That means figuring out better ways to maximize your effectiveness on the job. You have to figure out your strengths and put them to use whenever and wherever possible. You need to get results in an efficient manner.

Stress Management

You also need to make sure that you practice stress management and keep and your mind clear, so you can think on your feet and stay sharp. This may seem like a tall order, but if you follow the tips set forth here, you’ll find you can increase your effectiveness before you know it.

Identify Strengths And Weaknesses

First and foremost, you need to identify your work-related strengths and weaknesses. These can be both big and small. Are you really good at coming up with new ideas to solve problems? Do you have a knack for making great visuals for presentations? Is there room for improvement when it comes to staying organized? Are you great with emails but tongue-tied on the phone?

Once you figure out what you’re good at, you can start brainstorming ways to utilize those skills wherever possible. You might be surprised to discover that there are other areas of your job that can benefit from your talents.

Likewise, if you understand your weaknesses, you can try to improve upon them. Seek out a coworker who is really good at something you need to improve in, and ask for their advice. Look to your boss or another trusted senior staffer as an example and mentor. If you flatter them by telling them you admire the way they do something, they’ll be happy to give you some tips.

Be More Productive

Once you’ve worked on your strengths and weaknesses, you need to figure out how to maximize your time and work more efficiently. Utilize email reminders and your calendar to keep you on track with meetings and deadlines. If your work load starts to get out of control, figure out what work can be delegated to reliable coworkers who have some extra time on their hands. Make sure to promise them that you’ll return the favor, and follow through with that promise.

Never underestimate the power of teamwork if a project is too big for you. Better to share part of the credit with another coworker on a successfully executed piece of work than to take full credit for a poorly done job because you got in over your head.

Another way to maximize your time is to figure out what parts of the day you are typically more productive. Do you do your best work first thing in the morning, or a couple of hours after lunch? Schedule your work to coincide with your particular power time, so that you work on the most intense, difficult projects during those hours when you’re at the top of your game.

Remember To Relax

Keeping yourself alert and on point is also important. Take brief breaks, in ten or fifteen minute chunks, every couple of hours. That will help your mind stay fresh and sharp, and keep your eyes from getting fatigued from staring at the computer screen for too long. Taking a walk around the block or to another part of the building will get your blood flowing and keep you energized. That will definitely help the quality of your work. It might even put you in a better mood, which your coworkers will certainly appreciate.

Combine a strong work ethic with smart, strategic planning and these tactics, and there just might be a promotion-related meeting with your boss in the not-so-distant future.

Finding the right organizational tools takes a lot of time and effort, but here are some great tools that can help you get started organizing your business, school tasks, home remodel or anything else in your life that needs organizing!

Click here to view the embedded video.

5pm

5pm is an excellent scheduling tool that by far surpasses the other scheduling tools available. 5pm is a low cost website that offers an interactive scheduling interface that you can share with others, allowing you to view and edit different tasks for yourself and anyone else you have working with you. You can access your 5pm schedule from anywhere - not just at home or work.

Other popular alternatives to 5pm, including Basecamp and Zoho Projects just didn’t measure up to what you can do with 5pm project management.

Google Calendar

The creative geniuses behind Google have created a free, online calendar that you can use and access from anywhere as well as share with others. You can have multiple calendars and multiple people working on the same calendar, so everyone knows what’s going on and when.

Google Docs

Another great inception from Google is their Google Docs application. Similar to Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, you can create both documents and spreadsheets to share with others.  You can access your documents from anywhere, and you can even have multiple people viewing and editing the same document. There is also a chat box within the document that allows you to have a real time conversation with anyone who is viewing or editing the document.

Mozy

Mozy is an excellent tool to use if you have a lot of information on your computer that needs to be backed up on a daily basis. For just $5/mo per computer, you can have Mozy automatically back up your files each night on an offsite server, so you know your information is safe no matter what happens.

We checked out the popular alternatives, including Carbonite and Dropbox, but in the end the simplicity of Mozy for “brain-dead simple backups that just works” won us over. And after a few months we’ve very happy with our decision.

YouSendIt

Sending files to people via email can be difficult, especially if the files are quite large. Uploading it using a free email service such as Yahoo or Hotmail is even harder. YouSendIt is an inexpensive online application that allows you to send files to other people quickly and easily, no matter what the file size.

Earth Class Mail

Earth Class Mail is an online service, much like a P.O. box, that will take your physical paper mail, scan it in and let you access it electronically – with an interface that looks a lot like email. You never have to deal with letters, post cards or the like again. You can access your mail from anywhere, and for a fee they’ll even deposit checks directly to your bank. Earth Class Mail is an excellent option for doctors, lawyers, home business professionals or anyone that just wants to go paperless.

Even if you’re not looking to replace your mailbox with a digital alternative… if you have your own business and don’t necessarily want your home address available to everyone, consider using a service like Earth Class Mail for your public mailing address.

