5 Things High Achievers Do Every Day

It’s 2016. The year you become more productive. The year you finally achieve all those goals you’ve been thinking about. The year you finally grow your business, travel, get in shape, write a book, or whatever other loft goal you’ve been dreaming about.

But it’s one thing to dream. You’ve been dreaming about these things for a long time.

It’s another thing to actually achieve.

How can you move from dreamer to achiever? By implementing these 10 things.

 

FIND YOUR PEAK WORK TIMES

All hours are not created equal. Depending on your body type and habits, you’ll find that particular hours are more productive than others. Maybe you’re a morning person who cranks through tasks while sipping coffee. Maybe you’re a night owl who thrives in the peace and quiet.

High achievers find their peak time and then focus on achieving as much as possible during that time. As Daniel Threlfall says:

“Productivity isn’t just about cool inbox tricks or nifty time management strategies. Those are important, but it’s more — it’s about harnessing energy and time to do more and better work.”

Are you doing your most important work during your peak time, or are you wasting that time on email, Facebook, or fantasy football?

 

ELIMINATE DISTRACTIONS

This is especially important during your peak times. It’s well-established that multitasking kills productivity. You simply can’t concentrate when you’re getting assaulted by text messages, Facebook messages, and emails.

High achievers deliberately eliminate distractions from their lives. They block social media. They turn off their phones. They set autoresponders on their email to let people know that they’re in the high-achievement zone. They use software that lets them focus on and only one task.

Are you eliminating distractions, or are you play the losing multitasking game?

 

DO THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FIRST

High achievers attack the most important things first. They expend their best energy on the most important tasks. As productivity expert James Clear says:

If you do the most important thing first each day, then you’ll always get something important done. I don’t know about you, but this is a big deal for me. There are many days when I waste hours crossing off the 4th, 5th, or 6th most important tasks on my to-do list and never get around to doing the most important thing.

As part of his 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey recommends always seeking to do the first things first.

It’s tempting to do the easiest tasks first in order to gain a sense of momentum. But what you gain in momentum you lose in effectiveness. Technically you may have gotten more done, but you didn’t get the most important things done.

Are you attacking your most important tasks first?

 

BECOME A MASTER OF LISTS

High achievers always know what they should be knowing next. Why? Because they constantly make lists of their most important tasks. Productivity experts like David Allen recommend making a series of lists and then constantly reviewing and updating those lists.

David Allen’s Getting Things Done Method

 

The power of the list is that it keeps you on track. It keeps you focused on what’s best and what’s next. Making a list also allows you to attack your day, rather than having your day attack you. As Paula Rizzo says:

When you’re juggling a lot of tasks, things will fall through the cracks, and lists are amazing for keeping yourself on target and getting things done.

If you need to track lists, apps like Omnifocus, Things, and ToDoIst are great options.

Omnifocus

 

MAKE S.M.A.R.T. GOALS

If you really want to achieve your goals this year, they need to be “S.M.A.R.T.” They should be:

S – Specific. It’s not enough to “get in shape”. You should have a very specific goal, like “be able to bench 200 pounds”.

M – Measurable. You won’t know if you’re achieving your goals if you can’t measure them. Your goals should be specifically measurable, like “write 5000 words by May”.

A – Attainable. If your goal isn’t attainable, you’ll quickly get discouraged. Set goals that stretch you, but are also possible to achieve. You probably can’t be a billionaire in one year, but you can double your income!

R – Realistic. Closely related to attainable, you need to set realistic goals that take into account your limitations and boundaries, yet also stretch you beyond those boundaries.

T – Timely. Your goal should have an end date. When are you going to finish your manuscript? When are you going to grow sales by $20,000. If your goal doesn’t have an end date, you won’t push yourself to achieve it.

CONCLUSION

High achievement isn’t just for elite business moguls. With practice and discipline, you can be a high achiever in 2016. You can conquer your goals and make progress you never thought possible.

 

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