Productivity as we all know it is one of the key factors that take a company towards progression over time. Many businesses apply several productivity hacks these days just to improve the performance of their employees. Sometimes a simple hack of productivity can take your company to a great height.
Just like the world-famous billionaire business personalities like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Late Steve Jobs took their respected business enterprise to a new high.
But as a new entrepreneur or someone thinking about owning their own business in the future may wonder, what are their business secret that made them so successful today? Are there any special tricks that brought them today's fame, wealth, position & success?
Well, if you are also wondering about these questions and want to know about their success story & productivity secret then you are at the right place.
So today, we will be recalling some of the best productivity hacks that these successful business tycoons shared with the world. And hopefully, some of these cool hacks will also work for you, just like it has worked for them. Keep reading!
Productivity Hacks From The Leading Entrepreneurs: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Steve Jobs
Before we get any further with these productivity hacks, one must remember that whatever worked for these renowned businessmen might not work for you all the time.
You will need to know to find the most suitable one for yourself and your business and apply them accordingly. This would get you your desired results with these hacks in the long run.
So first up is…
1. Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
i) Stop holding long and frequent meetings
Musk feels, holding long and excessive meetings wastes your productive time, and most of the time it doesn't add value for the audience. So he suggested that if it is really necessary they call a very short meeting that doesn't waste valuable working hours of your team or employees.
ii) Take leave from the meeting if you are not contributing
Another way that squanders your precious time is when you are sitting idle in a meeting without adding any value to it. So that is why Musk said, you should feel free to walk out of the meeting whenever you feel you are not needed or has anything exclusive to add to it.
iii) Always assume you have scope to improve
People who are always looking for ways to improve and questioning themselves where they can do better are known to have a growth mindset. Musk likes this type of mindset and so asks his followers to be a resource for the company with a growth mindset.
He suggests that people should think about the things they have done so far and constantly look for ways to do it even better.
iv) Pick common sense over following company rules
Musk suggests people use common sense over following stupid & fixed company rules. He feels a rule should be dismantled if it gets in the way of providing better customer service or doing your job properly.
So whatever strict company rule that you feel is hindering your productivity should be killed on the spot. But in the process of doing so, it may require a change in the whole process or your team's workflow. So make sure you have a valid reason with proof ready to ask for this rule to be changed.
v) Always maintain proper communication between departments
Poor communication drill between departments within a company is a common concern for most companies nowadays. So Elon Musk states the solution by asking all department levels to have a free flow of information between them.
This means if you need to get something done, then you should have the liberty to talk directly to the person responsible for the job rather than needing to go from one manager to another to get what you need.
This direct and free channel of communication between each department will allow you to get things better and quicker.
2. Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos)
i) Take inspiration from your competitors, but do not copy them
Jeff Bezos had the advice that you are only supposed to pay attention to the competition you are inspired by. It is because your competitors are probably also trying to figure out the same thing you are.
He also stated that his success rate has improved drastically when they have tried to take inspiration from their competitors without copying them. He said the closer they tried to copy the less it has worked.
ii) Always be aware of your limitations
When you want to discuss an important issue in a meeting you need to be aware of what you know and what you need to know more before you actually want to pass any comment there. So Bezos referred to this to say, every productive person needs to know their weaknesses and what they need to work on to improve themselves.
iii) Be quick in making your decisions
The Amazon boss believes that it is more important to make quick decisions than to make the right one. This thought came from the idea of being able to reverse the decision anytime he wants. So even if he is wrong to make any call, he doesn't have to lose much as long as they are able to rectify their bad decisions quickly.
And making a blunder is not going to be as costly of a mistake as taking too long to make the right decisions. And that is why Bezos said having 70% of information should be enough to make a decision, and if you are waiting around for more info that means you are probably going too slow.
iv) Be focused on one vision but always stay welcoming to more details
Bezos made the remark about working on his dream project of Amazon marketplace, where he shared that he had to make three attempts before he finally succeeded in making the idea work. There were two failed attempts out of all three tries.
But he didn't lose his vision and kept on trying more strongly even after two failed attempts initially. But while having a strong consistent vision, he was also quite flexible in analyzing the details of why the Amazon marketplace estimates about half of the sales on Amazon today.
v) Laugh & enjoy, don't be boring, always be optimistic
Another rule of hacking productivity by Bezos is said to be asking everyone to not be boring. This is the kind of attitude he likes to bring in Amazon as well. He also believes productivity without being able to have fun or enjoy your daily work is of no use.
Moreover, he explained in an event how being a genetically optimistic person has helped him grow his business. In addition to supporting his view regarding being boldly optimistic, he said, being optimistic can have a profound effect on your productivity.
As it is seen in one study that people with a more optimistic set of mind have been more engaged, motivated, and rightly paid.
3. Steve Jobs
i) Prioritize & focus on one thing at a time
One of the key concepts following which Apple has become so big today is Steve Job's idea of prioritizing and focusing on one thing at a time. He believed in streamlining the focus and working on one idea at a time.
