Category: Research

So, You Want To Be More Productive?

So, You Want To Be More Productive?

Not enough time. Too much to do. Not enough sleep. Too many distractions. Constant dings and buzzes. No ability to focus. Rushing to get there on time. Feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. Oh, and I just remembered, that I forgot to…

Sound familiar? According to the results of my recent survey, 81% of you desire to be more productive. But, how? Where do you even start?

As our lives have become more hectic, demanding and complex, we strive to be more organized and productive but struggle with how to get it all done — especially when we’re overwhelmed and don’t have any free time to spend finding a solution.  So, is there a quick fix?

If you turn to Google and search “productivity tips,” guess what?  You get 104M articles of tips from incredibly busy people you can read through to learn how to radically improve your life and become the most productive person you know.

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You can order or download, “Getting Things Done” by David Allen and then find the time to pour through 350 pages of the defacto “Bible of business and personal productivity.”

You can sign up for email newsletters, blogs, webinars and training sessions from a variety of “productivity gurus” who can provide advice and guide you through productivity best practices.

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You can look in the App Store to find literally thousands and thousands of apps claiming to help you become more productive. You can sort through, them pick some to download and try them out for two weeks to see how they work and if they help you or not.

Or, wait — maybe there’s a better option. I’ve spent the past six months doing all of these things in a quest to understand the challenges, evaluate the strategies, and test current solutions to come up with a simple, easy-to-use tool you can just start using.

Please Like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter and check out my Web site so you can be the first to know when this new tool will be available for FREE.

Survey Says…

Survey Says…

I conducted a very unofficial, unscientific research study to find out more about what people think of their own productivity. As I anticipated, some findings were expected while others were quite enlightening.

Not surprisingly, while 80.2% think they are Somewhat or Very Productive already, 81% say that one of their goals or desires is to become more productive. Proves the point that even though we are getting a lot done already, there’s still a lot more to do.

Interestingly, while 82% consistently use a central calendar everyday to schedule and manage their time, that’s not the case with how they manage their tasks. In fact, it’s all over the place. People are using a variety of paper and electronic lists to manage their tasks. At the extremes, only 7% use a digital program or site to manage their tasks and 5% don’t use any system at all.

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55% report that the biggest obstacle to their productivity is finding time to complete tasks, followed by 48% feeling overwhelmed by the number of tasks.  38% report struggling with prioritizing their tasks and more than a third of respondents say that they are unable to focus on completing their tasks or find themselves delaying getting stuff done thanks to the world of distractions that we live in.

I believe there’s an opportunity here to help people find a better way to manage, prioritize and complete their tasks more efficiently.  That’s what I hope to create. What would be most helpful to you?