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The Best Strategies to Increase Your Productivity

jrichardbyrd.com- The Best Strategies to Increase Productivity

Here are the best strategies to develop if you want to increase your productivity substantially. Everybody would like to accomplish more throughout their day, but increasing your productivity can often seem impossible. The following strategies, if followed, can double and even triple your productivity.

Set Goals and Productivity Targets

When you set a goal, you end up focusing your energy on the things that you want to achieve. These are things that you wouldn't be able to accomplish by default. Automatically you become more productive. You must be clear on exactly what you want to achieve.

Maintain Your Work Environment

Your work environment is what sets the stage for your workflow, and ultimately your productivity. If you are self-employed find a place that allows you to focus without distractions. If you are employed, this involves modifying your desk to make it conducive to productivity.

Put Important Things First

Since there are only 24 hours in a day, you must put your most important tasks first. If you want to be more productive and reach your goals? You have to work on the critical tasks first and deprioritize anything that doesn't get you closer to your goals.

Use the 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 rule refers to the phenomenon where you use 20% of your effort to create 80% of your production. In other words, this means that the remaining 20 percent of your production can only be achieved with an 80 percent effort. You have to let go of the little details that no one but you notices. The key is to focus your time and energy on producing 80 percent of everything you do.

Have a Separate List for Incoming Tasks

Throughout your day, you will probably receive a stream of random and miscellaneous tasks. Rather than immediately giving them attention, add them to a separate list so you can focus on your daily goals. At the end of your day, allocate a block of time to clear the list out.

Know your Motivation Triggers

When you become aware of your motivational triggers, you can better connect with them and dramatically increase productivity. Figure out what inspires you and determine how you can integrate these triggers into your daily life to help you reinforce your motivation.

When you find you lack productivity, consider incorporating these strategies into your daily life that can help you to increase your productivity dramatically.

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The Power of My No

The Power of My No

There is a great book written by Andy Stanley called Choosing to Cheat. In this book, Stanley "addresses the tension felt between the drive for success in the workplace and the significance of healthy relationships at home and finding the balance point."

One of the main principles in Choosing to Cheat is whenever you say Yes to Something, by default You are Saying No to something else. In other words, when you say yes to taking on a new project you are saying no to being home at a certain time.  When you say yes to designing a website over the weekend, you are in turn saying no to going to the beach.

And while this book was mainly about that elusive work-life balance, I have used it in my business to great success.  I know that for every project or client I say yes to, I am saying no to another project and or client.

Having this cognition ever-present allows me to make great decisions about my time, talent, and values as a business.  Whenever I have a decision to make, even something as small as do I meet a potential client for coffee, I do a mental rundown of what am I saying no to in my business. Every conference call,  zoom call, or investment runs through the same mental gymnastics. 

Is my yes opportunity greater than my no responsibilities?

In other words, does saying yes yield greater results than what I said no to.  

If you have ever asked me a question like this, you have most likely noticed I do not answer quickly.  I don’t accept meeting requests quickly.  Because they all need to go through this filter. And folks, it has made me quite successful.   

So what has changed?  

First, let me just say I still believe in the underlying thesis of the book.  How I apply it has changed.

  1. At this stage of my career, my priorities are changing.  I am now at the beginning of the sunset of my life.  
  2. Judging my yes by my no is limiting. 

Let me explain

Listen, if my yes was powerful.  Then my no is equally as powerful.  

My yes creates a no — But my No releases a Yes

My Yes causes me to look at the downside/the cost/ what am I losing - My No causes me to look at the upside/the revenue/ what am I gaining.

Now when I say no — I get excited about what yes opportunities are now available. 

 

Listen to the Podcast Episode

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I Shall Write Again

I shall write again blog post

Today I sat down at my computer and started writing my first blog post in almost 2 years. It was a mind-numbing experience - that at times felt wonderful and at times felt mournful. I cried and smiled all at the same time. Why had it taken so long? Why was today the day to start?

Why start is probably easier to answer if we start with why did I stop. You see. I stopped because

  1. I had years of content that had never been released.

  2. I had so much video and spoken content, why bother writing. But like many of you out there, it was number 3 that held the cards to the real reason.

  3. I felt like I had nothing else to say -- Nothing new to add to the dialogue.

While I had not written for 2 years the genesis of my silence started 4 years ago. The country had come off an incredibly divided election. An upset. An election that made me question if my ear was to the ground. If I still heard the voice of creativity in the air.

