How would you like to wake up tomorrow morning making double the money you currently do and looking twice as sexy? You would like that very much I assume. The good news is this is not only possible, but it would ultimately be harder not to do it than to do it.
How? I personally do the seven things below, and I make double almost everyone’s income. And I keep doubling regularly. This is nothing short of magical.
So, here are seven ways to double your productivity (and income and sexiness, too):
1. Do twice as much work as you currently do.
Duh.
When I said magical, I didn’t mean you could waive a magic law of attraction wand and double things. I just didn’t really mean it at all actually. I simply wanted to get you interested. This will actually take a little effort until the snowball effect kicks in.
You may think you’re already doing as much as you can. There’s about a 2 percent chance that’s true. Most people spend their days doing busy work. Outsource all busy work (which is really just an excuse to not have to use your brain) and do strictly effective—productive—work.
Are you in sales? Double the amount of calls you make. Think you can’t do that? You’re kidding yourself. You may not want to do it. Or you may choose not to do it. But you can do whatever the heck you want. Come in early, skip lunch, stay late, get creative…. You can do it. Do it.
2. Schedule your day.
Duh again.
I’ve been resisting this particular duh for 20 years now. I’m more of a “go with the flow” and “fly by the seat of my Lamborghini” kind of guy. But I recently got married, which threw a wrench in my flow. Then I had a baby, which threw a baby in my Lamborghini. My time management plan of yonder years (which was specifically no plan at all) simply didn’t work. I was getting nothing done.
The solution: Map out my days in general and stick to it.
I don’t make a new map for each day. I have one map, and every day is the same. I do the same things at the same time every day. All the powers of hell cannot change my map. The powers of heaven can. But not hell.
How should you make your map? However you want. Me personally, I do everything in two-hour chunks with breaks in between. So I write for two hours in the morning. Break for 30. Work on my businesses for two hours. Break. Read books for two hours. Break. Exercise for two hours. Break. Etc.
Do your most important work when you feel the most alive. For me, that’s in the morning.
Schedule your personal development. During my “breaks,” I’m lying in the sun soaking up Vitamin D while learning Spanish, math and science on phone apps. Not a minute is wasted.
3. Wake up earlier.
“I already wake up early.”
Wake up even earlier. Do you want to double your money or not?
Waking up two hours earlier has literally revolutionized my life. Here’s a quote from a book I’m reading right now just in case you think there is no way you could possibly wake up any earlier: “I love the feeling of having a full day’s work done by 9 a.m.” – Jerry Weintraub, movie producer
Most people are still rubbing their eyes at 9 a.m. Not Jerry. He was busy making The Karate Kid, Oceans 11 and getting richer than you and I will ever be (maybe).
This will probably involve you not watching TV at night and going to bed earlier. “Early to bed, early to rise…” Benjamin Franklin didn’t magically stop being right about everything just because we’ve invented cooler things than the urinary catheter (yes, he invented that).
4. Move twice as fast.
Literally walk, talk and work twice as fast as you currently do. Duh again. If you move twice as fast, you get twice as much done. I’m pretty sure that’s a law of thermal dynamics or something.
Act like you have somewhere to be. Have somewhere to be.
I’m a professional people watcher. And as a professional people watcher, I have come to the conclusion that people move like turtles. Are you a turtle or a lion? Take your pick. Only one of those animals gets tattooed on people.
Develop a sense of urgency. It’s impossible to be successful without this. Move like your butt is on freaking fire and you’re being chased by a herd of demon-possessed antelope. Scare people with your speed. No one should even ever see you anymore because you move too fast.
“His hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see!” – Mohammed Ali
5. Listen to audiobooks and watch all videos on 2x speed.
I listen to one audiobook per week just walking on the treadmill a few times. How? Hit the “2x” button on your phone and listen twice as fast. Rocket science.
I go through one new home study course every couple weeks watching videos while I eat lunch. How? Download Enounce, and speed the videos up to 2x speed.
Listening to these things at normal speed would be a form of torture for me at this point. Plus, there’s some science that shows hearing things at higher speeds increases comprehension and retention. It makes you smarter and faster.
Move faster.
6. Learn to loathe the phone and email.
I loathe the phone and email.
Any time spent on the phone or email is time I’m not creating something new that might potentially save the world.
Your job as a human being is to create cool stuff that helps people. I don’t know if you knew that or not. If you’re an entrepreneur, you knew that. If not, maybe you didn’t. But it’s true for you, too.
If your job is to mop floors, your job isn’t to mop the floors. Your job is to find a creative way to get the floors mopped by someone else so you can implement some new thing you came up with to make—or save—your employer more money.
Read the book Titan. John D. Rockefeller had thousands of employees. Everyone’s job—their number one priority—was to find someone else to do their job for them. Brilliant.
But creating is painful. It requires thinking, which of course no one wants to do. It also requires placing yourself in a mental position of uncertainty. And this we fear more than death itself. This is why everyone prefers to pretend to work with phones and emails than actually do productive work.
Dedicate as small a chunk of your day as possible to returning calls and emails, and put it in on the map. Resist the urge to deviate from the map.
7. Double your energy.
Do the following to double your energy:
• Get at least seven hours sleep. Take something to make those seven hours count like nine. Sleep is the most important energy factor. This is also the most important sexiness factor. Do you know what’s not sexy? Wrinkles. Do you know what magically erases all wrinkles? Botox. But also a good night’s sleep. Sleep is cheaper and less lame.
• Don’t eat grains and potatoes during the day. They’ll make you sleepy. Keep it light with organic meat, veggies and healthy fats.
• Do high intensity exercise six days a week. Humans have been doing this for all of history up until the industrial revolution. Technology doesn’t change the needs of the human body. Our bodies were designed for exertion.
“The less you move, the less you will be able to move.” – Pete Egosque
• Drink three to five cups of organic coffee. This specific amount is scientifically proven to be good for your brain and increase performance. Anything less or more is literally bad for your health. The only exception is people who have coffee sensitivity or intolerance. Try espresso if this is you. It’s easier on the stomach.
• Do a few light exercises during your breaks throughout the day. Keep moving as much as possible. Sedentariness = sleepiness.
There you have it. Enjoy the money, and leave a comment below for information on how to leave me in your will.
Preston Ely is founder and CEO of RealEstateMogul.com, an Inc. magazine “Fastest Growing Company.” He has built and sold multiple businesses and was recently voted one of Fast Company’s “Most Influential People On The Internet.” He makes $0 a year teaching success principles; he makes millions of dollars a year applying them to his own life and businesses. He writes articles for SUCCESS.com for the fun of it. Check him out at PrestonEly.com.
