Are you interested in becoming a highly successful person?
People who manage to get a lot accomplished every day (to also lead their successful lives) are not superhuman; they’ve just mastered a few simple and easy behaviors that they do on a consistent basis, that they never stray away from.
Let’s face it, in everyday life, we all want to be a little more productive and successful.
And while some of us inherently have more energy and self-discipline than others, incredibly productive people — are created not born.
So let’s skyrocket your success with these 11 tips and habits that highly successful people do, to help guide you to a more fulfilled and successful life.
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Looking for a great productive morning routine? Check out these 9 Morning Habits of Highly Successful Entrepreneurs!
11 Fantastic Habits of Highly Successful People
1. Make Lists with lots of little action steps.
Productive people don’t make lists and turn away, rather they make lists of little action steps that they know will improve their overall day.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed with our busy lives but creating a daily list of ‘action items’ will really help you stay honest with yourself and also highly motivated.
Laura Earnest of Whole Life Productivity had this to say about the importance of priorities as a success habit:
“Let me say that I distinguish between efficient and effective, but that both are needed for peak productivity. Efficient is doing things right and effective is doing the right things.”
Start small by creating daily action steps that will work for you. Once you get the hang of it it will become second nature in no time.
Similar: How to Set Intentions for the Day – 10 Easy Steps
2. Try your hardest to Avoid Multitasking.
In order to stay highly motivated to accomplish your daily tasks, avoid multi-tasking.
Keeping the mind focused on one task reduces the risk of making mistakes and it also speeds things up and gets that one particular job accomplished much more quickly.
Highly successful people know that multitasking will confuse their minds and according to a study at the University of Sussex, continuous multitasking actually damages your brain.
They found that people who regularly multitask have a lower brain density in the area of their brains responsible for empathy, cognitive control, and emotional control.
That means that multitasking, as productive as it may seem, is doing you a disservice rather than a service.
3. Work smarter, not harder, and utilize the right tools to help you.
While you are working on your most pressing tasks for the day, why would you take the longest possible path if you can take the least resistant road?
A simple reason really, because we get easily distracted and the tools that we need are sometimes not at our disposal.
But you really can accomplish more in the shortest possible time frame.
Highly productive people already do this and they do this by setting themselves up for success.
They use their main resources and tools effectively, they invest in the tools that will help get them there faster, and they have considerably more time to focus on their most important tasks because they set themselves up for success.
It’s time to start streamlining your priorities to work for you — not the other way around.
Similar: 7 Steps to Change Your Life Inspired by Dr. Joe Dispenza
4. Limit distractions and save your peak hours for only your high-value work.
If you find yourself replying to too many messages and falling behind?
Know that reducing your distractions is an excellent way to make sure you complete the items that you need to prioritize.
You can easily do this by scheduling an email check-in for your less productive hours of the day, and save your peak hours for only your high-value work.
And if you happen to work from home, get out of the house and go to a coffee shop if you know that working from home will cause you to focus on housework instead of work.
Successful people permit a fixed time to do their most pressing work and do not deviate from that scheduled period.
5. Use the 80/20 rule.
Another way highly successful people prioritize tasks is they use the 80/20 principle.
The 80/20 principle also called the Pareto Principle, discovered by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, states that 80% of your outcomes will come from 20% of the effort in any quest.
This principle serves as a general reminder that the relationship between inputs and outputs is not always balanced.
To sum it up, the most highly successful people you know, already know what their top priorities are and are honing, shaping, and perfecting them as we speak.
Similar: 8 Best Productivity Tips for Working from Home
6. Tackle the most challenging task first thing in the day.
Whether it means getting that long-winded email out first thing come morning time or booking that appointment that needs to be had, highly successful people give priority to their toughest and most annoying tasks first.
The very special thing about this productivity habit is by finishing your most challenging item (on your to-do list first thing) it will free up so much mental energy that would have otherwise been spent worrying about it.
Plus, it’ll also lead to getting more done throughout the day because our brains get a little hit of dopamine (that really good accomplished feeling) every time an important task is dealt with head-on and completed.
7. Always build health and wellness into your daily routine.
Why do most highly successful people always seem to have time to stay active?
Well, research also proves that exercise makes our brain more alert, attentive, and better able to focus.
That’s right, eating the right nutritious food also gives us energy and enables us to move faster, so naturally, highly successful people know that health and wellness go hand in hand.
To better help you fuel both your body and your brain, start eating small healthy snacks throughout the day and move around in between your most important tasks, that way you get your blood circulating.
8. Rise Early, even on weekends.
In terms of mental clarity, dexterity, and energy, early risers really have a distinct advantage.
Early risers get a lot more accomplished throughout their days simply because they have more time to plan for their daily events.
So if you are mentally exhausted from very little sleep? Know that that’s not going to help you.
And to make sure that you set yourself up to win each day, always go to bed early and rise early, even on weekends.
Similar: How to Wake Up Feeling Totally Alert with Energy
9. Surround yourself with positivity.
Highly successful people never let negative people hold them back. Hey, that’s why they are successful in the first place.
They understand that negativity generally comes from unhappy people and it’s most likely that those people just envy where they are heading. You too should take that as a compliment!
Know that most joyful and highly successful people don’t tear others down. They love surrounding themselves with winners, where everyone is trying to meet their goals!
Similar: 7 Ways to Rid Yourself of Negative People
10. Be aware of these productivity killers.
According to a 2015 survey by CareerBuilder, identifying distractions is the first step to avoiding them. And if your goal is to become a highly successful person, then you better know these top five attention destroyers:
- Cell phones/texting
- Internet
- Gossip
- Social media
- TV
11. Delegate and freelance what you cannot do.
Lastly, highly successful people know that they can’t do it all entirely on their own.
After all, connections are the key to life and so is delegating the right things out to the right people.
Highly successful people also know when to stop, revise, and reintroduce if something is not working.
So if you are not getting the desired results that you are wanting to see, maybe it’s time to start delegating and offloading your work to help you free up some valuable time to focus on what you do best.
There you go! At the end of the day, getting the most out of your life comes down to a few fundamentals… Prioritizing your time better, focusing and building upon habits that organize your day, and using your top resources when you have the most energy.
You’ll reach your goals if you follow a few of these suggestive tips above!
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Author: Rebecca
Hi, my name is Rebecca and I am the face behind Everything Abode! I am a lifestyle and wellness writer based out of Vancouver Island. When I’m not writing or exploring mountains and beaches with my furry rescue, I love spending time learning creative ways to manifest a healthy home. Thanks for stopping by!
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