Over the past year, the trifecta of trouble, as Pastor Joel Gregory describes it, of social unrest, pandemic, and mental instability, caused me to run into a creative desert. How could I write and create when the world was crying. How could I find that center that inspiration when I had to put my company and family into survival mode?

So what changed? Several Things

My Mindset

Over the past month I have had a chance to detox -- Not only detox my body - but detox my mind. I realized that one of the worst things I could do was internalize the external. What do I mean? Many things in the world are great for your external body but not great for your internal body. Rubbing Alcohol comes to mind. While great for topical relief. It is deadly if ingested. The same goes for your business or your mind. Some things are great for the external but are deadly if they get internalized.

Mute the Noise

Over my desk sits a poster made by my BLKHustle.com company, that simply states -- MUTE THE NOISE. It is a constant reminder to tune out the distractions of the world. I had to learn to not mute the noise of the world -- but to mute the noise of my mind (a much harder task). I had to mute analysis paralysis, perfectstination (procrastination masquerading as perfectionism), and more importantly -- imposter syndrome.

I had to tell myself -- I am good enough -- I am good at what I do, not because I am an imposter, but because I have put in the work to become efficient and effective in my work.

Calm the Fear Within

In my book, Calming the Fear Within, I outline a series of steps a person must do to overcome fear. One of the points is to recognize the fear and name it. Well, my fear was scarcity. Normally that scarcity is financial. But, this time around, the fear of scarcity was, Do I have enough to give my all? Do I have enough fire left in me to cause the atmosphere around me to boil? The whispers to myself were no.

But the reality is yes. I still have it. My creativity, my fire, my passion has not left me. Very much like a muscle, because I did not use it, it was becoming atrophied. The worst thing about fear - is we often create that which we fear most. Because of my fear of scarcity, I created a place of scarcity. When I changed my mindset -- I realized -- what I have is in abundance. And here is the key, you can’t have a harvest unless you plant.

So on today, I write -- I plant the seeds that fuel my destiny. I write -- I water the seeds of my creativity -- I write because now I plan to see the harvest of my labors.

My mindset is changed

The noise is muted, and,

My fear is calmed.

I AM WRITING AGAIN!

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Write What You Hear: THE FIRST STEP IN MY JOURNEY

Over the past few days, I have had the chance to counsel several people in clearly different and separate fields. In all cases, I was led to just say Write What You Hear.

It is not just a divine directive for those people I spoke to, but a clarion call to myself. You see for years, I have had ideas and books boiling inside of me. But fear and obstinacy stopped me from heeding the call I heard.

For days, I will labor over the decision to write something that is rattling around in my brain. But no more. I must now Write What I Hear. This next session is for my religious people.

"And Jehovah answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that readeth it."

The call is so strong that even tonight I have had to stay up late just writing what I hear.

Some of it is for public consumption -

Other things are a part of the vision God is giving me for my life.

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions"

Not only must I write what I hear - I have to write what I see. What an awesome responsibility to share with you what I hear and what I see. I have established several writing resources to make writing easier. I will share with you in later posts -

But more importantly. What has God whispered to you in the middle of the night? In the middle of your quiet time, In the middle of your despair. What is he telling you to Write?

My friend please just do it - don't hesitate - don't worry about grammar -

Just Write What You Hear.

You Down

J. Richard Byrd

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Creativity Hacks: 29 Ways to Fire Up Your Creativity

29 Ways to Fire Up Your Creativity - J Richard Byrd

One of the hardest things in the world, at least for me is trying to stay creative. Creativity is a cycle - Creativity ebbs and it flows. One minute it is up, the next minute it is down. While in many cases a creative can learn to work when the "feeling" hits them.

For some of us, we are called on daily to be creative.  That poses an incredible and insurmountable task. How do you make something that cyclical in nature just start -- Well this video is definitely a good start at keeping that creative edge.

Number 5 will shock you.

 

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Just Do It: Guilt-Free Email Outsourcing

Just Do It - Guilt Free Email Out Sourcing - J Richard Byrd

It feels a little…weird, doesn’t it? The thought of letting someone else read (and maybe even respond to) your email might feel a bit like an invasion of privacy, but it might just be the thing that saves your sanity when you’re facing email overload every morning.

And you don’t have to allow your assistant to read all your email – just a few select accounts.

Private vs. Business Email
Before you decide to outsource your email management, it’s a good idea to separate your personal from your business accounts. Your personal email address is the one you’ll give to your friends and family, your kid’s school, your bank, and anyone else who might send you either personal or confidential information.

