutter free work environment will add to your productivity. Look around you. Do you like the look and feel of where you work? If not, come up with three things you can do to make yourself relaxed and comfortable.

  1. Turn Off Emails, Telephone and Text

I am one of those persons who checks his email as soon as it arrives. So I have lights that blink when I get an email, a buzzer that rings when I get a text and a phone that vibrates when on silent.

For years I couldn’t imagine life without a smart phone. However, after overcoming the withdrawal symptoms, I get more done in my day with the phone turned off.

If you have work to do that demands focus and attention, you may want to try having these things turned off.

  1. Take Some Time To Plan Your Day In Advance

If you start your day without a plan, you are more likely to end that day without achieving much. Take some time to plan your day in advance. The previous night is a good time to do this. Set goals and have targets for the day.

A list of what you want to do or achieve is a simple tool that can make you more productive. On completion of a task, you do not have to spend time wondering what to do next. You simply look at your list and tackle the next task.

  1. Use A Timer

When on social media, decide how much time you want to spend and then spend no more that the time you have allocated. A timer is a wonderful device which simply bleeps when your allocated time is up.

When writing, use your timer, when researching online, use a timer and when you go to sleep in the middle of the day, if you have that luxury, use your timer.

  1. Record, Review And Reward

Many years ago when I was struggling with money, I was given a sheet of paper to record and keep track of my spending. The result of that exercise was an eye opener. By tracking my spending I was able to review my actual spend against my planned spend. I had actual numbers that were always different from the plan. I didn’t need much prompting to make spending cuts.

What you track you can change. Keep track of how you spend your time. Record how many minutes in your day you spend doing actual productive work. Record how many minutes you spend watching television. Record how many minutes you spend on the telephone and on social media.

Review what you have recorded. Make necessary adjustments and reward yourself for good behaviour.

Why not add your own productivity tip by leaving a comment below.

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3 Things to Know before Writing your Blog

WordPress and many other blogging platforms has lowered the barrier to publishing. So you have decided to write and publish a blog post. I use the words write and publish on purpose because, many write and do not publish for many reasons.

3 Things to Know before Writing your Blog

I started writing just about a year ago. But I nursed the dream of writing for many years. I even joined a writers club and I wrote many pieces of work but published none. Until I read Steven Pressfied’s book: Do the Work If you haven’t read this book you should.

Resistance to writing.

Writing like many other art forms has the potential to change lives and you will have to overcome resistance, which comes in many forms. A few examples include:

  • Fear
  • Self doubt
  • Procrastination
  • Distractions of all sorts
  • Perfectionism

The only tried and proven way of overcoming resistance is to get on with it and write. Yes Do the Work. Write. You may want to develop a content plan to help you write.

But before you write, there are three things I would like you to know.

  1. Know Your Reader – Who is your writing intended for?

The best way to write a best selling book is to know who your audience is (and what they want) before you start writing. You should know everything there is to know about your readers in advance, and then write your book. Most people do it backwards. ~ Michael Hyatt

Who are you writing for. It is important to have a reader in mind before you write. The more you know about your reader, the better you are able to write content that will be of great value to your readers.

Here at Leading like a champion, our readers are ambitious individuals who have little time or energy to waste. He or she may be self employed, running a business or aspiring to own and run a business. He or she is an entrepreneur. Probably older than 18 and younger than 35.

  1. Know Your Purpose – Why are you writing?

Are you writing to inform, to entertain or to educate your readers? Are you writing to persuade, to inspire or to provoke a discussion.  For more on this read “Are you blogging with purpose?” . When you are clear about the purpose of your writing, your readers derive greater value from your content because you:

  • Connect with your readers.
  • Convince your readers about your purpose
  • Convert your readers to your purpose

Here at leading like a champion, we believe that you must be the leading influence in your life. We believe that leadership is a combination of skills and ability that can be learned through training and improved with practice. We use our blog posts to provide you with content that will help you the individual grow and thrive as a leader in your business and in your workplace.

  1. Know your Subject – What are you writing about?

Here is my simple take on this. You know enough about your subject to write about it. See yourself as an expert or an expert in the making. No matter how little you think you know about your topic, you know  a lot more about it than most people. So write for those people and they will reward you with their readership. Stick to what you know and what you are passionate about. Writers who are passionate about their subject are more interesting to read.

Write with your readers in mind.

Remember that you are not writing out of a passion for writing. Such writing will make for boring reading as you will will have the tendency to show off your writing skill. Your readers do not really want to know how fantastic you are at writing.

Give value to your readers.

You are writing to add value to and help your readers. You are writing because what you write has the potential to fill a need that your reader has.
So it helps a great deal to get over yourself, get over your perceived lack of experience and get over your fear that no one will read what you write.
Write and publish your work of art.
Question? How about writing for us? 
Why not get in touch? You can leave a comment or complete the contact form.

 

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Put it in Writing

Writing in is a method of recording information and ideas. Have you ever wondered how some people are able to come up with lots of ideas and get more done while you do not? Well how about you try putting down your thoughts in writing and then create the habit of writing.

Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you would have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire. – Napoleon hill

Here are five things that will happen when you put it in writing.

  1. Writing will help you organise your thoughts and bring clarity to your ideas.
  2. By putting it in writing, you record and increase your chances of remembering your ideas.
  3. Writing will help you commit to taking action on your goals, vision and dreams.
  4. You can breakdown and simplify your complicated ideas during the process of writing.
  5. Writing will help you develop an idea bank or vault.

By writing down your thoughts and ideas, you free up your mind to do other things such as thinking up new thoughts and ideas or coming up with plans to implement the ones you have written down.

So how can you get the most from putting things down in writing?

  • Keep a paper or electronic ideas notebook with you all the time. It makes no difference how good your memory is. You will forget it if you do not write it down.
  • Develop a consistent filing system. This will greatly reduce the time which you spend looking for things. I have a lot of paper notebooks and I have no idea of what I have written in most of then. My life has now been made easier with my use of Evernote,  an electronic notebook available on all platforms.
  • Review your ideas regularly. It makes no sense to write something down if you are not going to read it. You will need to get into the habit of setting time aside in your busy schedule to review your ideas, modify them and possibly begin to act on some.
  • Now share your thoughts and ideas first with yourself through regular review of your writings and then with trusted alias. 

If you have an ambition to write and publish a book in the not to distant future, then putting it down in writing is a must for you. This becomes an avenue for you to express your creative flair. If you persist at it and become good at it, you could earn some money with your newly discovered writing skill by writing a best seller. And just think of the many more possibilities which could include turning your book into a movie or a television series.

Do you put your thoughts and ideas in writing?