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What is it that makes productive people more so than the rest of us? Jeff Haden, a contributing editor at Inc. has taken aim at productivity in his article “7 Ways the Most Productive People See Life Differently.”
I have to admit that when I bumped into this article, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to read yet another “it takes unremitting hard work, you slacker” piece. But when I conquered my resistance, I was glad that I did.
Perhaps the most important message I got was not that productive people are super human—or that they present themselves that way deliberately—but that they’ve adopted a helpful perspective on their endeavors.
Mr. Haden lists seven differences in perspective. Here are my top three. (Bear in mind that I’m a marketing copywriter and editor for a living, so a couple of these particularly resonate with me.)
- They rise above. Haden quotes Norman Mailer as saying “Being a real writer means being able to do the work on a bad day.” The productive keep on moving, because it helps establish the right habit.
- They make an effort to be creative. They don’t wait for inspiration. I believe it was Jack London who said that he went to his desk and stayed there until he got the job done. A former manager of mine said, “Stop bouncing around. Put your butt in the seat until it’s done.”
- They see finishing as everything. Finishers are winners. To which I add, if it’s hard to finish something you’ve started, then maybe you need to have given what you started more thought before you leaped in.
Mr. Haden’s 7 ways are so good, that I’m adding a bonus. And that is that productive people see fear as part of the process—and teach themselves the techniques to deal with it.
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