You can Double your productivity in only 30 Days

John lives an average life, waking up at 7 am every day. He immediately switches on the radio as he wakes up, filling his brain with all sorts of random pointless distracting input. He drives off to work with the radio blaring away in the background. This allows him to stay tuned out of his day and distracts him from thinking about what he needs to do that day.

The first thing he does, when he arrives at the office,  is make a cup of, where he spends 20 minutes chatting to colleges, before reluctantly walking to his desk and switching on his computer. By the time his computer has booted up, almost 30 minutes of his day has passed.

The first thing he tackles are his emails, which he spends the next 60 minutes reading, and laughing hysterically at all the funny junk emails he has received, from his friends. The rest of the day is spent in overwhelm and distraction, where he spends most of his time dealing with random issues that pop up, most of them unimportant to him.

People constantly interrupt him throughout the day, so he is unable to focus on any priority tasks for very long during the day at all. He spins his wheels all day, gets to the end of another day exhausted, having achieved very little.

He goes home collapses in the sofa, in front of the TV and watches another 5 hours of pointless entertainment, so that he does not have to think about his pointless day. He feels like he has worked really hard, but once again achieved very little.

Learn a few New Daily Success Habits

Do you know anyone like that, or maybe you are John. Where you feel like you are spinning your wheels every day, achieving very little. That can change right now, if you are willing to forgo a little pleasure in the moment and learn a few new daily success habits.

Plan your day the night Before

This really simple new success habit will save you an incredible amount of time every day and allow you to start your day running, with a very clear picture of what your priority activities are and when you will tackle them.

Set aside time slots to Tackle your Top Priorities

During your planning session the night before, set aside time slots in your day, to tackle your top priorities. These are your goal specific activities, which you need to carry out every day, in order to achieve your goals. These are crucial time slots where you close your door and put all your focus on getting your priority goal specific tasks done, every day.

When you meet with your most important client, you do allow distractions. Treat the “meetings with your future” the same way and you will astound yourself how quickly you start to see your goals unfold.

Set Aside time late in the morning to read emails

During your planning session, set aside as little time as necessary to read only the important emails, which have value to you. Schedule this for around 10 am, once your day is working and on track. Stop blind copying everyone and their cousin, in on every email you send and encourage everyone you deal with to do the same.

Far too much time is spent reading unnecessary emails, which mean nothing to you; because people blindly copy everyone they think might need to read the email. Most importantly, do not waste time reading or distributing junk emails. If you send funny mails to friends, they will do the same for you.

Be absolutely clear with everyone around you and tell them not to send you time wasting material. Be ruthless with how you ignore and delete all this type of rubbish.

Wake up and Get up

When you wake up and immediately get up, you are setting the tone for a really productive day. I refer to this as your daily activation energy. The way you start your day, energised, inspired and driven, is the way your day will unfold. Drink a glass of water as soon after getting up as possible, to energise and rehydrate your body.

Read for 15 minutes

Sustainable success is all about having a commitment to consistently learn and grow. When you wake up every day, get out of bed and read a quality transformational, educational or inspirational book, for just 15 minutes. If you do this every day, you will manage to read about 5 to 10 pages a day.

Over a year, that will add up to between 1500 and 3000 pages of good transformational information, which will help you to expand your world. The average human developmental book is about 250 pages. That means that you can read between 5 and 10 developmental books a year, by introducing this simple routine into your life.

Exercise every morning

By introducing a simple daily habit of exercising for 30 minutes every morning, you not only feel more energised, but you build better health and vigour. The better the shape you are in, the more energy you will have every day, to carry out your priority activities.

Listen to inspirational, Transformational or Educational Cd’s on your drive to and from work

Instead of wasting around 500 hours a year on your commute to and from work, listening to the radio, rather listen to informative cd’s, which will either uplift and energise or educate you on your commute to and from work every day. Time is your most valuable possession, invest yours wisely.

Your Day Continues

Armed with your plan for the day, you can immediately start your day, focused, energised and driven. On the way to your desk, drink a bottle of water; nothing energises you more than water does.  

When you are conducting your “meetings with your future”, those time slots where you tackle your daily priorities, do not allow any distractions at all. Focus with dogged determination to get everything you have planned done, during this time slot. Over time this discipline will add up into the success you desire.

