Ever wonder how the brilliantly successful accomplish so much? How do they manage to run giant corporations and global conglomerates? How in the world to they manage to be SO productive when the rest of us mere mortals find it a challenge to get through our daily to-do list without bursting into tears because of the sheer number of things that need to be completed?!

These are the kinds of questions that float through my mind quite regularly. I totally geek out about time management and productivity (feel free to check out my previous posts on these topics here and here). I never get tired of finding new ways to get things done on time and on point without having to pull out my hair in handfuls because I’m freaking out over a looming deadline ( fortunately, I haven’t actually pulled my hair out but I have twisted it nervously while grinding my teeth).

Meanwhile, the likes of Richard Branson and Oprah Winfrey reside over their empires with razor sharp clarity and finesse. What’s the secret behind their ability to get so much done everyday? As always, I found some of the answers in a book. This one’s by Laura Vanderkam and it’s called What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast (yeah, I loved the title too!) After completing some in-depth research and interviewing a number of successful types, Ms. Vanderkam condenses her findings into a fun, breezy read that’s brimming with easy-to-implement ideas. Here’s what I read in the section on What the Most Successful People Do At Work. The Secret of Astonishing Productivity, which happens to be my favourite part of the book and very useful for employees and entrepreneurs.

According to the writer, there are a number of disciplines that need to be adopted if you’re gearing to slide into the “Most Successful and Productive People” category. Here are 3 of them:

DISCIPLINE 1: MIND YOUR HOURS

This is about keeping a temporary time log (maybe a couple of days to a week) on how you spend each day. The time log offers an unbiased view on what’s really going on during those minutes and hours of your day. More importantly, it allows you to make different choices to maximise the time you have so you can complete the stuff that absolutely needs to get done. Plus, it reduces the chances of you having to say “where the heck did the time go?!” at the end of the day

DISCIPLINE 2: PLAN

Ah! Most of us are familiar with this one but how many of us actually follow through? Vanderkam not only advocates business planning but personal planning as well. Taking a bit of time each week (or every morning) to plan through your days will help you jumpstart strategic thinking and create clarity. Planning your hours ahead of time makes it that much more likely that you’ll finish what needs to get done and find time to enjoy the fun stuff. There are a host of tools like Evernote that can help you on this one but my personal fave? Google Calendar, hands down!

DISCIPLINE 3: MAKE SUCCESS POSSIBLE

This one’s about accountability and not getting overzealous about accomplishing everything under the sun. Vanderkam explains that once you get through the planning stage, you’re likely to come up with plenty of ideas on those little steps that lead to  striking off that item on your to do list. For instance, if you want to attract more clients, you might suddenly think of that stack of business cards you collected at your last networking event that could prove to be a great list of prospects. The danger here is that you might be tempted to call every last number in the stack but resist this temptation as it’s a common point of failure. Successful types know that breaking each task into little bite-sized pieces (calling 3 people a day instead of all 25) is much more doable – and much more likely to get done. Another important point? Get an accountability partner – someone you can sort of report to once you’ve completed your task. Your spouse, your sister or a friend. There are also great digital accountability partners (Vanderkam likes www.stickk.com) you can turn to. Accountability is a great motivational method that will help you complete your tasks.

Those are the first 3 disciplines of 7. Here’s a quick glance at the other 4:

Know What is Work: differentiating between real work that advances you toward your goal and what looks like work but isn’t – like checking email;
Practice: practicing the skills that will move you forward in your work or business. Maybe for you that’s writing business proposals or speaking in public;
Pay In: creating career capital – increasing your experience and value by acquiring knowledge that will get you ahead. Perhaps that’s conquering Microsoft excel or understanding social media for business;
Pursue Pleasure: actively seeking out fun, joyful activities that will create breaks in your schedule leaving you rejuvenated for massive productivity boosts later.

There you have it – some of the habits of some of the most successful people. I’ve realised that wanting to be successful and actually taking action are separated by a great divide. Taking action can be uncomfortable, even painful but the payoffs are huge.
I’m going to get a Moleskin planner later today to start logging my time (plus 2015 planners are like 50% off right now so it’s an excuse to get one!) and I plan to get started on Vanderkam’s ideas later this week.
Wish me luck!