How to take action – the key to productivity

Life rewards action, not intention

Think about all the achievements in your life so far, the ones you feel most satisfied with. They don’t need to be grand things, anything that you are satisfied with will do.

Are they things you meant to do, or did you actually do them?

Of course you did them. Achievements are not our intentions – I’ve never seen a statue of a person with the caption ‘Joe Bloggs – he intended to lead the revolution’ – but are a result of actions taken on those intentions. Wealth comes from using your money to make more. Rewarding relationships grow from putting in the effort to keep them on track. Good health comes from exercising and eating right. And self esteem comes from achieving your goals.

Make time/opportunity

It may seem you don’t have the time or opportunity to take action but if you look carefully, you can make changes that will enable you to get more things done. Things like watching less TV, using your commuting time to learn a new language or rescheduling your exercise can work wonders – I found that I would never go to the gym after work, I was just too tired. Since I started running in the morning, it happens every day.

Break it down

Some goals may seem too large to start but if you break them down into actions, reaching them can become much simpler.

Recently I wanted to research investment properties in a new area.

I identified establishing relationships with Real Estate Agents as a key priority. To do that, I needed to phone them up and to do that, I needed to get their phone numbers.

So my first action was ‘Look up all relevant Real Estate Agents in the area in the Yellow Pages, and list names and numbers’. That was an easy five minute task – I collected the numbers and got onto the next task, calling each one of them to discuss what I was looking for. In two easy steps I was well on my way to achieving my goal.

Set a deadline

Having decided on an action, lock in a date and time for when to do it, otherwise it’s just an intention. If it helps, ‘make it public’ by telling someone else when you’ll do it – it’s harder to break a commitment to somebody else than one to yourself.

3 ways to take action

1. Stop intending. Don’t think about it, rationalise it, analyse it, deliberate over it or procrastinate about it – just do it. Develop an action mindset.
2. Make time. Adjust your schedule to make time for your actions and reduce activities that prevent action e.g. TV, Net surfing, drinking/drugs etc.
3. Set actions and when you’ll do them. Identify the next step you need to do, and decide when you will do it. Make it public if it helps you to lock it in.

You will feel much more fulfilled at the end of every day when you can look back over your achievements, and they’ll only happen through action.