We all know those people. Perhaps, you’re one of them. They’re the folks who say oh I’m so busy! But, when you look at what they’re doing in a day you wonder what they’re busy doing. They may very well be busy, but they may be busy doing things that will not improve their relationships or propel their businesses forward. Robin Sharma says, “Don’t confuse activity with productivity. Many people are simply busy being busy” How many of us are busy being busy? How many people on your team do you feel are busy being busy? It’s impossible to improve your performance and lead a successful network marketing business if you are busy being busy. Busy does not equal productivity. Often, when you’re so wrapped up in doing things that keep you busy, you don’t have time to do the activities that will make you productive. The same is true for your team. So how do you get out of the busy funk and improve your performance and the performance of your team? That’s what we’ll get into today.

The principles of productivity for performance 

If you want to be more productive, or encourage your team to be, then you have to follow these key principles.

Rethink how you view time

In terms of productivity, time management is one of those things that always comes up. You have to know how to manage your time. However, it’s impossible to manage time itself; we can only manage our priorities within the time we are given. We can’t add more hours to the day, but we can learn to get more out of them. The key to getting everything done that we need to and becoming our best productive cells is to manage our priorities and give them the appropriate percentage of our time.

Initially, this sounds pretty simple. And it is. However, where we get hung up is figuring out what our priorities are. When you look at your to-do list, everything seems like a priority. We all feel compelled to get everything done that is on that list. After all, if it wasn’t important, we wouldn’t have written it down in the first place. However, not everything on that list is equally important. For example, working on your business should be one of your top priorities every day. However, what often happens is that even though we know it’s a priority, it’s one of the first things to get shoved to the bottom of the list. Once something is identified as a priority, it’s important to honor it as a priority. That is, you make sure that you get it done.

How to help your team’s performance

If you have prioritizing down but people on your team need some work, then work with them to help them prioritize. Sometimes people get so overwhelmed that they’re not sure what a priority is. Review their to-do list with them, and pinpoint anything that is a priority or, conversely not a priority. Provide that unbiased look at their to-do list and help them Define what to prioritize that day. You may need to ask them questions to find out more about each item. You may be able to help them realize that not everything is a priority. Some things that seem like priorities can wait a day or two. Over time, this will help them figure out for themselves what a priority is or isn’t.

Focus on investing

We know that, like money, time is a valuable resource. What we may not realize is that like money, time can be invested. Although we can’t increase the number of hours in the day that we have, we can make it feel as though we have more time by investing our time wisely. We must think in terms of investing our time rather than spending time or wasting time. What activities waste time? It could be argued that if you’re not scrolling through Facebook to learn more about how to serve your clients, you’re wasting time. Be honest, how often do you find yourself scrolling through social media, looking at videos or just glancing through the feed out of habit? If you want to improve your performance, it’s important to look at your habits. Many of us spend our downtime just scrolling on our phones. When can argue this is wasting time that could be better spent doing something more productive. Now we’re not saying to completely stop scrolling through your feeds. However, it’s important to be intentional about it. That way you are investing your time and finding ways to help those around you instead of wasting it.

When you look at your to-do list, where would you prefer to invest your time? The answer should be in the activities that help get you closer to reaching your goals, whether it’s business goals, health goals, or personal goals. These are your biggest investments. These tasks on your list are your priorities and will help you optimize your performance.

How to help your team’s performance

Get your team on board by explaining the concept of investing time wisely. They may not realize that they’re wasting time doing things that prevent them from achieving their goals Within their intended time frame. But, keep in mind that people see time differently. Some think in defined parameters, or chunks of time, others see time as something perpetual. That is, they may not work in time frames, they stop when the task is complete whether it takes them 5 minutes or 5 hours. Get to know your team better so that you understand in which category they seem to fall. Then, help them figure out where they should be investing their time.

Prioritize the day

What you do in your day determines your life. If you focus on building relationships, growing your business, and reaching all of your goals, then you are more likely to enjoy the success of achieving those goals. However, if you spend your day getting sidetracked by less important tasks, or otherwise wasting your time, then it’ll be much harder for you to achieve your goals. 

So how do you prioritize your day? Take out your to-do list, circle the top two things you must get done that day. This may take some time. However, the focus is on where you want to invest your time during your day to help you achieve your goals. These are the top two priorities you have to focus on, and once they’re complete you focus on the next priorities on your list. This is a sure way to improve your performance each day.

But, there’s more to it than just planning your day. It’s important to plan your week and your month as well. Each week, take the time to write out the tasks that you need to complete that week no matter what. Then, plan out the times you want to do them. Those will be the top priorities on those particular days. Similarly, you can do this for your month as well. If you know things are coming up, such as important meetings or other events, be sure to note those things so that you don’t forget. Then, plan around them.

How to help your team’s performance

Go through this exercise with your team. Show them how to prioritize their weeks and months. And if they’re struggling, then discuss what they can do to overcome the challenge. It may be that they need a fresh perspective to help them plan their time. As their leader, you have this perspective. Be sure to share it to help your team improve their performance.

Teamzy can help you improve your team’s performance

Teensy was created to help network marketers build the foundation for successful businesses. Our CRM has the tools you need to help you reach your business goals and your team reach their goals as well. If you want your team to improve their performance, help them improve their relationship with time and set their priorities. Teamzy has the online training programs to help you do so. Click here to learn more.