The Four Step Plan To Make Your Day Super Productive: Magic Of First 30 Mins

[This is 3rd article in the #ProductivityHacks series currently running on Trak.in]

After you get the right mind-set in the morning by doing mental and physical exercise, a good breakfast and comfortable clothing, you will begin your productive day. Most of the entrepreneurs will go to their offices or work from home on your laptop/PC.

Whatever you do, the first 30 minutes will make all the difference. How should you spend those 30 minutes?

Don’t Open Email or Social Networking Sites In The First 30 Minutes

The unproductive entrepreneurs open their emails and social networking sites, and if you are doing it, then believe me, you have just wasted the most important part of the day.

At this time, your mind is super productive, raring to go and challenge the world. It is filled with amazing ideas and plans and if properly channeled and focused, it can make a dent in the universe.

But instead, some people waste it on checking emails and replying to Facebook comments and Twitter messages. Don’t do that, atleast in the first 30 minutes of the day.

This particular time is like a wet mud, ready to be molded in different shapes. Whatever shape you desire to give, it will turn into that permanently. Checking and replying to mails and social media networks will make your mind numb with information-overload, and you would not be able to think in the right perspective, the stuff which will make your business grow further and expand.

Your ideas and plans will vanish into the black hole created by these social networking sites and your email. Make maximum usage of these first 30 minutes, and set the tone of an awesome productive day.

The productive entrepreneurs have an action list ready with them, everyday. And it is these action lists which should be opened first thing in the morning to make maximum usage of the time. If you don’t have this action list, then don’t worry. This can be achieved in 4 simple steps.

Step 1: Decide What You Want From Life

Today, is the day when you have received another blank check of Rs 86,400 from the Universe, and you have received it because you have a purpose in life. You are reading these words because you want to make maximum use of this check.

There must be some long term desire and ambition which you must execute in order to justify your existence. Find that out. If not the whole picture, extract sub-plots, the reasons you are alive today.

As you open your laptop or PC and decide to connect the internet, hold on for a second, and decide what exactly you want from life, today, at this very moment.

Step 2: Write it Down

Once you have decided, write it down. You can use a diary, a notepad or a paper but write it down. If you are tech savvy, then create a new notepad file or MS Word file and write it down. In bullet point, highlighted, what exactly you want from life today.

Writing the goals and your ambitions make them a physical property. If they are just in your mind, then they are not real, they are just wishes. But writing them down, with exactly the way you want it to happen make them actual, and almost a reality.

There are several advantages of having written goals, which we shall discuss in subsequent chapters. But right now, when you are about to start your day, just write them down and make them physical.

You want a million dollars? Write it down.

Wish to buy the new Aston Martin? Write it down.

Want to expand your business 100% by end of the year? Write it down.

You want to hire a Marketing Consultant? Write it down.

Step 3: Set Deadline

Now, as you have the written goals ready, time to set the deadline. Any goal without any start or beginning is like an unfinished novel, an incomplete movie. Be generous with the deadlines and if required, create sub-deadlines as well. But give it a time frame and make it a reality.

Step 4: Plan It

As the whole picture is now clear, all you need to do is plan its execution. Depending on your goals and the deadlines, you need to find the ways to execute it. First, decide on all the resources which would be required to fulfill these goals, and then create a list of all the actions which you can take right now, at this moment. These actions which will lead you to execute your goals one by one, should be the stepping stone of everyday activity.

In the first 30 minutes of the day, you should open this action list of all activities which you can do today to achieve your goals. Make sub-lists from these pointers, and create actionable and achievable action plan, for the rest of the day.

And once you have it, complete atleast one or two of those before opening your social networking sites or email.

If the action list is empty, the whole process can repeated as many time as you want. The first 30 minutes of your day should be spent on this action list, which will determine your productivity for the rest of the day. As you march on, completing one task after another, you will feel good, accomplished and satisfied with the productivity.

If it becomes your habit, then believe me, you have become super productive entrepreneur!

Previous Chapters in Productivity Hacks For An Entrepreneur Series

1. Understanding Importance of Time
2. The Morning Activities