Part II. Productivity Practices of the Super Achiever
Super Achievers may do amazing feats that astound the masses, but in the end, they are only people. Just like you and I, they struggle with maximizing the same 24 hours.
Their approach and practices my be different, but there is nothing that they do that we can’t.
This is a list of some of the more prominent ones that anyone can use. You may already be using some of these techniques. If so, congratulations.
If no, slowing incorporate them into your daily routines. They will serve you well.
1. Plan Your Day - Planning and Focus.
It’s 6:30 am. The alarm clock just went off. You get up jump in shower, and get ready for work. Your commute is 30 minutes, so you leave in just enough time to park, and take to five minute walk into the office in just the nick of time. You grab your morining coffee, and your off and running.
Why plan anything because tomorrow will be just like today. For the average person this may be true, but for the Super Achiever who is determined to maximize every minute in his 24 hour day, his day is quite different.
The Super Achiever has a particular destination to reach, and each step along the path is important. The mindset of the importance our limited resource, time, causes a whole different set on behaviors.
To help the Super Achiever effectively utilize every minute of his day, some advanced planning is required. There are only so many activities that you can fully focus on in one day. And the Super Achiever must find those most important tasks, and plan for their completion.
Preferably, the night beforem, or first thing after waking, the Super Achiever makes a plan for the day. Careful consideration of all the possible events that must take place are planned. This brings clairty and specific direction.
There are many tools available to keep you plan in order, but if all else fails, the calendar is still a viable option.
I have personally developed a tracking mechanism call my Daily Success Recorder (DSR) system.
This system contains tracking sheets for things I want to monitor every day, like my personal goals, to-do list, activity tracking in half hour increments, and other activities import to track. I will be sharing this system in subsequent blog posts and future training videos.
What ever system you choose is fine as long as you make sure you do through this planning process every day. A 24 hour day goes quickly. Plan to make full use of it.
Everybody loves a friendly challenge by a family member, co-worker, or fiend. The extra bit of excitement that come with a change to prove yourself for public accolades is always fun. But when was the last time you actually challenged yourself?
Ask a Super Achiever and you may get a completely different answer. Because Super Achievers advance their skills by challenging themselves daily. It’s like being in the game when you challenge yourself.
Whether it’s pushing themselves to learn a new chord on the guitar, running an extra mile around the track, or simply working an extra 15 minutes, the Super Achiever is always pushing to get better.
Their greatest threat to failure and mediocrity is the temptation of slipping in to the comfort zone. The comfort zone is the place the fear of failure is the greatest. It debilitates you to the state of remaining the same. Change may upset that feeling for safety and comfort.
When things get easy, safety and comfort are sure to be present. But Super Achievers fight that tendency by doing the hard things, the uncomfortable things, and the things that bring better and better results.
So, in your daily planning, make sure you are challenging yourself by doing the hard things first, and always challenging yourself to get better.
2. Challenge Yourself With A Passion For Learning And Self-Improvement
3. Morning Routine
There is nothing like a good morning routine to get you up and ready for the day. Super productive Super Achievers already know this, and make sure they have one in place.
The importance of a routine is that, doing it over a long period, create a habit that will serve you for as long as you use it. The more you do your routine, the easier it become. After a while, works on automatic pilot. Napoleon Hill, in his classic book, “Think and Grow Rich”, refers to this as the Law of Habitforce.
Many Super Achievers use their morning for daily exercise. That gets their heartrate up, and metabolism pumping to start their day. Some people listen to invigorating music to energize them. Others like the quite of reading or meditation for their source of morning inspiration.
That ever you choose to supercharge your morning, make it a habit. It may just be the best part of your day.
The word “No” is definitely the friend of the Super Performer who values the importance of time. For some this is no problem, but for other who are used to saying yes, this will be a challenge.
No one likes to disappoint, but in the light of the achievements you want to accomplish, you time must me measured by the effectiveness of its outcome. The activities that you partake in have to produce a certain level of ROI in order to be entertained by a Super Achiever.
Time is too valuable to spend on frivolous activities. Once you time is wasted, you can never get it back. So guard it with the utmost diligence. Because of this scrutinity, you will find yourself automatically saying “No” a lot more then you will yes.