There are many more ways you can dramatically increase your productivity every day. Please visit my website as described below for more information. Stay productive throughout your day and make your work matter.



Author: Andrew Horton Motivational Speakers

Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers: Build Momentum and your Sustainable Success is Ass...

Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers: Build Momentum and your Sustainable Success is Ass...: I am sure we all know someone like Jane, she was really inspired last week and decided that she finally wanted to change her life. She set...

Build Momentum and your Sustainable Success is Assured

I am sure we all know someone like Jane, she was really inspired last week and decided that she finally wanted to change her life. She set herself a goal to double her income by the end of 2013 and vigorously started taking action on Wednesday, so that she could finally start to deliver on the promises she has made to herself.

She was really productive on Thursday; she completed all her goal priorities and even a few more. Friday was a little more challenging as she had a lunch date at noon, which was due to finish at 2 pm. She never got back to the office on Friday, as the company at lunch, was really great and she got carried away with chatting all afternoon.

By Monday morning the motivation needed to tackle her goal priorities had disappeared completely. She tackled her day on Monday, feeling really guilty about not getting to her goal specific activities, but justified not doing anything related to realising her goals, by spinning her wheels and feeling really busy all day. Do you know someone like Jane, or worse still, do you do the same thing every time you set yourself a goal?

It is time for you to jump aboard the “MO” Train

Big meaningful goals are never achieved in a day, by overloading yourself and trying to do everything you need the first day. They are achieved daily, by consistently carrying out small almost insignificant goal specific actions.

When you have a daily routine and time set aside every day, to carry out your goal specific activities, you have boarded the “MO” train. The daily dedication and commitment, you make and keep with yourself, to carry out the goal specific actions necessary to achieve your goals. Is what will, over time, create the momentum you need to succeed.

As you consistently take action every day, you will start to build momentum. Momentum is the great exaggerator, for both good and bad. When you have no momentum, it feels like you are going nowhere and nothing seems to be happening. On the other hand, once you start to build momentum, everything just seems to fall into place and the results start to show.

Push Yourself to Achieve the Breakthrough

The way to succeed at achieving any goal is to accept that, you will at first need to apply some willpower, to push you from build-up to breakthrough. The secret is to gradually increase your goal specific workload and to eventually create a new daily success routine or success habit set to support your daily activities.

Stay focused and driven, the first part of any success journey is cluttered with distractions and temptations. Don’t allow yourself to seek out the instant gratification associated with, pleasure in the moment. Keep focused on the outcome you want to achieve.

Know Why is your Goal Important to you

You can only stay focused on taking the daily action, necessary to achieve your goals, if you have a crystal clear vision about exactly what you want to achieve and you know why you want to achieve it in the first place.

If I placed a ladder on the floor and offered you $ 1000 to walk over the ladder. I am certain that you would gladly walk over the ladder and take my money. If I however change one thing and I suspend the ladder between two high-rise buildings and again make the same offer, most people would see the risk and no longer be willing to walk across the ladder.

How about if your child was on the other building, that building was on fire, and the flames were licking at your child’s feet, would you not run across the ladder and rescue your child? What changed? The only thing that changed was the reason why you wanted to cross the ladder. So as you can see if you have a large enough reason why you want to achieve anything, nothing can or will stop you.

As you Gather Momentum, Push the Pedal down Harder

When you have discovered your burning child on the building or rather you have discovered why achieving your goal is really important to you, no obstacles, roadblocks or challenges will be able to stop you. As you consistently take action every day, the momentum will gather and as you consistently follow through, nothing can stop you from succeeding.

As you build your new daily success routine or success habit set. You will move from good to great. Celebrate every small victory along the way, but resist the temptation to ease up, when you achieve a really great breakthrough. Keep the balls rolling and you will see the massive benefits accrue, as the compounding effect of your daily actions keeps adding up and the momentum grows.  

Achieving your goals and realising your dreams, is not about luck. Unless by LUCK, you mean “Labour Under Correct Knowledge”. Success is simply the result of consistently taking goal specific action every day and never allowing yourself to be distracted by the temptation, to seek out pleasure in the moment. Now that you know that success is that easy, what are you waiting for, get aboard the “MO” train today.

