Tips to Increase Productivity- Three Things to Do Today to Ensure You Have a Successful Week

This year will only be different if you make it different. Plan well. Plan weekly.

As mentioned in my blog post last week, my anchor scripture is taken from Luke 14:28 NIV, Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?

Wearing:

Bed Bath & BeyondBlack Fleece Robe, Rae Dunn MBA mug

The Lord revealed to me that in 2021, if it’s going to be everything I want it to be and more, it’s going to be a year that I spend more time planning than I do doing. Truth is I’m no longer in a rush to accomplish anything. While I have great expectations to accomplish much, I refuse to do anything without the holy seal of approval from the Lord Almighty. And whatever He gives me the green light to do, will also require much planning to execute with excellence. But not only will it require much planning, it will require the Holy Spirit- the Spirit that gives men the ability to exude excellence.

So my first suggestion to you when anticipating a productive week ahead is to acknowledge ,then seek the face of God through prayer.

Prayer

If you’re like me and have been on vacation for some time during the holidays, then perhaps you may be a little overwhelmed with the thought of returning back to work today. Maybe you weren’t on vacation, but Mondays just bring you overwhelming feelings about the work ahead. I encourage you to commit the day and week ahead in prayer. If you’re reading this late into the day, just know it’s not too late to take time to pray. Stand on the below scriptures and make declarations that this will be your most productive week ever; and that it will shape the course of your year.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” – Matthew 6: 25

“…and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.” – 2 Timothy 1: 12

Planning

It behooves you to plan what you’d like to complete and accomplish in this week. Truth is, we get overwhelmed with all that we have to accomplish because we don’t know where to start. If you make a list and organize it based on priority, you will find that you are able to accomplish more. In business school many years ago I learned about Stephen Covey’s four quadrant system. With this system, you write out the tasks you need to complete and organize it into four quadrants. Here is an example below:

Prioritizing

The last thing to do to ensure a successful week, be sure to prioritize. There may be things that you want to do but it isn’t as important as other pressing responsibilities. Resist the urge and temptation to give priority to meaningless things. The conversations can wait. Social media can wait. All those meaningless things that consume and waste time can wait. They belong in quadrant four so don’t address them until you address more pressing issues!

Hope this post helped you feel confident about taking this first full week in 2021 by the horns! Go and prosper!