Mike Simpson

The copyright act of 1978 (as amended) prohibits the reproduction of this copy IN ANY FORMAT, (See Clause 4 Terms and Conditions) without prior permission of the original publisher. Publication FAST COMPANY S E C R E T $ O F P R O D U C T I V E T H E Page Date AVE (ZAR) 58 Thurs 01 Nov 2018 - M 0 S T P E O P L E THERE ARE V FEW SECRETS HASALREADY WOULD EVERED » BY HARRY WELBY-COOKE, EXECUTIVE COACH AT ACTIONCO ACH The'SecretsoftheMostProductiv ePeopleare alreadyquite freelyavailable. Lesspopularthough, and much morecritical, isactuallyfollowing thatadvice and implementingthosesecrets.Knowing isn't sufficientenough.Doing, LEFT IN THE WORLD. HUMANS TO KNOW GOOGLE WITH ALL THE ANSWERS WE - AND IT'S FREE. » PHOTOGRAPH BY UNSPL ASH quicker to do) than commit to the impor tant ones (read harder ones). Find out what is truly impor tantto you and the lessimpor tantdistractionswill easilydisappearinto the background. therefore, becomes a much more impor tant part of your success. I thought I'd sharea summaryof what we seeasbeingcriticalsuccess factorsacrossour team of businesscoachesand their entrepreneurialclients.Togetthese'secrets'towork bestforyou, try this:read, nod, takeaction and repeat. Work life balancedoesn'texistin the short-term.It'simpossibleto fit everything we need to do, want to do and are supposed to do in thespaceof24hours.However,overaquarterwecanprobablyget our work-life balancespoton.We might counterbalancetowardsextra hours on a project at the start of a quar ter, rebalance towards family and personal time in the middleandendup with healthand fitnesstowardstheend.Over this period, we thereforeeasilycreatethe balancewe need. Know what you really want and what's really important to you. It's mucheasiertocommittowhat'sreally impor tantwhen you know what it actuallyis. It soundssimple, but the dangeris we oftensee our list of priorities or to-do list items as all having the same importance. Worseyet, we'll quickly tick off the lessimpor tant items (readeasierand Understandthe impactofinvestingacrossmind, bodyandspirit. We are human beingsand not 'human doings'.Without the due investmentin ourownminds,bodiesandspirits,wecannotsus- tain periodsof productivity. In their absence,distractions and self-sabotage prevail.Ensureamultifacetedapproachtosettinggoals,priorities,plansand schedules.Makesureyou'reinvestingin yourselfacrossthe spectrumand you'll find much more energy, resilience and focusto be productive. What are you measuring? When you try to loseweight it's easy to get on the scaleand checkyour progress.When you don't like the progress,and what the scaleis telling you, it'sjust aseasyto stopgettingon the scale. Howe ver,if you persistwith the measur ement,you can'thelp but startto influence whatever is necessaryto change what the measurement is saying. In the sameway,checkwhat you'remeasuringand startto implement the right measur ementsto track.Committo the regular measur ementasa start and over time your actions will start to influence the changesyou need toaffecta differentmeasurement.@