This world is obviously filled with so much activities, ranging from productive to unproductive ventures. At the beginning of the year, a lot of resolutions, goals and aspirations are written down to be achieved in the new year. Some serious minded people have outlined good books to be read, seminar and conferences to attend, online courses to attempt, innovations to effect at work, trainings to attend and a whole lot of things to be achieved, but all these will obviously become a mirage if each week of the year is not productive. A lot of people plan to have a productive week by obviously cannot because of a lot of factors beyond them, however, to have a productive week, you must be deliberate and intentional about it, because it won’t just happen.

Recently, an employee had a long list of what he intends to achieve for that week, he was enthusiastic and poised to achieve all what he penned down and also to make a difference in the organization. But at the end of the week, he felt totally unfulfilled and dissatisfied with himself because he didn’t achieve his goals for that week, in order words, he had an unproductive week. So he had a critical analysis on the reasons for this. From these analysis, he discovered that

  • He Lacked discipline to follow through his goals
  • He allowed Distractions from Social media
  • He Lack of organization
  • There were no priorities
  • He was a big fan of sleep
  • The Wrong associations took over his ability to follow through his goals. He had friends who take pleasure in chatting away time when urgent jobs are begging for attention, so he was carried away till the week ran out without achieving something worthwhile.

Please understand that having a productive week is a not an easy task as you have to jettison all forms of distractions.

A lot of things begging for our attention. From families to friends to career to conferences, and ceremonies- all competing for our time.

The advent of social media has been one of the biggest distractions for loads of people. A lot of things online appealing to the eyes. A peep into social media can take away hours from the time you are supposed to use for something profitable. However, professionals and intellectually sound people have found a way to deploy this same social media to their advantage for productivity.

As professionals, having a productive week is indeed non-negotiable. You can never attain that incredible height of professionalism if you don’t master the art and ways of making your week profitable. The combination of activities you carry out daily contributes to how profitable the week will be.

Below are the 10 ways to make your week productive.

  1. Plan and Prepare to be productive. Before the week begins, you need to be resolute on the fact that you want the coming week to be a productive one. In view of this, you must be pragmatic by making sure you put things in place, cut down on your unproductive ventures of the previous week that has caused a set-back and also plan to avoid people who don’t take productivity as a priority, but engage in less productive ventures.

To make your week a productive one, you must really plan and prepare for it.

  1. Make a list of your to-do. The first step to being productive is to have a comprehensive list of all you intend to do for that week. Obviously, with numerous activities prevalent (productive and non-productive), it is however possible for you to omit some important activity to be done. Hence, writing a to-do list is highly imperative and important in order to achieve maximum productivity.
  2. Prioritize. Priority is key in achieving what you intend to achieve in all facet. Having a list of what you intend to achieve doesn’t not guarantee achievements of all your goals and plans until you prioritize. You need to begin with activities according to order of importance. By reason of how easy unplanned activities can show up impromptu, hence, you need to attend to pressing and important issues first so as to be productive and to achieve a lot before the week runs out.
  3. Discipline. One of the hallmarks of an incredible achiever is Discipline. It takes a disciplined mind to shun distractions and to remain focused. You can only achieve much with the time you have if you are focused, committed and determined to achieve your set goals and proposed activity for maximum productivity.

At work place, some colleagues may engage in unprofitable activities that can easily make you lose focus on your task, that is why discipline is needed to keep you on track, not deviating.

Learn to say ‘NO’’. You can never be a productive individual if you are a ‘Yes’ kind of person. You must learn to say NO to activities or things that is capable of distracting you from your goals for the week. Learn to say No to people who wants to cloud your day and infuse their own activity to cloud yours.

  1. Accomplish Urgent Task. There are tasks that are indeed very urgent and must be urgently attended to. These are tasks that postponement and procrastinations can’t work for, otherwise, a lot of things will go wrong. Attend to these urgent tasks and accomplish the tasks as soon as possible. For a productive individual, majority of his/her task is highly productive in nature and result oriented, hence, there’s no time for frivolities.

Don’t only begin the task, work assiduously to accomplish that task because starting a task does not guarantee productivity but accomplishing.

  1. Set a deadline. Setting a deadline for tasks is as important as getting it done. Setting a deadline is key to achieving a tasks, it also helps individuals achieve his/her goal with the shortest time. Whatever you intend to get done should be time bound. Set deadline.
  2. Associate with productive people. Eagles never fellowship with the Chickens. Eagles associates with their kind. An eagle that fellowships with the chicken will suddenly forget how to fly. In the same vein, a productive individual who fellowships or associates with a mediocre or unproductive people, will suddenly become less productive. He/ she will suddenly engage in activities leading nowhere. A zealous, exceptional worker will suddenly become a talkative, laidback, procrastinating individual who now takes pleasure in chatting, browsing unproductive sites even when urgent tasks are begging for attention. Billionaires who had the privilege to own great companies like Apple, General motors, Microsoft, Amazon, KPMG, Dangote, PWC, etc. have always associated with productive and successful people who have the capacity to help them achieve a lot in the shortest possible time.

The day you determine to jettison unproductive people and decide to associate with highly productive people, that’s the day you will begin to experience productivity.

  1. Be committed to productivity. Make productivity non-negotiable. Commitment is an essential ingredient to achieving something worthwhile. You need to give it all it takes to be productive. You must be so committed to the fact that every seconds, every minute, every hour, every day, every week, you must achieve nothing less than maximum productivity. Be committed to paying the price of smart work on your everyday activities- this will however culminate into maximum productivity.
  2. Review your tasks and achievement at the end of each day. This is key for reviewing what has been done, what is left undone, and planning on what should be done the next day.
  3. Be a man of action. Having a productive day and week can never be achieved if you are not a man of action. In addition to all your numerous goals, you need to work so hard to make your week productive.

Work assiduously with the above tips to make your week a productive one.

Olaoluwa Olajide

McTimothy Associates