Know this going in, and use it for every opportunity that is not a time waster. After a while, your friends and family will get used to it. And you will get to salvage your time before it gets wasted.
4. Learn to say “NO”
5. Turn Downtime Into Productive Time
Downtime happens all the time. Every day throught the day, we find ourselve waiting for something to take place. We wait for the doctor to see us, we wait in the restaurant while cooks prepare our food, we wait in the checkout line in the grocery store. This is considered downtime for the time optimizer.
But Super Achievers manufacture ways to make good use of as much downtime as possible. Some my listen to audio books on their cell phones, read a few pages on their Kindle, or answer some impartant emails.
It is always good to figure out creative way to minimize the downtime by turning it into productive time. Plan ahead if you know this could happen, and have your productive strategy in place.
My mother used to say, “An idol mind is the devils workshop.” Fill the gaps with something productive.
There are two type of activities; those that produce productive results and those that don’t. And some times the productive activities are not that easy or fun to do. But if you want to get the results, you make up in your mind to do them regardless of how you fell at the time.
This is the choice you will confront almost daily. Not every task will be a pleasure to perform. Who likes a to practice 5 hours a day for a swim meet, or climb twenty flights of stairs to prepare for a wrestling match? Even the thought of doing this is painful. But it’s a choice you have to make. Is your goal so important that you will do the unpleasant work to get you to the next level? I hope you will.
Continually making the righ choices, day after day is what it takes to be the best.
Super Achievers are up for the challenge. Adopt the same resolve in whatever you do, and your will reach your goals of being your best you.
6. Do The Right Thing No Matter How It Feels
7. Fight the Perfectionist's Tendency
Perfection is an admirable target for anyone to strive for, but when it starts cause us to procrastinate, or worse, spending too much unnecessary time, we must consider taking another approach.
That approach is to start becoming comfortable with the idea of valuing timely completion over untimely perfection. That sounds easy enough, unless you’re the time that can distinguish between the two.
Sometimes, our natural tendency to be right sucks us into this web of doing things over 100 times to reach our so called level of perfection. This desire can be so strongly ingrained that we don’t realize we are caught in its web until it’s too late. We’ve wated hour on something, but have only marginal results to show for it.
Get out of this trap. Understand that the perfectionist’s tendency can hurt our progress instead of helping us. To avoid this trap, we must constantly be on the lookout. As soon as we see ourself heading down this path, we have to fight our way back to productivity.
The price of perfectionism is a costly one that does nothing but steal our time. Fight this tenancy at all costs.
“Nobody like a quitter”, say everyone who has never traveled down the wrong road, and has had to quit bad habits that got you there. But the wise will attest to the fact that quitting is not always a bad thing.
Why keep doing something is harmful to you because you are afraid to quit? Sometimes, you just have to quit.
Well now there is a new strategy, that’s infiltrated the arena of the politically correct, called the Pivot.
Making a Pivot is changing one direction for another more strategically feasible one.
For example, if I’m a 5’7” basket ball play in high school, and realize that a career in the NBA is not a likely probability, I may choose to pivot into a new career choice.
You mean, quit. Yes, quit. But in this case, quitting is the consequence of strategically choose another career path. So pivoting is what I’ve done.
On your journey to Super Achievement continues, it may be necessary to Pivot. But if it helps you reach your ultimate destination, don’t hesitate. Make the move, continue your course. There’s shame in changing direction, if it put you where you need to be.
8. Pivot Strategically When Its Necessary
9. Surround Yourself With Other Super Achievers
One of the best ways to boost your productivity is to surround yourself with other like-minded Super Achievers. Like you, they understand the value of ever minute, and will support you when you need it.
This network can be build with an email to a fellow Super Achiever just to keep motivated to stay on your game. Or it can be a more face-to-face type of appointment. What every keeps you motivated is what’s best for you.
But the value of knowing there are others going through the same struggles you’re going through is a comfort. There is definitely strength in numbers. So lock into the Super Achievers Network, and get all the support you’ll need.
You never know who you’ll meet that can give you a boost. Time is ticking. So, join today.