Mastering the 4 Pillars of Productivity

Any successful journey, whether it be clear across the country, or right down the street from your house, has to start with an understanding of where you are.

In the context of productivity, this means a self-audit. Each and every night before I go to bed, I sit down and rate myself for the day in 6 categories that I feel represent holistic success in my life. Yours can (and likely will) look very different from mine.

These categories include my performance as a husband, as a father, as a friend, as a CEO/owner, as a Christian, etc. They are specific to me. I rate myself from 1 to 5 – you may choose 1 to 10. The rubric itself is less relevant than the purpose.

This keeps me in tune with where I am “winning” and where I must improve. Like me, your bandwidth is finite. It is limited. You cannot run each area of your life at a “10 out of 10” level of energy at all times. So, you must choose what areas you are going to focus on.

It may seem odd that I’m focusing on holistic balance between work, family, and personal life in a blog about productivity. But stick with me here.

Your level of productivity is directly tied to a keen understanding of where you are and what you must focus on in order to consider yourself successful. If you over-emphasize one area, and start dialing your productivity to be more successful there than you are in the other areas of your life, you will notice your scores in those other areas dropping. That’s you’re “canary in the coal mine” that tells you it’s time to re-evaluate.

If the first step to growing your productivity is being intimately familiar with where you are, then the next item (logically) is knowing where you’re going.

Suppose you come to my office in Nashville to visit, and you sit down and say, “Taylor, how do I get there?”

I’d probably respond with, “Um… how do you get where?”

Why? Because me knowing where you’re trying to get to is kind of an important part of me being able to answer that question for you.

I’ve noticed a trend while studying some of the greatest men and women in history. From Winston Churchill to Teddy Roosevelt to Abraham Lincoln and beyond. They ruthlessly focused on, and adhered toward, a bright and desirable future.

In other words, they knew exactly what their destination was (their ideal state) and they unified all of their efforts toward achieving it. What does this mean in the context of productivity? Target setting.

Allow me to get tactical for a moment.

I break down target setting into 3 “levels” – Objectives, Key Results, and Assignments.

1. Objectives – These are your BIG goals. The targets that you want/need to hit in order for your life and business to progress toward your ideal state.
2. Key Results – A combination of outcomes or goalposts that collectively make it impossible to miss your Objectives.
3. Assignments – The assorted “tasks” that are necessary to accomplish your Key Results. This is the “in the weeds” stuff.

Example – an Objective would be, “Sell 2,400 front end units in Q3.” A Key Result for that Objective might be, “Launch a new book that has lower acquisition costs.” An Assignment for that key result might be, “Write the copy for the book funnel.”

Let’s get back to the philosophy piece.

Believe it or not, there are only 2-3 obstacles or bottlenecks you’re likely to face.

The first is the worst, and it’s simply not knowing where you’re going or what you want. But past that, there are little time-sucks that will pop up and slowly, methodically, exhaustingly work down your focus & energy. We need to avoid that.

For this, I teach a method called “Mapping.” My staff uses this, my clients use this, my equity partners use this – it’s designed to ensure you are at a “peak” effective ratio of Time to Production each day.

Stephen Covey, best-selling author and management expert, says there are two types of production for humans:

Your “capacity” is what you’re capable of, if everything was set up properly. Your “production” is, as it sounds, your current output.

What I’ve found and what many people realize after they get into my productivity frameworks, is they’ve been operating at less than half of their production capacity.

There is a LOT of unutilized potential in your day-to-day calendars. We don’t lack time, we lack focus and energy.

The point of “Mapping” is to ensure nothing gets into your ‘radar’ unless it is a strategic deployment of time & energy.

Take time each day to map out the most important things. We have a framework for how we do this, here.

Please take a quick second and do a self-audit:

• Do you want the fastest path from point A to point B?
• Do you have other areas (besides ‘work’) that are important to you?
• Is quality of life and quality of living important to you?
• Would you like to make a positive contribution to the world while making money?

If any of these things resonate with you, then you are like me – and we share a set of core values that make us unique.

It isn’t enough to simply, “ADVANCE.” We need to do it the right way. It must be enjoyable, beneficial & balanced as well as profitable.

Here is what I’ve found – many are focused on “time management” but not energy management. There is a laundry list of folks who can show you how to “get sh*t done,” but not many of them will show you how to enjoy the process of getting it all done.

I believe the key is focusing on what is effective, and discarding anything that does not contribute to your ultimate end goal. If you learn the recipes I’m prepared to show you, this becomes as easy as … wait for it …

Going to SLEEP.

What if it were possible for you subconscious to tell you exactly what to do, when to do it, and HOW?

When you study the greats – legends of the past who frankly ushered in the industries of positivity, achievement, success & productivity – they all taught something that seemed crazy at the time… But science has begun to validate:

Your subconscious rules your creativity.

Ending your days properly is critical– so you are productive and creative while you sleep and when you wake in the morning.

Productivity starts in your mind. It begins with how you think, and how you understand your relationship to your family, your business and the world around you.

Useless list-making, stacking to-dos, and all of the other “hacks” out there are treating a symptom. Not a root cause.

We’ve built a full training on how to create, and implement each of the pillars above, along with some amazing bonuses that are only available here.

Momentum, clarity & control can all start right now. Look, the choice is yours. But if you want my advice… Take advantage of this special training right now while it’s still available.