Meaning, he wants successful small business owners or young entrepreneurs to ensure giving importance on focusing on the primary foundation of what they are trying to build ignoring all the irrelevant duties until you are done with it.
Once the task in hand is complete, only then you should move on to the next one, and then everything will automatically fall in place.
ii) Make sure you know when to say NO
Steve Jobs was a strong believer in maintaining focus on one thing saying NO to the various other peripheral tasks. The late co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs said, one of the key elements to boosting productivity is for people to know when to say ‘NO'.
He believed that being able to say NO to a less important task, helps you to keep the focus on the work you are due to complete.
Warren Buffet also supported this idea of Jobs by adding that really successful people are different from successful people as they have the audacity to say NO to almost everything that they feel would take them off of their focus.
iii) Do not set unrealistic goals
Setting overly optimistic goals that you feel can't achieve on time should not be added to your to-do list. You might have countless tasks to complete in a week and so Jobs insisted for people to always set realistic goals to accomplish them.
One of the better ways to do it effectively is by picking one or two primary goals to complete in a day. Do not take more tasks than you can complete on a day. This hampers productivity when you see you have too many incomplete goals to fulfill at a time.
Another great hack to accomplishing your set goals is by breaking the time-consuming task into smaller goals so that when you start it, you don't feel you have too much on your plate to handle.
iv) Find your passion & do what you love the most
We all have probably heard from our teachers at school telling us to follow our passion. But Steve Jobs on the other hand had a different view on following the passion. To which he said in an interview shortly before his death.
Yeah, we’re always talking about following your passion, but we’re all part of the flow of history. You’ve got to put something back into the flow of history that’s going to help your community, help other people so that 20, 30, 40 years from now people will say, this person didn’t just have a passion, he cared about making something that other people could benefit from.
So here he meant for you to not follow your passion but to let it follow you. Think about what people will pay you to do and make that a passion.
In many common scenarios, we either do what we love without the right remuneration or we work on things we don't really love just because it provides you the salary and helps maintain your lifestyle.
So Jobs implied that everyone should follow a blend between following their passion and the things that have enough demand to enable them to make living out of it.
Do what you love the most working hard and passionately but make sure whatever you are doing has a definite goal to make a global impact in the future.
v) Think different to be different
Every product's ultimate goal is to build an unforgettable experience for the customer. Your product should be able to touch the lives of your customer in the truest sense. Embracing this idea, Jobs decided to sell dreams rather than just a mere product for his customers.
He used to think differently for the future and how his product could leave a mark in the heart of their customers every time. He used to analyze the pain points of the customer and always looked to provide solutions based on that.
One ideal example of this out-of-the-box thinking could be the launch of Apple's very first iPod back in 2001. People used to find it really difficult to organize and listen to digital music on the go.
That is when Apple launched the idea for its users to be able to download & store 1000 songs at a time for them to listen anytime they want.
This was something unimaginable at that time and Jobs made it possible with his ‘Think Different' attitude. Jobs futuristic creative thinking made Apple's customers see what they can do with their devices rather than buying them just for the sake of it.
Bonus: Awesome Life Hacks & Productivity Tips From…
- Bill Gates: The Microsoft boss, has shared that, he meditates regularly. This improves his focus. So he suggested that stressed-out people should start meditation to feel more relaxed & improve their focus in life.
- Jack Dorsey: The CEO of Twitter has found a non-conventional way of conducting meetings. He believes it speeds up the process of his critical thinking. So now his meetings are mostly based on Google Docs. And he conducts them by reading, posting comments, and replying directly to it.
- Warren Buffet: This successful fundamental business analyst, investor & Berkshire Hathaway CEO was once asked about his secret to productivity & success, and he replied by saying, the best way to master productivity is by figuring out how to do less not more. He also said this can be done by setting goals with clear priorities.
- Jack Ma: The Alibaba chief, advised the young people to get used to rejections. As he himself has gone through at least 30 job rejections in life before he finally succeeded with his mega project of Alibaba.com.
Apply The Productivity Hacks That Work for You
No matter whether you are looking to improve your productivity or not staying product is always an essential gear of every workplace.
But it is also true that even if you want to adopt some of these popular productivity hacks to implement in your life, picking the right one is also important when it comes to its success rate.
Not every productivity hacks discussed here would suit everyone all the time. Based on different personalities and business types different productivity hacks would work. So everyone must understand and find out what are ideal hacks of productivity might work for them.
So choose the hacks wisely by carefully analyzing your lifestyle, personality, and all its relevant elements. Before applying them you will need to critically evaluate the side effects they may incur during or after applying them. Only then your chances of succeeding after utilizing them would increase & see the desired outcome.
Besides applying productivity hacks to boost the productivity of individuals, there are tools like WP Project Manager that assist in improving the productivity of the whole team. Get more details on this cost-effective Project Management solution right here.