The secret to success lies in doing less rather than doing more. Studies put a decent figure of around forty hours a week to be optimal for effective working. If you go beyond this the law of diminishing returns kicks in. The always on mindset must not delude you into thinking the more the better.
Zenith
It is never the case though, if you want to be successful then take a peek into the lives of star performers. This would give you all the fodder for thought to actually do less and still be successful like them. The most successful people in the world, be it corporate executives or the elite musicians have reached a level of success that is enviable and people do want to go ahead and emulate them to reach the zenith of their potential.
Key Performance Goals
It helps to think like an executive, how do they function. Do they seem to be knowing what all is required to earn their quarterly or year end bonus. They certainly do, and they accomplish it by not answering each and every mail, they filter the less important ones out which do not seem to align with their key performance goals.
Become The CEO of Your Job
Another important trait that you would be able to notice is their singular focus in accomplishing the things they are accountable for achieving. They factor in every question, email towards the realization of these goals. For this you need to be clear on your goals, thereafter become the CEO of your job which you are in any case.
Sleep For Success
A peek into the lives of elite musicians would throw up some interesting details. They practice for around the same time as any mediocre musician would do, they focus on their practice by splitting it into two or more smaller sessions, take breaks between practice sessions. Rest and sleep is not something that should be overlooked at any cost for stellar performance.
Interruption Free Zone
Rather than going ahead and spreading your work throughout the day you need to set aside certain chunk of time say ninety minutes or so, wherein you devote your undivided focus on the task in hand by entering the interruption free zone. It has been observed that focused distraction free zones allow you to accomplish more in less time.
Final Words
It is very easy to be convinced of the efficacy of this approach, simply refrain from constantly checking your emails for a day, do the same with social media and texts. You would be able to observe very clearly that consciously avoiding interruptions is your path to enhanced productivity and success. When you are trying to hit world class performance levels, ensure you get adequate rest and sufficient sleep as working in a fatigued stage would sabotage your efforts. If you want to think and behave like super performers, you would also need to emulate and imbibe their patience, rigor and discipline and you would be able to get more done by doing less.