Author: Andrew Horton Motivational Speakers

Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers: Do What you Love, Or love What you do

Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers: Do What you Love, Or love What you do: Is your greatest aspiration in life to retire one day and sit under a coconut tree? I challenge you to grasp all the possibilities availab...

Do What you Love, Or love What you do

Is your greatest aspiration in life to retire one day and sit under a coconut tree? I challenge you to grasp all the possibilities available to you and to accept that to live a life of meaning and fulfilment, a life where you will get the greatest pleasure and satisfaction, requires you to commit to stay involved in doing something you love and at the same time trying to make the world a better place. I am not necessarily talking about just doing earth shattering work or ground breaking work. I am talking about committing to find a way to do what you love and to love what you do.  

It astounds me how many people go through their lives hating what they do. Research conducted recently, showed that there are currently over 600 000 different ways to make a living. Despite all these different possibilities available to us, a recent survey conducted; found that in excess of 50 % of the working population dislike their jobs. Something is horribly wrong with this picture.  

You have only two choices available. Learn to love what you do, or find a way to make a living doing what you love. The research I have conducted with my clients over the past few years has shown me that achieving either is dependent on the following criterion:

Work with People you like

The easiest way to enjoy going to work is to ensure that the people you work with are great people. If you like the people you work with, going to work every day is like a party. You get to go to spend time with your friends, every day. Again you have two choices here. You can either carefully choose the people you work with or, you can work to build the right relationships with the people, currently in your work environment. People treat you the way you allow them to treat you and will mirror your behaviour and attitude. By changing the way you treat the people around you and choosing a better attitude, you will get people to treat you very differently.

If you go to work, with a bad attitude every day, hating what you do and you freely express this to everyone around you. Do you believe that you will be able to develop positive relationships with anyone at work? If on the other hand you arrive at work every day, inspired to do your best and people can see and feel your passion, don’t you think they will be eager to support you and build a positive relationship with you.

How Can Leaders Help?

What is your workplace culture around, encouraging your team to enjoy the work they do every day? Do they see themselves going to the salt mine every day, or can you encourage a different mind-set, by shifting the culture in your organisation, by encouraging your team to embrace a new set of metaphors. Instead of seeing themselves going to the salt mine every day, encourage your team to see themselves going to work, every day to support their team to success.

When your team has a more positive metaphor or picture of what they do every day, they will be far more inspired and driven to support the overall vision of the team. One that encourages them to think more positively about what they do at work or should I say their place of creative enjoyment. This small but crucial shift will, quickly change their attitude and they will become far more inspired and driven to support their team, to success.

Support your Team, with the Right Culture

Action idea: Listen to what your team members are saying about their workplace. If the workplace culture or the unwritten cultural rules, do not support the outcomes you want to achieve, no amount of staff motivational training or support will help. These unwritten cultural rules, which I am referring to, always start with the words “around here”. For example if the people in your teams are saying things like “Around here there is no point going the extra mile, because the managers around here never appreciate what we do anyway”

Do you think, talk like that, can and will support your efforts to try to get your team to deliver their best or allow people to enjoy what they do? Invest the time to discover what the unspoken cultural rules are in your organisation. Once you know what your team feels about the organisation and are saying about you as a leader, you are then able to begin the process of introducing a new set of unwritten cultural rules, which will support your vision.

One of the most dangerous blunders any leader can make is not to know what the unwritten cultural rules are within their team or organisation. On the other hand, knowing how to drive your team behaviour, by introducing and supporting positive unwritten cultural rules, is a really powerful tool in any great leader’s toolkit for success.

Imagine how you can support your team and how inspired they would be, if the unwritten cultural rules, went something like this “Around here we are a supportive team, who are regularly appreciated and supported by our leadership team” Invest time to explore the unwritten cultural rules, within your team or organisation and encourage the development of positive ones, which will support your vision and the success of your team is assured.

Your Team Must Believe their work is worthwhile and is making a difference

When you feel that what you do every day makes a difference or you are making a success out of what you do every day, you are not working; it is a way of life. As a leader it is your job to encourage your team to see the significance of what they do every day, to support them and show appreciation to them for their efforts. When people feel like what they do makes a difference and they are consistently encouraged for the successes they achieve, they are far more inspired and will deliver their best.

