5 Productivity Hacks to Hit Your 2021 Goals

January 2, 2021

For way too many years, I would go into a New Year with these huge goals and aspirations that I had written down weeks prior, but with no actual plan to get there. It was simply this to-do list that everyone would get done around the end of the December, and I didn’t want to miss out, so I wrote them down so that I was never left behind.

A few weeks into the year I would already be behind on my goals, and would go into the rest of the year with this negative attitude. Instead of losing the 3 pounds in January, I gained 1 pound. Instead of absolutely crushing my sales target, I missed budget by 20 percent and showed up to my weekly meetings with this sense anxiety, knowing that I had to make it up next month.

The year that things really started clicking for me, I had to make a few changes that ultimately led to higher levels of success. For once, I was actually on pace to hit my target, and ultimately I increased my sales by over 100% during that year. Here are the 5 Productivity Hacks that I learned that year:

1) Quantify the Effort

The reality is that we will never get to our professional goals if we do not put in the right level of effort to get there. This being said, I was so sick of the phrase “just work harder”. Working hard was extremely difficult for me when I knew that there was a long road ahead. So one of the best pieces of advice that I received was to quantify my efforts. This allowed me to actually see what amount of work needed to be done to get to an end target.

In order to properly quantify your efforts, I highly recommend that you start tracking how much effort you are putting in currently and see how far that effort has gotten you. For example, if in 2020, 3,000 phone calls got you to $10,000 in sales, set a goal of 6,000 phone calls in 2021 if you are trying to double your sales. If there are 252 work days in a year, this means that you will have to make approximately 24 calls a day. For me personally, I would ramp the 24 calls a day to at least 30-35, because this will put less pressure on you at the end of the year as it’s never this straightforward.

2) Invest in an Agenda or Scheduling App That You Will Consistently Use

There is nothing more demoralizing than finishing a day and realizing that you had a million things to do, but all you did was wander the day away.

My best days, weeks and months productivity-wise happened when I was consistently scheduling out my days. When I did this, I realized that I was spending way too much time doing things that had nothing to do with the goals I had set out. Investing in a physical agenda and keeping it with me at all times was a game changer.

To do this effectively, I would recommend scheduling your time out in blocks. Here is an example of how I would set my days in the morning:

6:00am to 7:15am	Wake up, Gym, Head Home, Shower
7:15am to 8:30am	Listen to Audio, Prep Food for Day
8:30am to 9:00am	Finish Paperwork (Complete X for X Project)
9:00am to 9:15 am	Meeting
9:15am to 11:30am	Prospect (Shoot for x amount of calls)
11:30am to 12:00pm	Finish Paperwork (Complete X for X Project)
12:00pm to 12:45pm	Lunch, Let the Brain Relax

When I did this, my productivity skyrocketed. I had some sort of direction and was actually completing the tasks that I needed to get done. Would it always go according to plan? Of course not, but it was 10 times better than heading into the day with no intention.

3) Do The Hard Things First

Unfortunately, in order to achieve a high target, you’ll have to do some things that you really don't want to do.

For instance, I absolutely hated doing paperwork. I was the salesperson who would put the paperwork off until the very last minute, which ultimately caused me to lose plenty of deals.

As you’ll see on my schedule, I set paperwork as the first thing on my agenda. For a while I would put paperwork off until the end of the day, and once I got to the end of the day, I would just push it off until the next day. I found that it helped if I got a good chunk out of the way as soon as I arrived to the office. This way, my mind wouldn’t be preoccupied with the thought of having to do paperwork all day. Thinking about doing paperwork all day ultimately had a negative effect on my attitude throughout the day.

4) Read Books

I’m writing this blog based off of experience, but in reality, I have read dozens of books on productivity that guided me the right way. It wasn’t until I looked through the lens of someone more experienced than me that I realized that my productivity wasn’t where I needed it to be.

If you want some must-reads, here are my top 3:

Hyperfocus: How To Be More Productive in a World of Distraction by Chris Bailey
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

If you have not read any of these books, it would read them in this order. Hyperfocus is a great book and helped me block out distractions and unproductive tasks throughout the day. I was in shock when I realized how much of my attention was being diverted from the most important things.

5) Have At Least 1 Person Hold You Accountable

I have found that when reaching a target, I am much more motivated when I have someone holding me accountable.

For example, during my breakthrough year, my manager was constantly monitoring the amount of effort that I was putting in each day. If he saw that it was slightly dropping off, I would definitely know about it. This kept me on target constantly.

Make sure that if you are having someone hold you accountable, that it is someone that has actually achieved what you are trying to do. They will provide you with insight on not just the effort that it takes, but also tips and strategies on how to combine hard work with smart work. Nothing is more valuable than a good mentor.

Use these 5 strategies consistently and I guarantee you that you will see a spike in production. If you have any tips that you have helped you become more productive, comment on any of our social media platforms! We always love hearing from our followers!