Your client deserves better, don’t you think? In the same way, your life deserves better. The ability to single-task — to give one thing your undivided attention — is one of the keys to Increase focus. Not the kind of productivity where you knock off 20 items from your to-do list while still managing to run 15 miles and respond to 20 emails. Sure, that kind of productivity feels good.

But I’m talking about the kind of productivity where you actually achieve your goals, where you accomplish important and long-lasting things. It means finishing major projects rather than doing a million little things that don’t add up to anything lasting. It means quality productivity instead of quantity productivity.

Once you’ve learned to give your undivided attention to that one thing —  to laser-focus on the important projects —  you will automatically shift into the flow. That’s because flow is how you get them done. You block out all extraneous noise, all phone calls, all menial tasks, all interruptions, and you just focus. You are able to sit and focus on that one task long enough to complete it. When you can work in the flow, you can accomplish anything.

Getting consumed by tedious tasks and busy work is a major battle many of us face each day. Every morning when we get up, the first thing on our minds should be the projects and tasks that will ultimately give us the biggest return on energy (ROE). The reason why this is extremely difficult for most people to do is because often what gives us the biggest ROE and reward is also usually the hardest and most time-consuming of everything that we have to do.

Sending emails, talking on the phone, cleaning up your desk and moving from place to place might seem like you are getting a lot done, but as I stated above, there is a major difference between quality productivity and quantity productivity. If we all took the time to assess our current habits and schedules and pinpoint what is consuming most of our time and energy, we may be surprised at how much time and effort we give to the non-urgent things in our lives.

Even though multitasking may make you feel accomplished temporarily, it’s not a way to go about business or achieving your main goal. It’s nearly impossible to be a master at your craft and become the absolute best if you’re always focusing your efforts in 10 different ways. By shifting our priorities to the big tasks and projects that add extreme value to our goals, we begin to feel accomplished and deeply fulfilled — not just a person accomplishing a lot of busy work.

Give it a shot. Concentrate your energy and attention on single-tasking and observe how it can dramatically increase focus.

Originally Posted on Entrepreneur.com

The post Learn How to Single-Task to Increase Focus appeared first on Matt Mayberry.

Mastering time management does more than just increase productivity. It can yield important health benefits as well. When time is managed wisely, it minimizes stress and improves the overall quality of your life.

If you often find yourself run down by your daily workload or overwhelmed by the complexity of projects and tasks in your life, it is likely because you have not fully mastered effective time management. As the day flies by, you realize you’re behind, or you are on schedule only because you haven’t put forth your best effort in hopes of completion.

Nothing great ever transcends from haste. Cutting corners will eventually catch up to you, and as with anything, quality always beats quantity.

Lay the foundation for effectively managing your time.

Delegating the appropriate amount of time to get adequate sleep, maintain a healthy diet and exercising regularly are all essential elements to improve both focus and concentration. Making the time to create a healthy lifestyle will help improve your efficiency throughout the day, allowing for more time to complete other tasks.

Identify and evaluate how you are currently spending your time.

If you drive to work, how do you pass the time during your commute? If you take a bus or train, how do you spend all those hours a week? How many audiobooks or language tapes could you have completed while in traffic last month? How many books could you read on the train while getting to and from work the next few weeks?

These are the best times throughout your day to incorporate all those little things that you “wished” you had time for. Over time, these habits become a lifestyle, and you will find yourself well ahead of the pack.

Say no to nonessential tasks and prioritize the ones of extreme value.

Consider your goals and look at your schedule before agreeing to take on more work. If a task is time consuming but not necessarily important to the main goal, pass it off or add it to the bottom of the list.

Dedicate time blocks and limit distractions.

Everyone has a place where they work the most effectively. Some people love to have music in their earbuds, while others need complete silence. Some people can work just as efficiently from their dining table as they can in a library cubicle. Wherever that place is, utilize it. Turn the television off, silence the cell phone, put away the tablet and dedicate complete focus to the task at hand. No responding to texts, no browsing the web.

When you operate your life in a healthy, organized fashion, and are able to execute daily tasks efficiently, stress is reduced, productivity increases and overall satisfaction manifests.

Never hesitate to take a break if needed.

Everyone gets worn out from time to time and piling on more and more tasks leads to stress that will simply derail you from the mission at hand. Take a walk, go to the gym, get some fresh air or take that sick day you’ve been holding out on. Sometimes all we need is a moment of clarity and solitude to clear our overworked minds and recharge our bodies to give us that next big push.

After all, time management is really life management.

Originally Posted on Entrepreneur.com

The post Time Management Is Really Life Management appeared first on Matt Mayberry.

Why exactly is time management so important? Why has it taken the corporate world and entrepreneurs in every country by storm?

The answer is that time management is really life management. How we manage our time is a direct correlation to how we manage our lives.

I am a huge advocate of being a master of managing our time and finding new ways to incorporate better structure into our lives on a daily basis. However, I have seen countless people who were terrific with how they managed their time but still seemed to not get much of anything of value accomplished.

The reason why someone could be excellent at managing their time but still not rise to the top of their selected profession and live a tremendously satisfying life is because they lack energy management.

Energy management is the missing link. You could be the world’s greatest planner and be very careful about where you spend your time, but if you mismanage your energy it does you absolutely no good.

The key is to become an excellent manager of your time along with mastering where you direct your energy. The major problem I continually see is people directing an enormous amount of energy towards low-value tasks, which then depletes energy levels when it comes time to work on the high-value tasks.

This way of operating will forever create average results.

Instead of working solely on time management, start to analyze and focus on where your energy is going. When you begin to carefully track your energy levels, the results could be substantial simply given the fact that most people neglect managing their energy.

This isn’t to say time management is useless, because it’s not. However, great time management combined with phenomenal energy management could completely change the game for you and take your success levels to new heights.

Before you begin a new task, ask yourself exactly how much energy needs to go into that task.

If an athlete wastes all of their energy in warm ups, how in the world will they have enough energy to perform at their very best when game time comes around? Sadly enough, I have witnessed this exact scenario before several times throughout my football career.

Think of those big tasks and projects that have the ability to advance you closer to the achievement of your goals as your game time. Don’t waste your valuable energy in warm ups.

Energy management is the missing link.

Originally Posted on Entrepreneur.com

The post Managing Your Energy and Peak Performance appeared first on Matt Mayberry.