The 7 Steps to Doubling the Performance of Your Employees

There are seven steps you can take every day to increase your employee's productivity, performance and output. These seven steps, practiced until they become ingrained habits of thought and action, will enable you and your employees to double productivity, increase your income, and move ahead faster than almost any other things you can do.

Step One: Set clear, specific, written goals for each important area of your life. Make them measurable and time bounded, with deadlines and sub-deadlines. Make plans for their accomplishment and work on your key goals every day.

Step Two: Think on paper. Make a list of activities for each day, before you begin. The best time to make a list is the night before, the last thing before you end the workday, or before you go to bed at night. This allows your subconscious mind to work on your list as you sleep, often giving you ideas and insights for greater accomplishment when you wake up.

Step Three: Set priorities on your list before you begin. Apply the 80/20 Rule and select the top 20% of your tasks to work on.

Use the ABCDE Method as well. Go over your list and write an A next to your most important tasks. Write a B next to your second most important tasks. Write a C next to your unimportant tasks. Write a D next to tasks that you can delegate, and an E next to tasks that you can eliminate. Do this before you begin working.

If you have more than one A task, organize them as A-1, A-2, A-3, and so on. Do the same with your B tasks. The rule is that you never do a B or C task if there is an A task still not completed.

Step Four: Practice creative procrastination on your list, and in your work. Since you are never going to be able to do everything on your list, you are going to have to procrastinate on some tasks. Decide in advance to procrastinate on those tasks of little value or importance. Otherwise, you will unconsciously find yourself procrastinating on tasks that can make a real difference in your life.

Step Five: Select your most important task, your “A-1,” and discipline yourself to start on that job first thing when you begin work. This task is often worth more than many, if not all, of the other items on your list.

Step Six: Practice single-handling with your most important task. Once you have started work on it, resolve to work at it non-stop until it is complete. Concentrate 100% on the one job that represents the most valuable use of your time. Discipline yourself to persist without diversion or distraction until it is done.

Step Seven: Develop a sense of urgency, a bias for action. Move quickly at your work, and throughout the day. Pick up the pace. Develop a faster tempo in everything you do. Get going and keep going quickly.

The faster you move, the more work you get done, and the better you feel. The more you do, the faster you learn and the better you get. The faster you move, the better you get, and the more you get done, the greater will the contribution you make, the more you will get paid, and the faster you will be promoted. By moving faster, you will put your whole life and career onto the fast track.