Choices Are Made Long Before You Decide - Productivity Tips
Add to : Del.Icio.Us / Reddit / Digg / Stumble Upon
I read a post over at antbag.com titled work-life balance, and Anthonys’ post got me thinking about how is it possible to achieve balance between work and our personal life and also increase our productivity. It’s all a result of the choices we make, i guess. The decisions we make, on a personal level, in our daily life or routine dictates, in some ways, how our profesionnal life will be like.
Remember, choices we make are usually made long before we decide. It’s “embeded” in our brains. Just like someone whos on a diet, and really wanna loose weight… offer this person a piece of cake or some sugar-ish stuff, and he/she will most likely say “no thanx“. Why? cause that person decided to loose weight long before you offered him/her that chocolate cake, or apple pie. So he/she didn’t have to choose, the choice was already made long ago.
Of course many of the daily decisions we’ll make will be no-brainers, and we’ll simply decide this or that because of society or because of our education, or cause of needs. The most important choices are usually the ones we’re having a hard time with. Especially when we have to make personal choices that can change things in our profesionnal life and/or relationships.
So here’s my list of choices and decisions i make (or made a long time ago) that helps me better my personal and profesionnal life and be more productive.
No Procrastination
Well, that could be included in the “no-brainers” list, but also in the “hard to make choices” list. To make your life easier and get things done, either on a personal level or in a profesionnal situation, procrastinating is definitely something you don’t want to do. Though it can be hard to not procrastinate, it will help both your personal and profesionnal life. So if i decide i have to do “this“, i just do it. (it’s cliché, but it works.)
Early Is On Time, On Time Is Late
Always try your best to be on time. Of course sometimes stuff happens that gets in the way, it’s normal, but if you choose to be on time (or early) all the time, both your personal and profesionnal life will benefit. If you’re late on some work, well sure your personal life will suffer a little, cause you have to get some work done in order to have the time to enjoy your “personal life“. Or at least find ways to have more personal time, by working smarter, not harder.
Choose To Be Successful
This is definitely not an easy choice to make, but if you “decide” you can do this and that, and that you “can” be successful at something. Not much can stop you from achieving your goals. The decision you make (to be successful) will most likely drive you to take action, and do what needs to be done. It all starts with our thoughts. If i’m passionate and driven enough, and if i decide i want to do this or that, i can, like Derrick Sorles, easily run on adrenaline all day
Doesn’t Matter If You Fail
Even if you make the best decisions, and always try to do everything perfect, and apply every single productivity tips you can think of or read on the net. You’ll most likely make mistakes, and it’s a good thing! Making no mistakes means not learning. Every single time i make a mistake i learn something new. What about you?
Whatever you decide, your choices are just as important as the results.
For me, being productive means making decisions (hopefully the right ones), decide on a goal, stick to it, and work my way there till i reach my goal. Of course taking some risks is also something i enjoy, and usually the rewards are way more interesting than if you stay in a “safe zone”.
What does it mean to you? What are your own productivity tips?
If you’d like to participate in this group writing experiment, head over to Instigator Blog, and check out Bens’ posts about the ultimate guide to productivity, already a lot of people have joined this group writing project. I think this is probably the best meme ever! Also check out other bloggers’ post, and find out what their best productivity tips are!
If you’re reading this, you can consider yourself tagged :)
Add to : Del.Icio.Us / Reddit / Digg / Stumble Upon
Hey Jonathan,
Thanks for including my article. I’ve been following the productivity posts at the Instigator Blog as well, but haven’t quite got my tips put together yet…..not very productive, huh?
Anyway, this is a great post with lots of great tips and useful info. I’ll see ya on the Blog Catalog Discussion Forum.
Hey Anthony! You’re very welcome my friend!
Hehe, i’ll be checking your blog for your productivity post! Looking foward to reading what your tips are! Best way to write this is to start writing (and edit after), that’s what i usually do, it helps get my thoughts together.
See ya on BC :)
Excellent post mate. Personally I know most of the things I need to do to be more productive, but the big question is do I follow them.
Procrastination is a killer, spending more time on things which are of lesser importance is another. On time is on time for me, being early is like I have nothing better to do.
