How Can You Become A Productive Person
By SuccessMuslimToday after my coaching session with my life coach, we came up with my goal statement. It is – “Be personally connected to people, enjoy and help others live a productive life, and do things that bring out the leader in myself and others..”
In this, the second point is about being Productive in life. This made me ask – What is productivity, and how can I measure my productivity at the end of the day/week.
This article defines productivity and discuss how we can be productive in our life.
Productivity = Value / Time
Based on this equation, we can increase our productivity by either increasing the value we deliver, or by reducing the time taken for it, or both. Now we all know how to measure time. But how can we measure “value”
Here is a nice way to measure the “value” of what we do.
Value = Impact x Endurance x Essence x Volume
We can learn about the above using an example of a blogger.
1) Impact : First, according to your definition of value, to what extent is the value provided? Who receives the value you provide. How many people receive it. 1 or 10 or 100 or 1000 or millions or the whole planet? How much do you feel the value you provide ripples outward beyond those you provide it to directly? How quickly do those ripples dissipate? What’s your sense of the basic level of impact of your value? Is it limited or expansive?
The impact made by a CEO of a fortune 500 company or a leader of a nation is different than the impact made by a janitor.
2) Endurance
Secondly, how long does the value you create endure? An hour, a day, a week, a month, a year, a decade, a lifetime, 100 years, 1000 years, 10,000 years, until the end of time? To what extent does your value carry forward in time? Is it quickly consumed and forgotten? Or does it continue to regenerate itself year after year? Does your value create ripples through time?
The Mona Lisa is still providing value hundreds of years after its creation. But other works of art do not provide any enduring value beyond the lifetime of the artist. They are quickly abandoned and eventually replaced.
3) Essence
Thirdly, what is the essence of the value you produce? Do you help people survive? Entertain them? Enlighten them? How much do others value what you produce? What price would they be willing to pay for it? Do they consider your value essential, optional, or undesirable? How unique is your value? Are you the only one who can provide it, or are there plenty of equivalent choices?
The essence of value provided by a janitor is low because it is easy to find people to do such work for little pay. The essence of value of a physicist is potentially enormous because a new theoretical concept could yield a more accurate understanding of the universe.
4) Volume
Lastly, what is the volume of value you create? How much of it are you putting out in a given period of time? What is the quantity in which you produce that value?
For example, Picasso was a prolific artist who created hundreds of different works over his lifetime. Other artists had a far lower volume of output.
Now lets put together above 4 points in case of a Blogger.
The impact of a blogger’s value would be related to the blog’s traffic levels and overall influence among its readers. How many people are reading the blog, and how much do they value what the blogger writes? To improve impact a blogger could increase traffic to the blog or improve his/her writing skills in order to have a deeper effect on the readers. Impact can also be increased if the readers then go out and tell others about what they’ve read. Furthermore, the blogger could use the blog as a means for self-exploration, thereby increasing the impact of the blog on the blogger’s own life.
The endurance of a blogger’s value would be the long-term effect on the blog’s readers, if any. Is the blog changing the long-term thinking and behavior patterns of its readers? Do the readers quickly forget what they read on the blog, or does the information stay with them? Are the readers permanently haunted by what they’ve read?
The essence of a blogger’s value depends on the topics the blogger writes about. Is the blogger writing throw-away posts to get a laugh or generate traffic, or is there a serious commitment to providing deep value? What is the nature of the blogger’s value delivery? Is it financial advice that could help a person become wealthy? Does it provide solutions to important problems? Or is it mostly fluff?
And of course the volume of a blogger’s value would be the quantity of words and posts the blogger delivers.
Now extend this line of thinking to your life as a whole, well beyond the boundaries of your career.
What is the ultimate impact of your life? How many lives are you touching? Are you a person of influence? Or do you exist in relative obscurity?
What will be the endurance of your life’s value? Will your lifetime contributions turn out to be largely insignificant? Or will your contributions ripple on for centuries? What of your value will survive your own death? What of your value will you have the potential to retain after you die (assuming there is an afterlife of sorts)?
And finally, what will be the essence of your life’s value? What is the heart of your contribution? Are you here to play follow the follower? Are you in pursuit of a worthwhile destiny? When you consciously consider the value you’re providing, do you feel empty and fearful or peaceful and fulfilled? What is the meaning behind your deeds? Was that meaning consciously chosen?
You cannot optimize your productivity without consciously and deliberately optimizing these factors. True productivity is far more than volume / time.
Scheduling and Taking action
To complete the flow of productivity, we need to do what is to be done. Once you know what will give the maximum value, schedule them to your calendar, so you know when you will do what.
And once you have put something to the Calendar, make the commitment to actually do it.
Now I know how to be productive
To become productive, I have to
1) Decide how I will add value to people
2) Plan it to do it in most efficient time frame.
3) Schedule them to my calendar, so I know when I will do what
4) Take action to do them on that time.
This completes the loop of deciding and taking action.
And adding value, I can do by making sure I focus on activities that gives the best Impact, Endurance, Essence, and Volume, and if I do this with the most efficient use of my time, I become a productive person ! Inshah Allah
Category: Time Mastery
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