Your business email is the one you’ll use for your help desk, affiliate programs, and other non-personal information. This is the one you’ll give to your assistant to read and respond to, if necessary. He or she should know enough about your business to be able to respond appropriately in most cases, but also know that anything she can’t handle should be forwarded to you for a response.

Using a Help Desk
Information product sellers, online retailers, and even coaches and virtual assistants might find it useful to set up a help desk. This is a great way to filter and organize conversations, particularly as they relate to products and customer service. Not only that, but you can easily have your assistant monitor the desk, relieving you of the responsibility.

One of the most popular options is ZenDesk, which is a bargain at just $20 per year. It’s a hosted platform, meaning there is nothing to install. Plus it allows for email piping, so the sending of an email to a designated address automatically creates a ticket. ZenDesk is super simple to set up and use, and will definitely help clear up your email inbox.

You could also choose to set up your own help desk using one of the many free php scripts available. Like WordPress, these scripts install on your hosting account and cost nothing to use. All of them allow you to maintain a ticket history, but some offer other features. Be sure to read the documentation for several before deciding. Some popular choices include osTicket and Hesk.

If you do decide to use a help desk – regardless of which one you choose. You’ll want to set up some systems for monitoring and maintaining it. At the very least, you’ll want someone to be in charge of all incoming tickets. That person is responsible for making sure that all tickets are answered in a timely manner, and that relevant information is added to the FAQ page. You may want to work out a system by which help requests are escalated to you (or a project manager) in case your help desk person isn’t able to answer or doesn’t know how to respond to a particular request.

Digging out from under a pile of email can be tough, but if you get some help, you’ll be well on your way to an empty inbox, and that’s a great place to be.

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Persistence Breeds Success – How To Keep Going

Persistence Breeds Success - J Richard Byrd

If you want to improve the quality of your life and achieve your goals, then a vital attitude you need to develop is persistence. You have a bit of it already. Everyone does. However, the amount you have at the moment is not enough to achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself. Don’t worry if you can’t seem to persevere most of the time. We have good news for you! You can develop the habit of persistence!

Anyone can desire success and a better lifestyle. That’s easy to do. And it’s also easy to complain about things we don’t have instead of working to get them. The first step to working towards our goals without giving up is by developing a positive outlook. Whenever a negative thought creeps into your mind and makes you doubt, pause for a minute and ask yourself, “Is it that I can’t do this task, or I just don’t want to do it?”

It will surprise you that most of the time, the real reason is that we just don’t want to do it. When this happens, pause and ask yourself why this is the case. Perhaps the task is too challenging for you, or you are tired of trying and failing.

When you replace negative thinking with positive thinking, half of the battle has been won! You’re on your way to becoming a more persistent person! Sometimes when we feel like giving up on something, it just means that we need a break. After getting some time to recharge your system, you’ll be ready to face the task with more energy and enthusiasm. Instead of giving up, just take a break.

Being persistent does not mean that you will never feel like giving up. Everyone feels like giving up at a point. However, a persistent person is one who doesn’t give up even when things get so hard that they want to quit. Instead of giving up, a persistent person will rather search for alternative ways to tackle the problem until it is solved. Being persistent has a profound effect on your self-esteem and self-confidence. As you solve problems without giving up, it gives you a sense of pride and drives you to solve more problems.

To help you develop the habit of persistence, break down your goals into small tasks that you can easily tackle. This will help you stay motivated, as you will be able to tackle each task without much difficulty. You can apply this strategy in any scenario. Whether you are learning a new skill or confronting an unexpected event, this strategy can be helpful.

So, if you ever feel like giving up, take a moment to imagine the pride and satisfaction you will feel when you achieve your goal. Let that desire drive you to keep working and persisting till you hit your target!

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Egos Don’t Cash Checks

Him: We should really hookup and see how your knowledge can be used for the community unless you have been warped by the western philosophy and mindset.

Me: The first rule of negotiation or selling is never insult the intelligence of the person you are asking to make the deal. This way of passive-aggressive insulting while asking for a favor is probably why you are going to bed at night lonely with your hand. While I head to the bank and then home to the warm embrace of my wife.

Update:
Just so that we don't lose the teachable moment- I went that harsh with the young brother - so that he would see how his words can affect his expected outcome. It wasn't about telling him off. It was about educating him. He did not close the deal but he learned a valuable lesson. And as such, I will probably do a deal with him in the future.

Take home: Don't let your pseudo-intellect keep you from getting your goal. Egos Don't Cash Checks.

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