7 Habits of Highly Efficient Professionals

Success can be measured in hundreds of different ways. When asked about it, some professionals might look to their salary, their list of publications, their charity’s social progress or perhaps to the fleet of sports cars parked in their garage and tell you yes, without a doubt in their minds, they are successful.

Despite how anyone determines whether or not they are successful in their professional lives, or how that success might compare to someone else’s, most successful people will agree that at least part of their success is due to their high level of efficiency. Keep reading to learn seven ways you can encourage these productive habits in yourself.

1) Dedicate Yourself to a Vision

A key to creative, professional and personal productivity is vision, and being able to envision exactly what you’re working toward. Without vision or purpose, you’re going to spend an awful lot of time paddling about aimlessly in the proverbial river of life. As Jason Fried wrote in his bestseller REWORK, “When you don’t know what you believe, everything becomes an argument. Everything is debatable. But when you stand for something, decisions are obvious.”

The real secret to being effective in life is simple. You simply need to know exactly what you want, and pursue that goal as you see it in your mind.

2) Eliminate Distractions

Being a workaholic isn’t necessarily a good thing; it all depends on how you’re getting your work done. If you can do something in a minute that might take the next guy five minutes to complete, then it doesn’t matter if you work a four-hour day, just as long as you’re accomplishing your goals. Try to find efficiency in your daily routine. Creating efficiency is the same thing as eliminating distractions. Don’t get caught up in e-mail, Facebook or all the other time-wasters on the internet. Instead, focus on the end task and nothing else.

3) Talk the Talk

Communication is everything. To be an effective participant of a meeting or team, you’ll need to communicate effectively. Nobody likes superfluous responses that can’t get to the point fast enough. Otherwise your ideas and input might not be considered for what they’re worth, and then what?

Another part of “talking the talk” is being easy to reach. This is especially true at this day and age of hyper connectivity. E-mails, phone calls or text messages should be dealt with as they arise, but if you’re working on something at a critical stage, eliminate all communication that is unnecessary.

4) Take Another Look

Sometimes, especially if a problem seems unsolvable, taking a few steps back can make a world of difference. Truly successful people have the ability to create new perspectives for themselves, so they can learn to see issues, people or situations from several angles and allow for a more coordinated response. Rob Mericle, the president of a commercial real estate company, has dealt with countless obstacles over the years. But he’s always managed to successfully complete projects simply by making it a habit to create new perspectives. It’s rare in this day and age that a problem is black-and-white. Effective professionals are able to recognize the many shades that lie between.

5) Be Flexible

A branch that can’t bend with the wind will break. Flexibility and the ability to adapt in uncertain scenarios and make spur-of-the-moment decisions can make a real difference in reaching one’s goals. Be ready to embrace change as it comes.

If you allow yourself to be open to opportunity, then opportunity will make a habit of presenting itself.

6) Cool Down

Living a life of high productivity or high stress can, without a doubt, leave people a little high-strung or tightly wound. No one is able to work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and walk away unscathed. You should be able to detach from your work, and find both time and an activity that will allow you to recharge through the rehabilitation of your body and mind. You’ll find that if you allow yourself time to recharge, you’ll do better work whenever you are working. The brightest flames tend to burn the hottest and the quickest, but there’s no sense in burning yourself out.

7) Organize

Organizing yourself doesn’t necessarily mean having a clear, empty desk and ten pencils sharpened and neatly arranged. Being organized is a state of mind, and it will manifest itself different for everyone. Some people find productivity only in a clean, open space, while others need every surface of their work area to be covered in quotes and images before they can find inspiration. The bottom line is that a successful individual knows how, when and where their best work is done.