Pandora

With all of the organizing you’re doing, you might want to kick back and relax a bit with some tunes. Pandora is a great option for Internet radio, allowing you to build your own musical selection by choosing songs that you like while Pandora loads in musically similar songs. Feel free to let Pandora know if there’s a song you don’t like, and they won’t play it again. The more you listen to Pandora and interact with it, the more customized your own personal Internet radio station becomes.

Well, not even touching on the fact that people are simply spending too much time working – hence the need for the productivity magic – let’s agree that an increase in productivity is something that many people can benefit from. That being the case, what happens when those attempts at legendary productivity get out of control?

The thing to realize when it comes to getting things done is that getting things done is the entire point of the exercise! Talking about it, writing about it, keeping records on it, etc., are all very effective ways to do one thing:

Waste the very time that you are supposed to be saving!

1) Overuse of Productivity Software

It doesn’t take the first hour or two of your day to ring all the bells and blow all the whistles on your ultra high-tech productivity software package. In fact, if you are using more than about 20 or 30 minutes of your day to just get ready for your day, that seems a bit counter-productive to me…

2) Talking about Your Goals too Much

Talk is cheap, and actions speak louder than words. Tell people about your goals? Absolutely! Get excited and passionate about your goals? Yep! Spend an inordinate amount of time talking about how great it is all going to be when you should be out there taking action? No.

3) Making a To-Do List

For some reason people seem to think that writing down a massive list of things to get done every day is a good idea, even though they know there is a very real chance that they won’t get it all done. Doing so simply reinforces a lack of confidence in our ability to get the job done, and we end up worse off than we were before. Instead of making a “to-do” list, make a prioritized list of things that you would like to get done. Keep it realistic, and don’t move on to the second thing on your list until the first one is complete.

4) Doggedly Sticking to Your Plan

Here’s a shocker: Your life is not always going to go according to plan! When things end up unfolding in an unexpected way, you can either:

• Panic and accomplish very little (if not actually making the situation worse), or
• You can roll with the punches and find a way to get things done in spite of the unexpected circumstances.

One of those choices equals productivity, one of them equals frustration and stress.

5) Always Looking for a Better Way

How does that old saying go? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Just because some high-powered author, speaker, or productivity guru got you all jacked up about some new-fangled system of super-charging your life, you are under absolutely no obligation to actually use it. If your present system works, then keep it! Change is not always necessary.

6) Getting Too Much Sleep

According to pretty much anybody that you ask, getting at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep is recommended. Well, you know what? Not everyone needs 7 or 8 hours of sleep! You’ve been living with your body for how long now? You should know by now how much sleep you need to get in order to function at peak capacity. Get that much sleep, and do something else with the rest of those hours; it doesn’t matter what the so-called “experts” say.

7) Following Practices that You Really don’t Believe In

Just because Suzi’s brother knew a girl whose nephew had a friend with a sister that was married to a guy whose cousin knew a Zen Monk who swore by 4 hours of meditation per day does not mean that YOU should be doing it! Embrace productivity practices that resonate with you personally, and drop the rest.

8) Avoiding Email and Necessary Contacts

Anyone who has read the book The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris is jumping for joy because apparently it is okay for them to drastically limit their exposure to email or to other time-draining conversations with other people. Here’s a newsflash: If you have an Internet-based business, or your customers are very Internet-savvy, you are going to need to read your email frequently. Notice the word “frequent” and not the word “constant”. It’s a critical distinction, and a line that you may need to learn to walk.

9) Constantly Questioning Why

Many people – myself included – will tell you to take nothing at face value, and to question the very foundations of your existence, not to mention questioning the rules of society. However, that being said, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel every single day. Some systems are in place for a reason, and some are a complete waste of time. Question the irrelevant or inappropriate systems, but don’t waste time undermining the stability of systems or philosophies that actually work.

10) Excessive Delegation of Responsibility

This is another one that you 4-Hour Workweek fans will recognize – delegating responsibility to other people in order to free up your time. It’s a superb idea, and I back up Tim Ferris 100% on the concept. However, don’t lose sight of the fact that your role in your company, your business, your home, etc., IS your role, at least right now. If you’re not careful, you could delegate yourself right out of being an important part of your own lifestyle!

Here’s the truth: A lot of people spend a lot of time in an environment or a state of mind that is far from conducive to their own success, then they sit around wondering why they aren’t successful!

Our lives are constantly throwing different types of circumstances at us that may or may not be to our liking, yet rather than changing the circumstances so that we are in a comfortable resonance, we simply put our head down, try to plow through undesirable situations, and then wonder why our results are less than stellar.

If you want to be successful in life, you need to stay in a state of mind that creates an emotional resonance with what you are doing.

