Habit No. 2: Take energetic credit for completion
When we have a big goal or task to work on, many of us wait — unnecessarily and sometimes to our detriment — until the entire project is finished before we experience any sense of completion, satisfaction, or accomplishment.

Often, even though we’re achieving pieces of our projects and goals all the time, we don’t fully acknowledge them. The most productive people we know are in the habit of enthusiastically taking energetic credit for any action they complete, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant. These people know not to wait until the big item is 100 percent done before experiencing closure. Rather, they generate energy all along the way by recognizing each item they complete.

Habit No. 3: Time-planning: Put a stop to putting it off
Smart people are in the habit of using a time-plan to get beyond procrastination. A time-plan is a method of assigning blocks of time to those items you want to get done (but not a minute-by-minute description of your day!). To harvest the power of planning and create your own time-plan, follow these two easy steps:

Step 1: Identify your power times for different types of activities.

Everyone has high and low periods of energy, attention and focus. By knowing and understanding your own energy patterns you can create a time-plan that takes advantage of your personal rhythms. Reflect on your own energy patterns. When are your power times? Some questions that may help you:

• Do you like to plan for the next day, on the morning of the day or the night before?
• What is your most creative time during the day?
• Do you have an easier time doing difficult tasks earlier or later in the day?

Use your power times to take on your most difficult items. Use your down time for more routine items and errands.

Step 2: Set aside blocks of time for getting certain things done.

Keeping in mind your power times, go through your calendar and schedule a specific day and period of time when you will work on an item. Time periods ranging from 15 minutes to 2 hours are most effective. Every hour or so, schedule a ten-minute break from your task; this will both keep your brain from getting tired and give it a chance to process any information, so that you can return to your project refreshed.

Lastly, don’t just plan your time in your head — write it down! Whether you use a PDA, a calendar contact program, or a plain old date book, keeping a written record of your time-plan is key.

Habit No. 4: Resist the lure of the trivial
How much of your valuable time and energy at work is taken up with trivial distractions that have no positive long-term impact on your life but do have a negative short-term effect on your productivity and sense of accomplishment? For example, gossiping with co-workers in the break room, surfing the Net for hot eBay buys, cleaning out your pencil cup, etc. Know that resisting trivial distractions and facing the more challenging and significant tasks before you leads to a greater sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Making those more significant tasks ‘A’ priorities, whether they are time sensitive or not, helps to bring them to the top of the heap.

About the authors
Karen Leland and Keith Bailey are authors of “Watercooler Wisdom: How Smart People Prosper in the Face of Conflict, Pressure and Change” and co-founders of Sterling Consulting Group.

Excerpted with permission from “Watercooler Wisdom: How Smart People Prosper in the Face of Conflict Pressure and Change.”

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