Sure it doesn’t matter if you fail, better than not having tried at all. The key is for me to be focussed, never lose focus of your objective and you will be there.
As far as blogging goes, last month I had made an objective of making 300 post in the next ten months and so far I am on objective, so if I stay focussed ill be there, pretty encouraging post mate.
Take care and Cheers
Hey Robin,
Procrastination is definitely a killer, you’re right mate, gotta stay focused, and if you fail, you learn so there’s always a positive outcome.
300 posts in 10 months is certainly doable, 1 post a day, just gotta take one day at a time :)
Great tips, Jonathan! I will step up to the plate and write a post with my own productivity tips.
Have a great evening! :)
Hi Tish! it’s always nice to see you on here! Cool, i’m looking foward to reading that post!
And i definitely had a great evening! :)
In the name of productivity I’ll keep this short …
Clear your head. Set goals. Define specific actions to reach them. Take action. :)
Hey Shane, keeping it short, great idea, and great tips too, no matter what we do, no matter what we want, gotta take action :)
Jonathan,
Came here from your post at the Instigator Blog. Enjoyed it much.
I couldn’t agree more that balance, and productivity, are results of our choices.
Not to go too deep here, but it was eloquently summarized by Albert Camus when he said: “Life is the sum of all your choices.”
Hi David, welcome to SmartWealthyRich, please make yourself at home!
Nice quote from Albert Camus, i like it a lot! I like this one also “The only real progress lies in learning to be wrong all alone. ”
Thanx again for replying! :) Take care
I am experiencing deja vu. Oh no wonder, I had read Alister Camerons post that is part of this writing series, also a good read as well.
Procrastination would be one of my biggest hurdles to get across. The power of choice I really believe is underestimated. Thanks I will consider myself to be tagged.
[…] Choices Are Made Long Before You Decide - Productivity Tips by Jonathan […]
Hi Adam! Alister Camerons’ post is such a good read, really an in depth full article.
Procrastination in indeed something a lot of people struggle with, i’m no exception, just gotta give our best. Looking foward to reading your post! :)
I find it almost impossible not to procrastinate; it is definitely my biggest productivity killer. No matter what I try I can never seem to get rid of it!
- Martin Reed
Hi Martin, it sure is hard not to procrastinate. I found that by writing that very post it helped me get my thoughts together, honestly try it out, you might find what is keeping you from not procrastinating! never know :)
[…] that I encountered was Alister Cameron’s awesome post but then I came upon a similar post on SmartWealthyrich.com, which is a very positive blog with a lot of potential that said that if I was reading this post, […]
Adam, thanx for the link! Nice productivity post you wrote! ;)
[…] read a post at SmartWealthyRich.com about choices you make affecting your future productivity. He compares this theory to dieting in […]
[…] by chattiekat on May 3rd, 2007 I just read a post by Jonathan Phillips in which he discusses some of his favorite productivity tips. He put together some great […]
Hi Johnthan, I thought you have some keen insights for productivity so I selected yours to include in my productivity post for Ben’s meme. Thumbs up for a nice site and thoughtful posts.
Hi Robyn, thank you very very much, it’s greatly appreciated! :)
By the way i tried leaving a comment on your post, but seems like the blogger comment service thingy is down, i’ll try again a little later.
[…] stuff (also check out “Work-Life Balance” by Anthony Baggett, and also my “Choices Are Made Long Before You Decide” post i wrote not so long ago). You probably had to deal with jerks (for lack of better […]
[…] Choices Are Made Long Before You Decide - Productivity Tips by Jonathan […]
[…] for a Productivity Meme after reading about the Meme from Alister Cameron and Johnathon’s Productivity Post on SmartWealthyRich.com. Will need to rewrite this post in the near future, as I intended it to be […]
[…] Choices Are Made Long Before You Decide - Productivity Tips by Jonathan […]
[…] every single blog out there has a post on productivity and on goal setting. Ok I’m exaggerating a little, but still a lot of people are writing […]
Thumbs up for great post! (and diggs, too :)
Hey thanx a lot, and welcome! :)
[…] group writing projects, memes and tag games. I really like group writing projects, like the Ultime Guide To Productivity that Ben from Instigator Blog started some time ago. But I’m not a huge fan of memes, […]