How To Focus On The Outputs That Matter

When we think about productivity, we think about getting work done, moving towards a target or a quota, focusing on what is bringing in the money whether that is in our business or in our nine to five jobs.

But what if I was to say that eighty percent of the results you will get will come from only twenty percent of the activities you do.

And when you focus on the twenty percent your results will skyrocket.

Sounds unbelievable but it is true. But I am not here to say that you need to spend eighty percent of your workday doing only twenty percent of the activities, because that would just not work.

Instead in this blog, I will be explaining how you can get ahead by just finding a couple of areas that you need to focus on.

The Basics:

Okay, so you are probably wondering what I am talking about. Well, I am talking about your Primary Field of Interest (PFI).

This is what will get you to your next level. Whether that be in business, or whether that be in your job.

You have to ask yourself:

What is my next goal?

Now that could be to get that promotion, it could be to release a book, it could be literally one of a hundred things. But you need to make that decision.

Once you know what that is, you need to focus on finding out what your PFI is.

This can be done in an umber of ways.

We will first look at your 9–5 Job.

Promotion:

The easiest way to move forward is to ask those above you how did they get to their position.

Now they may not answer, they may be a-holes who do not want you to succeed, and that is fine because there are other ways to look forward.

Instead of directly asking find out what does that position does.

Let us just say, for example, it is moving up to a coordinator job. Then you may have to be able to lead others. You may need to develop a specialty in one sector.

Let us say it is a senior manager’s job. The answer may lie solely in leadership and hitting your quota.

It may be that you need to mentor someone first.

Either way, you need to find out. Once you have found out you can then start to increase the outputs that matter.

If that is leadership, you may put yourself up for managing a new project, you may start helping others around you improve. You may take a couple of courses on leadership. It becomes easy for you to see where you need to be going.

In Your Business:

What matters here I think is more simple.

Lead Generation

Visibility

Your brand needs to be visible to attract clients, whether you decide to use an organic strategy or whether you decide to use paid ads.

Without lead generation, you will fall foul of getting a positive cash flow into your business.

When you begin to increase these outputs, whether that be blogging or social media, you then have the power to start acting upon that.

Why Is This So Important:

You can spend days wasting your time on those tasks that do not matter, if you want to be an author then you need to increase the amount of time you spend writing. If you want to be a thought leader, then you need to spend your time building up your social media presence as well as engaging.

When we do not know the outputs that will move us forward we have to spend more time on the tasks that will not get us anywhere, in doing so, we waste away part of our life.

So instead of wasting time why not simplify the process?

Questions To Ask Yourself:

The Outputs That Matter Most To Me And My Career/Business Are…

You need to write down two lists here, one for your personal life, so this is most likely include learning a new skill, like playing golf, or origami.

The second list is what you need to be focusing on inside of the workplace.

Ask yourself the following questions:

Where Do I Want To Be This Time Next Year?

What Are The Qualities That I Need To Be Able To Do That?

What Do I Have To Be Ale To Show In Order To Get To That Position?

Somethings I Could Stop Doing So I Can Focus On My Primary Field Outputs Are…

What are the tasks that you are currently doing that you do not need to be doing that you can delegate to someone else?

The question here is:

Will this task lead to me moving towards my goal, or is this a task that I should give to someone else?

The Percentage Of My Weekly Time That I Will Spend On My PFO Is…

This is the really important one.

How much time are you going to block out in your calendar to focus on these areas? It could be a small chunk of time if your job description has a lot of admin in. It may be that you can only focus when you are at home because of the job you do.

That is okay.

As long as you are setting time away blocked in your calendar to focus on these areas that are more than good enough.

After all, we all have jobs that we need to get done.

What is more important is that you stick to the times. If it is blocked out for your study, then you must study at that time.

Conclusion:

Focusing on the outputs that matter will make a massive difference in your life both personally and professionally.

Our lives are short and instead of asking how we can be more productive? We should be asking which outputs we need to focus on in order to become productive.

Until tomorrow this has been your coach Andy