Some of the world's most successful people make getting more done in less time look so easy.
But as many of us common folk know all too well, the path to productivity often feels like a never-ending journey.
Thankfully, LinkedIn recently asked the top minds in business to reflect on their tricks for getting it all done as part of its #ProductivityHacks series.
Here's what Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, and five other super-successful people had to say.
SEE ALSO: 8 TED talks that can help you become insanely productive
Richard Branson: Be committed to punctuality.
"If you want to be more productive, then start at the start: get there on time,"the Virgin Group founder writes on LinkedIn.
Branson says being punctual is both a sign of respect to others and has helped prevent him from falling hopelessly behind on the rest of his day for more than five decades.
"Being punctual doesn't mean rushing around the whole time," he explains. "I always find the time to exercise — kitesurfing, tennis, or cycling — and to spend time with my loved ones. It simply means organizing your time effectively."
Of course, things like traffic can't be helped, but even then, Branson says he'll do whatever it takes to get where he's going on time.
He recalls being stuck in Manhattan traffic a few years ago on his way to a live Fox News interview: "As I peered out of the car window into the immobile queues, I jumped out of the front seat and sprinted down Sixth Avenue. I spotted the Fox sign, hopped across the lobby, and began banging on the window. I made it with a minute to spare."
Being on time doesn't mean your schedule needs to be rigid, he says. "It means being an effective delegator, organizer, and communicator," he writes.
Read his full post here.
Tony Robbins: Ditch your to-do list.
"The biggest problem with to-do lists is that focusing only on what you need to get done does not guarantee that you’re actually making any real progress,"the author and motivational speaker writes.
"To-do lists can keep you busy, of course, and there is a certain sense of satisfaction you get from checking off a series of tasks. But have you ever crossed off everything on your list and still felt like you had not really accomplished anything?"
Instead, Robbins suggests shifting your thinking by focusing on the key results that are most important in your life rather than an activity or to-do list.
"You have to get crystal clear about what it is that you want," Robbins writes. "The clearer you are about what it is you want, the easier it is to achieve it, because then you can design all of your activity around making progress toward achieving it."
Next, Robbins says you need to figure out the reason you want to achieve this result. "If you’ve got a strong enough reason and a strong enough purpose, you will find a way to pull it off," he writes.
With these in place, Robbins says you can now develop your Massive Action Plan, or MAP. "Your MAP is simply the specific steps, or actions, you need to take in order to achieve your result." And if one set of actions doesn't work, then another will, he says.
Read his full post here.
Neil Blumenthal: Banish bad meetings.
"Given that meetings dominate the modern office schedule — particularly among executives — my No. 1 productivity hack is all about making meetings as purposeful, efficient, and productive as possible. For everyone involved," writes the Warby Parker cofounder and co-CEO.
Blumenthal says he averages about 15 meetings per 11-hour day, logging miles racing from one conference room to the next.
He says that last year, he and cofounder Dave Gilboa noticed Warby Parker's meetings weren't the most efficient, and so the two organized a month-long company-wide overhaul of meeting protocol.
"We adopted a mascot — the Meeting Meerkat — and drew a picture of this furry creature on the whiteboard of every conference room as a reminder of the new rules. (We chose the meerkat for three reasons: meerkats function in groups, they communicate constantly, and they are cute)," he writes.
Warby Parker's new meeting rules are simple:
1. No more update meetings — only decision meetings.
2. Relevant information must be shared with meeting attendees in advance.
3. Everyone must do their homework before entering the conference room.
4. No devices.
"Anyone caught checking Instagram on their phone will be sentenced to six hours cleaning the office microwave with a Q-tip," Blumenthal jokes.
"We've found that all of the above practices ensure that team members (including me!) spend meeting time actually engaging our brains rather than 'getting on the same page' — which, after all, should be a prerequisite of any meeting, and not a result," he writes.
Read his full post here.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider