Productivity
Productivity is not an ability to do more tasks in a day; it is performing tasks that will enable you to achieve the goals you have set for yourself.
How do you know that you are achieving the right things? First, you need to identify your goals.
For me, when I realised that I didn’t have goals beyond work, I also realised that I wasn’t working towards anything. When I identified them, though, I had things to work towards.
What are your goals in life and work? What are the steps that will help you achieve these goals? Goals are dreams with a plan. As Lawrence J Peter said: “If you do not know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else”. You would never set out to go on a trip without choosing a destination, researching the best route to get there and buying a ticket.
So why do we do it with our life? We have goals when we are younger, but when we become older, life happens, and we drift through life. We may not be happy at work or life, and there are so many distractions which prevent us from focusing on and achieving life goals.
Goals need to be SMART
S – Specific. What exactly do you want to accomplish? Why is this important to you? What resources do you need to have to achieve these goals and with whose help?
M – Measurable. How will you know when the goal is achieved? What will it be measured by?
A – Achievable. Can you do it within specific timeframes? Is it realistic to achieve these goals?
R – Relevant. Why is this goal suitable to you or important to have in your life? You will never achieve a goal that doesn’t apply to you and your life.
T – Timely. Goals need to be accomplished by a specific time you set. A goal without a deadline is just a dream.
If you want to be productive, you need to know what your goals are and where you are going. As soon as you set your goals, you get a roadmap of what you need to achieve in life to feel fulfilled. Your wishes of developing a private practice or achieving a certain level of financial stability are not considered to be goals, as they are not specific enough. You would need to drill down on what this financial stability looks like and entails. What would be the steps that will get you there?
You have to be strategic about your goals.
If you’d like to open a private practice with a goal of more income, you need to decide which procedures provide the most income and then work towards offering those there. You also need to understand what does not bring you income. If something wastes your time and does not bring you closer to your goal, avoid it altogether.
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into visible” - Tony Robbins.
After you have set your goals, you have the project in front of you that needs to be achieved. Establish a realistic date by which you’d like to accomplish that goal. Then divide the goal into smaller steps with set times. Once you have a plan, you know what you need to focus on to achieve your goals. Your priority then should be focusing on completing steps towards your final goal, rather than wasting time on tasks which are not beneficial in achieving it. Unless there is an emergency and your attention is needed, keep your focus on your goals.
Prioritise your tasks based on importance. Get onto doing the most critical ones first thing in the morning, followed by less critical tasks afterwards. I also minimise the number of meetings that I have each day.
Distractions will lead to failure to execute your plan. They are also a form of procrastination. Some distractions are conscious, and some we are not aware of. The most important skill I learnt is to say NO to things that will not lead me towards my goals. You need to know how to refuse something that won’t benefit the bigger picture and focus on doing those that will.
As doctors, we are almost pre-programmed to say YES to things, and then we end up with less and less free time to spend on things that matter. There are several ways to accomplish goals successfully, but we will talk about that in another blog.
Of course, achieving goals may never be a perfect journey, but if you have a plan of action, it’s the main step in achieving the life you want. Yes, we may fail at times, but we learn from failure and improve. However, if we do not try, we will always fail by default.
“Some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not lived at all – in which case, you fail by default” J.K Rowling.