Ways you can become a high performer at work

Being highly productive is not an innate talent; anyone can become a high performer. It’s how you approach your work, and how you organize your life so that you can efficiently get the right things done.

High performance starts with a mind-set that translates into things that you do. Once you've got the mind-set, you will have the behaviors, and then it will turn into action.

So, what behaviors define highly productive people? What habits and strategies make them consistently more productive than others? And what can you do to increase your own productivity?6

Here are some ideas to get you started:

THEY PLAN THEIR DAYS
Planning your day lets you prioritize on the most important things right to the ones that need least attention. You can keep a track of your progress and work out most of things if you exactly know how much task is to be done. Also, for the pending tasks, you know you have to follow it up the next day.

THEY FOCUS ON WHAT MATTERS
People who are highly productive have established clear goals and a vision for what they want to achieve long term.

THEY KEEP DISTRACTIONS AT BAY
Do whatever it takes to create a quiet, distraction free environment where you can focus on your work.

THEY PURSUE SMART GOALS
These goals must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.

THEY PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST
For most of us, our minds operate at peak performance in the morning hours when we’re well rested. These peak performance hours should be 100% dedicated to working on the tasks that bring you closer to your goals.

THEY MAKE USE OF WASTED TIME
Those spare 10 minutes in between meetings or the two hours your flight is delayed can be great news for your productivity. When you keep a list of things that need to be done, you can quickly scan it and pick out the actions you can take in the time you have. Answer a few email messages or return a call in the few minutes before your next meeting, or start the research for your next project while you wait for your plane.