Challenge your Team Every Day

People like to feel challenged and like they are growing. Encourage all your team members to find challenge in their jobs every day. Even if the challenge does not exist in what they currently do, support them to commit to find challenge, by sharpening their skills, working on their interpersonal and technical skills. As a great leader it is your job to encourage your team members to make growth a priority. Keep providing encouragement and room for every one of your team members to grow. Encourage all your team members to find joy in their jobs, challenge them to love what they do, if they cannot find a way to do what they love.



Author: Andrew Horton Motivational Speakers

Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers: Are you learning from the Top Sales Performers in ...

Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers: Are you learning from the Top Sales Performers in ...: I find it astounding that the same sales professionals achieve the top sales results, year after year, whilst others sit back and wonder h...

Are you learning from the Top Sales Performers in Your Organisation?

I find it astounding that the same sales professionals achieve the top sales results, year after year, whilst others sit back and wonder how they could achieve similar results themselves. When I work with sales teams, I ask one simple question. I ask them if they know who the top three sales people are in their organisation. The answers I get vary from I have no idea, to some people who have a pretty good idea, but they are not 100 % certain. The challenge I have with people not knowing who the top sales people in their organisations are is that they are wasting one of the top resources they have in their business. The sales people who are performing well are clearly doing something right and if the other sales people follow their lead, they too can become top performers.

All the other sales people in the organisation should be looking at the top performers daily behaviours, routines, sales systems, the relationships they have with their clients and try to discover why they are able to consistently outsell everyone else in their organisation. The top performers have a recipe for sales success, which is working and if the other sales people want to achieve similar results, they must invest the time to try to find out what is working and why it is working and then apply a similar strategy in their own sales process. I know this sounds really simplistic and it is. The challenge is that, although this is common sense, it is seldom common practice in many organisations.

Too many organisations allow one of their most valuable resources, namely their top sales performers, to never share their knowledge with the rest of the team. Achieving success in any area, especially sales is all about consistently taking the right actions every day. If someone is achieving great success as a sales person in your organisation, they have obviously discovered the recipe for sales success, which works. If the other sales people can drive their daily activity and behaviour, using a similar recipe for sales success, they will obviously achieve similar or even better results.  

The top sales people in any organisation have an incredible amount of knowledge, great daily habits, the right positive mental attitude, great relationship building skills and the recipe for influencing people to see the value their product or service offers. This knowledge and skill is transferable and any sales person, who is willing to invest the time and effort into learning from the top performers, will gradually grow into a top performer themselves.

Yes these top performers do have a fantastic daily sales routine, great sales habits, the ability to build great relationships with their clients, they believe in what they have to sell and they consistently take the right actions every day, to build their sales success. These can and should be learned by anyone who wants to emulate their performance and improve their sales within the organisation. The one thing that really stands out for me with all the top performers I have observed, is that they have very definite goals and a very detailed sales plan, which includes individual daily action to help them achieve their sales goals.

Action Idea: Identify the top sales performers within your organisation. Approach them and offer to buy them lunch. Prepare a number of questions you have about their sales process and ask them these prepared questions whilst at lunch. You will be astounded how willing people are to speak about themselves and their sales success. Repeat this with all the top performers in your organisation. Identify the behaviours, sales processes and methods they use to build sustainable relationships with their clients and build your own sales process.

If the top performers will allow, try to spend a day with them and observe how they operate and discover their daily behaviours, routines and the way they interact with their clients. This will be invaluable information and will allow you to build a similar set of behaviours and routines into your day. You can become a top sales person, if you have the will and can develop the right daily sales routines and habits. The only thing stopping you from succeeding and becoming a top sales performer yourself, is your daily activities or your recipe for success, is not yet aligned with the results you want to achieve.

Invest the time to acquire the right sales recipe and success is inevitable, have clear sales goals and build a detailed sales plan, which will drive your daily activities. You are already a sales champion, once you align your behaviour and daily routine to support this, you will finally have everything you need to unleash your full sales potential.



Author: Andrew Horton Motivational Speakers