9.
Focus
After you set your priorities and you
are able to manage time, you have to be able to focus on what you are doing.
You have to learn the art of focusing. As simple as it sounds, it is one of the
most difficult things to do. It is not easy maintaining a laser focus on what
you are doing and not be distracted.
There are psychological noises
everywhere, even in your own thoughts there will be stuff demanding your
attention. But you must have the ability to sieve through the myriad of things
and focus on what needs to be done at any point in time. That is a major habit
of star performers, they know how to focus; they know how to sieve through the
muddled thoughts, they know what they want and they go after it, not minding
what is going on within, around, below or above them. They just focus on what
they have to do; they are not easily distracted or carried away.
You have to maintain focus, it is key
to star performance. People usually get swept away by emotions and situations
and then leave what they are doing or supposed to do to mind whatnot. Star
performers do not fall prey to such trifles.
10.
Manage people and your environment
You have to be able to manage people
and your environment. For instance, maybe Mr A is busy working and then Mr B
sees something on the internet and says,‘Hey, Mr A see this.’ In order to be
polite, Mr A can check and then go back to what he is doing immediately. But if
he is not someone who is committed to productivity, he can abandon what he is
doing and start to ‘hoo-hah’ with Mr B such that both of them put their
official tasks aside and become engaged in exchanging comments about a news or
social media post.
You have to manage the people around
you so you can be productive. People are their own enemies, if you leave what
you are doing and then start to mind what you are not supposed to do, you
cannot be productive. You have to manage people; you have to learn to say,‘No’
or promise to check it later, but not now because you need to do certain things
at this time.
You have to be able to manage the
people around you:your colleagues, your family members, your friends,
associates, Facebook contacts, etc. If someone is chatting with me online and
they do not say what they want to say between the first, two, three chats, I
would not answer the person again. There must be a reason you want to engage
me, I don’t have much time for online chats except there is something important
to discuss.
You need to manage your environment
too, there are some environments that aid productivity, and there are some that
inhibit it. You have to position yourself in an environment that aids
productivity, for example the way you organise your system, table and
workspace. You will see some desktops littered with all manners of files,
folders and applications; experts say you don’t get productive in a cluttered
environment. So there is a way you arrange your system and workspace that aids
productivity because performance is also environment-driven.
11.
Review your work
Top performers have reviews ingrained
in their system. If you have done something you should look at it again and ask
yourself questions: Is this the best I can come up with or can I do better?
They review their day; how has my day been, how have I fared? At home, how have
I fared? Have I bonded with my family members? Have I bonded with my wife,
husband, children? Review your work, your day, your professional life, your
family life, your spiritual life so you can know if you are on track or off
track.
The holy book counsels that you
examine yourself to see if you are still in the faith. A popular saying goes
that ‘an unexamined life is not worth living.’ A life that is not being
assessed is not worth living. You have to be able to review your own
performance before you are assessed by your superiors. You should also review
your day, week, month, quarter and year. This helps you to know what you have
accomplished so that you can report it and get the confidence boost to do more.
It also helps you to know what is outstanding so you can pursue it. Star
performers review their work, output, day, conduct and actions.
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