Most of us are familiar with the basics, such as how to have coffee in the morning and plan the day for the next day. There are many more strategies and tricks that you should explore. It’s a smart idea to follow the lead of successful entrepreneurs. Their strategies work, no doubt. Here’s a list with six great businessmen and their productivity secrets.
Elon Musk is the founder of SpaceX, Tesla, and Neuralink. All of these tech companies are futuristic. The overall approval rating is 98%.
How do you manage all of those projects every day? It all begins at 7 a.m., with about half an hour spent answering “vital emails.”
Musk quickly filters out the unimportant emails and focuses on the important ones. This half-hour allows you to determine your top priorities for each hour.
Any professional will have been in a meeting that was a complete waste of time. Meetings are a great way to collaborate and communicate, but they can also turn into chaotic affairs that cause everyone to waste their time.
This is due to the fact that there are so many people involved. Even 15 minutes of wasted effort can turn into three hours if there are twelve participants. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos follows the “two pizza rule”. He invites only those who are able to eat two pizzas to his meetings. It can be anywhere from six to eight people depending on how hungry your employees are.
Dustin Moskowitz, Asana CEO, tries to have at least one day per week without meetings. Asana, inspired by a Facebook idea, organizes “No Meeting Wednesdays”, which keeps Wednesdays completely free from such events.
This ensures there are no bad meetings and wasted time, and that employees can focus on their direct projects for at least one working day per week.
Depending on your situation, you may not be allowed to book a whole day. However, you can book at least a few hours.
Although lists are not uncommon in productivity strategies Richard Branson shows that they can be used for almost anything. Branson prefers to carry a notebook with him wherever he goes. He prefers using paper lists over digital or mental ones. You can easily organize everything, from daily tasks to long-term goals, into digestible lists that you can cross out point by point.
Branson uses lists to keep his records organized and in order.
You don’t need to carry a notebook around with you, but it is a good idea to have a system in place to ensure you never lose a great idea.
Robert Kirkman is co-founder of Skybound Entertainment. He is responsible for The Walking Dead comics and TV series. Kirkman also sets ambitious goals to maintain productivity.
Kirkman has a goal of writing 12 pages a day if he is aiming to write 4 or 5 pages per day. He then sets a goal to write 6, or 7. He will continue to work hard and achieve more, even though he hasn’t reached his big goal. He would have set lower goals at the beginning.
Steve Jobs was known for being a bit harsh in his leadership and management approach, intolerant towards bad ideas and picky about his staff – but he achieved some amazing results.
Jobs’ most valuable productivity trick was to filter out any ideas that weren’t top-notch. Jobs was well-known for compiling 100 ideas from top executives at his corporate retreats about ways Apple could improve over the next year.
He would quickly cross out all the useless stuff and continue to cross them off until he had a list of “10 ideas”. He kept three of the 10 ideas and set them as the company’s goal for next year. Only 3% of ideas merited attention, according to their strategy.
These productivity hacks can help you if you feel overwhelmed or run out of time. Or, try your own experiments. While finding the right formula can take time, you’ll be more productive and happier if you do.
