To be productive is one of everybody’s goal and resolution this 2020. To do things and be better versions of ourselves. It is time to put it into practice in our work place.

The goals we made are great. Goals help us to be productive, but we should also work towards those goals seeing as we put them as our new year plans. So what are those ways we should put in the work so that we can achieve our goals?

Last year, 2019, I learnt about 6 ways to help me to work better and i would love to share them with you.

I have definitely put them to practice this 2020 and hope they are useful to you as well.

Let’s get started right away.

1. Keeping a Regular Life Helps You To Work Better

It is that straight forward. To be productive, you need to have a regular life.

Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. We all know that nursery rhymes. So to work better, you need to be up early, exercise, have a stable and healthy routine.

But why is it hard to do?

Life is so colorful that no one wants to miss it, especially for the young generation. Partying, drinking, watching shows, there are a thousand ways to spend our lives.

With all these activities, it is practically impossible to live a regular life. Also we can all agree that most of our young generation think that regular life is boring. Nobody especially our younger generation wants to have the same schedule every day; go to the same places, eat the same food, and sleep at the same time.

No, it’s not true.

What I indeed found out in 2019 is that if you really want to achieve your goals and aspirations and to be more productive, something that you are dreaming all the time, keeping your life and daily schedule simple and regular is a must.

Get rid of things that distract you from your goals and focus on the core part of your projects or work.

Physically, it has been found that having a regular life will make your body function at optimal level . You wont need to spend extra time and energy to get back in shape or status.

Mental exercise, regular and healthy routines will get rid of stress because the messier your life is, the more stress you might get.

Tons of stories about those successful people (Warren Buffet) are pointing out that maintaining a regular life is one of the most common things they share.

They tend to get up early, exercise a lot, and have a routine and stick with it for a long time.

I didn’t know what’s the benefit of a regular life in some of my earlier years until i decided to start waking early and sleeping early. It felt like I had extra time and energy for each day. Also I saw it made me more confident and i felt good about myself.

A highly regimented life is the first cornerstone to your success. It might take some time for you to see the benefit of being simple and living regularly, but why not give it a try? You lose nothing as you do.

To Be Productive, Focus on Yourself, Not Others.

When you focus on the stories of how others got successful especially your friends , you might get envious. However, never allow it to weigh you down or disrupt what you got going.

The latest example that I heard is that one of my friends is so jealous that his friend is doing very well in the forex and become rich.

You are like, “Why are they doing so good on that? ”

And you are thinking: “Should I give up my dream and do what they do? I can do as good as they are doing.”

Don’t focus on them. It is not useful to make you better at all.

Success doesn’t come as easy as it seems. Every victory comes from some extent of sacrifice.

If you enjoy what you do, then you should work hard and be patient. You should be grateful to have a period to work without external attention because that’s the time you can focus on what you do and do it hard.

If you really want to take another’s path, fine. I suggest you spend a portion of your time to do some real research (talk to people or read relevant books and papers) to learn a bit more. And you can also put some money to do some experiments to see if your new idea works for you.

If you fail, that’s fine. You admit you are not the guy and go back to work. After all, one thing you should do is to wish them the best and keep doing your own stuff.

Offer Excellent Services You Can Deliver

People like excellent services, but you are not the only one who can offer a “excellent” service in this competitive world.

So make sure to WOW! your clients so that they feel that you are the only one that can overly serve them. Beyond that point, they’ll come back to you again and again.

So what does an excellent service look like? How do you know that what you offer is excellent?

Average services are normal ones, which could barely get the job done, no more or less. You finish what your clients want you to do without too much thinking and inputting additional values from your side.

But people who can offer excellent services think twice before starting the job. They talk to the clients and try to pull out the actual needs of them.

Being Responsive and Reachable Helps To Be Productive

Be responsive and courteous even if you are going to say no to others.

It’s how you show your respect to others, and you can save time and get rid of uncertainty for both sides.

You probably don’t want others to call you “that guy who doesn’t answer the phone or text” or “the guy who doesn’t reply emails.”

When it comes to business words spread faster than you think. Your clients might pull out from deals if they hear that you are not a responsive person, which means you are difficult to work with

So stay alert to your email and phone, reply anyway even though it’s hard from your side. If you could not respond in a reasonable period, set up an automatic notice to let people know that you are busy or away from the Internet.

Be Open to New Opportunities

This is one of the most valuable reflections that I got in 2019.

You never know what could happen after you say YES.

I don’t mean you can say YES to a house building project as only a photographer. What I meant is that you can try to say yes to the opportunities that are close to what you do or a little beyond your capability.

People might be afraid of doing so, which is understandable. Because people are so scared of making mistakes and hurting others. So it’s safe to stay in our comfort zone and always make things that we are familiar with.

But if we keep repeating what we always do, we can’t make progress, and we might lose our existed job as freelancers because others might do more than you can.

In the words of Warren Buffet, Say yes then find a way to do it. To be confident to say YES to those new opportunities, there are a few things that we need.

First, do some branding or marketing for yourself. Portrait yourself as a good person and a collaborator.

Second, always keep learning and spend time to accumulate useful learning resources. Be it online courses, offline workshops, or even YouTube videos. It is essential and practical because you will know where to find solutions to solve new problems that you’ve never met before.

The Internet is incredible and there are lots of free information.

Third, dare to fail. Trying new things comes at a risk, admit that and keep going when something doesn’t work out.

Be Active to Reach Out

Following the last part, opportunities won’t always come to you. You need to reach out to them.

As a filmmaker, I can reach out to foundations, companies, producers, media outlets, or even my peers. The more I pitch, the higher the chance that I could get funded.

No matter what you do, you can always find your target clients/audience/consumer. Talk to them, show up in their gatherings and ask if there is anything you can do for them.

Rejections are the №1 typical thing you will encounter when you pitch to others. Don’t blame yourself or think that you’re not good.

The judging process is somehow a black box. There are so many intangible factors in deciding the final results. Sometimes you are just not lucky enough, it’s true.

Luckily, there are oceans of opportunities out there in the wild.

Don’t be shy, put your name out there and show people what you can do, they will see you if you keep trying.

It’s like a video game, the more you try, the better you play. I don’t believe there is any shortcut for freelancers or anyone to build up their career.

If there is any, then I believe it is the longest one: work hard and learn hard.