There is a common misconception that simply working harder will allow you to achieve more results. However, even though a more concerted effort will net more results, you are still swimming against the current unless you can find a way to do your work in a manner that pleases you.

You will accomplish far more in an hour of hard work when you are “in the groove” than that same hour of hard work whenever you are unable enjoy your work or to stay focused on your tasks.

Ask yourself the who, what, why, when, and where questions about your environment, and make any changes necessary so that the answers to those questions will create an environment that allows you to work easily and effortlessly.

WHO: Who are you doing the work for?

If you are working for an employer, the obvious answer would be that you are doing the work for them. However, that is totally false.

You chose to work there, and you continue to choose to remain there day after day. You keep that job because it brings you something that you want, not something that your employer wants. By realizing that your job is something that you have for yourself, one of two things will happen:

• You will start to enjoy your work more because you realize that you go to that job every day because you choose to, or
• You will realize that you are unable to enjoy the fact that you are working for someone else, and you will find a way to make your own money.

WHAT: What are you doing?

Did you ever stop to think about that? Oh sure, there are plenty of tasks in front of you that need to be accomplished, but do you ever stop to think about what it is that you are actually working towards?

Do you even care about the big picture that is related to whatever it is that you are working towards? For that matter, do you even know what you are working towards, or are you just mindlessly doing the work without really thinking about what it is that you are trying to accomplish in the long-term?

If you are aware of and actually care about the results of your efforts, then you will resonate with the work that is required to attain those results. Whether the outcome in question is weight loss, child rearing, or corporate minutia, knowing what you are working towards gives you the opportunity to decide if you care enough about it to actually enjoy the work.

WHY: Once you know what it is that you are doing, now it is time to ask yourself why you are doing it to begin with.

This is the tricky part that trips a lot of people up.

Your “why” reasons are almost never what you think they are at first. Most “why” reasons go much deeper than the surface answers that come to mind when people ask themselves why they are doing any particular thing.

People who want to lose weight tend to cite reasons such as looking good in a bikini, being healthy, having more energy, etc. However, by digging deeper, reasons such as low self-esteem, lack of confidence, bad past experiences, etc., are usually the real “why” reasons.

Most people who are looking for financial success will cite reasons such wanting a nice house, a secure future for their family, a sense of accomplishment, etc. However, when it comes down to it, a lot of people are actually battling self-limiting beliefs about money, they are looking for the freedom that money can buy, they want to prove to themselves or others that they can do it, etc.

Trying to get a nice house, a nice car, or a large college fund for your children is not nearly as motivational as knowing why you truly want those things.

WHEN: This is Goal Setting 101: When do you want to accomplish your goal by?

Even if you work for someone else, you need to have a target date for whenever you want to accomplish some very specific goal. Maybe it is to reach a certain level in the company, maybe it is a certain sales goal, or maybe it is a salary level that you are after. Either way, if you leave the target date open to “some point in the future,” there will never be the sense of urgency that is needed in order to push yourself hard to accomplish your goal by that certain date.

If you own your own business or have some other self-employed status, when do you want to attain a certain level of security? When will your business be solid enough to allow you more time for yourself? When will you be able to start delegating work to others?

Again, the idea here is not to set up some mindless productivity calendar, but rather to motivate yourself to succeed by knowing when it is that you want to accomplish your goal. By working towards a goal that you have personally set for yourself, you will enjoy the work because you are doing it for you, not for someone else.

WHERE: Your work environment can play a huge role in the emotional state that you have whenever you are working on your tasks.

If you do not enjoy being in your work environment, it will be very difficult for you to remain mentally sharp, to enjoy your work, and to keep up a high level of productivity.

If you work for someone else, then do everything that you are allowed to do in order to make your environment an enjoyable place for you to spend a lot of your time. This could include any or all of the following: decorate your environment, put up motivational reminders where you will see them frequently, make the environment physically comfortable with proper furnishings and accessories, play music that helps you to focus on your work.

If you work for yourself at home or in an office, then use the freedom that self-employment brings and pull out all the stops in order to make your work environment exactly what you want to be. Also, if you work at home, be sure to keep your work environment separate from the rest of the house. That is your space – keep it free from the negative or stressful vibrations that sometimes permeate other areas of the house.

Also, if you work on a laptop computer, don’t be afraid to simply leave any environment that does not resonate with you. If you are more comfortable working in a local coffee shop, at the library, or outside on your deck, then go there! Don’t feel that in order to run a professional business that you must work in an office. Your professionalism will come from you working in your natural state of flow, not from sitting in an office that makes you uncomfortable.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line to maximizing your productivity is that you need to remain in an environment and a state of mind that you actually enjoy being in – your own personal circle of Light.

Ask yourself the who, what, why, when, and where questions about your working circumstances, and find answers that resonate with you. If you fail to do so, you’ll just keep swimming upstream, fighting the current rather than letting it carry you easily along.