Success Advice

3 Powerful Techniques That Will Help You Really Get Things Done

Published

6 years ago

Mar 10, 2019

Shawn Lim

Image Credit: Unsplash

Setting goals and having the ideas to achieve more success in life is easy. Whether it is to lose weight, to earn more, to build a successful blog, or to get rid of a bad habit, most people fail to stick to their plans after a few weeks. And some give up after a few short days.

People just don’t follow through. They fall back into their old behaviors and they procrastinate when they are supposed to get things done. So what can you do to stick to your goals and follow your plans? What can you do to really get the things that you want to be done, done?

Here are 3 powerful techniques you can apply:

1. Schedule and Block Your Time

First, schedule and block your time for the project or task that you want to get done. For example, if you want to write a 2,000-word article, what you need to do then is to schedule the writing. You want to make sure that it becomes your priority so that it will definitely happen.

Time blocking is one of the most powerful techniques anyone can leverage to get things done. If you have just bought a book but you find that you don’t have time to read it, just schedule the time.

For instance, use this Saturday morning to read the book. You can block 9 AM to 12 PM on your calendar, and use these 3 hours block to read the book. When you do so, you are giving clear instructions to your mind when and what you should do. As what Tony Robbins said, “Clarity is power”. When you know exactly what you need to do and specifically when to do the task, your chances of doing it will be much higher.

More importantly, when you block your time, you are literally telling the world that you will be unavailable for other things during that period. You have scheduled your priority and other things have to wait. This is why time blocking is such a powerful technique that you can apply to make sure you get more things done.

“The key is not to prioritise what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” – Stephen Covey

2. Change Your Environment

Next, change your environment. If time blocking is not enough, change your environment as well. We often underestimate how the environment can affect our lives. In fact, the environment you’re in plays a vital role in shaping your life. A productive and positive environment favors good habits and positive behaviors.

If your environment is noisy and you can’t focus, and you want to write an article in that surrounding, you set yourself up to fail. You must learn to use your environment to support you rather than against you. Create a favorable environment so that you are more inclined to take action rather than procrastinating.

Take the example from above, if you want to read a book, but your environment is noisy and distracting, just change your location. Grab your book and read it in a nearby coffee house while enjoying your favorite hot mocha. The key is that you must design or change your environment so that it favors you.

If you want to make it a habit to drink more water, fill your water bottle and place it on your work desk. Whenever you see it, you will remember to drink more water. If you want to watch less TV, keep the remote control away or take out the batteries. This way, you create the inconvenience and it makes you less likely to watch TV.

Thus, redesign a work environment that helps you get things done. Remember, you are a product of your environment. So if you want to change your life, change your environment.

3. Build Up the Commitment

So now that you have blocked out 3 hours this Saturday from 9 AM to 12 PM to read a book that you have just bought at a nearby café. What if you still fail to follow through? Well, here’s the third technique you can apply – increase your commitment.

What you want to do here is to increase the stake and make yourself more committed to taking action. For instance, you can make a bet with a friend that you will read 100 pages of the book. And if you don’t, you will give him or her $50.

How’s that for increasing your commitment? Of course, there are many ways how you can put yourself on the line. You can also invite a friend to read together in the café so that he can become your accountability partner and make sure you show up and read.

“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes…but no plans.” – Peter F. Drucker

When you make a public commitment, you put yourself on the line and your reputation is at stake. Hence, you become more committed to the action. According to Dr. Gail Matthews from the Dominican University of California, people who write down their goals, make action commitments, and share their progress with someone else have a much higher chance of actually achieving their goals.

Hence, to increase your commitment toward your goals, you can:

Write them down
Create specific action plans, and
Make yourself accountable by sharing your progress with someone else.

When your level of commitment is high, you will do whatever it takes to accomplish your goals.

These are the 3 techniques that you can implement to help you get things done. Remember, schedule your actions so that they will definitely happen. Change your environment so that you set yourself up to win. And create the commitment so that you will hold yourself accountable and accomplish the task.

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Shawn Lim

Shawn Lim is the creator of StunningMotivation.com (https://StunningMotivation.com) and he’s a passionate blogger in the personal development industry who has inspired thousands to pursue their dreams and follow their passions. You can learn more about him plus download a free copy of his guidebook, Reach Your Goals on his website.

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Success Advice

How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements

Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.

Published

2 weeks ago

Dec 4, 2024

Addicted2Success Editor

Image Credit: Midjourney

Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.

There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.

Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.

Embed the strength of AI and ML.

AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.

According to CyberGhost (CG) bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.

ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses.

In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.

Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities

Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased.

Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information.

Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place.

In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.

Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development

You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.

You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.

Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.

Developing key skills to achieve goals

Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.

Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.

Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.

Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.

Development/Coding Knowledge

Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.

Hacking proof framework

There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.

Communication Abilities/Soft Skills

Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:

Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.

Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.

Agile Implementations

It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.

Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds.
Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them.
Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.

Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.

Conclusion

There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.