This is a coincidence,  since I was reading Seth Godin’s book (featuring his blog posts) and one thing jumped at me: “Give me nine-to-five executives who can create remarkable things and I will change the world”.

Put these two thoughts together and you will come to the conclusion that you can get a lot of things done without slogging for 15 hours a day. Honestly, I believe a strict nine-to-five job is generally not possible, especially as you move up the ladder.

Teams spread across different time zones, systems that function 24×7 and the sheer volume of decisions that need to be taken, makes it almost impossible not to have a Blackberry. Which, essentially, means, I disagree with Seth (on the nine-to-five part )

Back to the real question, how can you be productive and not just busy? To add to Shamelle’s advise, I have a couple of things you can do.

1. Deliverable-based Structure (as opposed to WBS)

Most of us, including myself, think of work in terms of activities and not as deliverables.  For example, if I have to send out a report, my task is named as Create Report with sub tasks as organize a meeting, talk to systems group and get information etc. You can see the output of each activity is not clearly identified, with the result that the meeting happens, but there is no concrete outcome.

Instead, reword your tasks as units whose progress is measurable. In our trivial example, the sub-tasks could be Meeting minutes with commitment from the teams, raw data report from the systems group, analysis document prepared from the data etc.

2.  Schedule tasks as much as possible on your calendar

This allows you to focus on things you need to get done by meeting with yourself. By allotting time to your tasks, you make sure you have made some progress on all your tasks, rather than look only at the urgent tasks.

An empty calendar can also get you pulled into meetings that don’t have much value .

Bonus tip: Use a Task Manager (not the Windows Task Manager). Check out my post on using TaskCoach.

What are the things that distinguish successful people from the run-of-the-mill folks like me? This was what got me interested, when I found people in senior leadership roles, but had not yet crossed 40. Of course, education, luck and the simple aspect of being the one available may have taken them there, but without “stuff”, you cannot stay there for long.

I started observing such people and so far, I have found 3 attributes – passion, genuine interest in people and the ability to understand subtle communications. You will notice hard work is not in here – surprisingly, not all of them work 16 hour days!

Passion

This is a no-brainer, but many people unconsciously set limits on their passion for work, either by limits on time or simply by the distance they are willing to go to get things done. Passion is ownership, passion is about finding ways to get things done, even if it means not going by the book sometimes (I am not referring to the non-negotiable rules like ethics, just the systems that organizations or societies setup). Passion is standing up and being counted when things are in a crisis. Passion means going beyond your defined role and responsibilities and ensuring that the overall team goals are achieved.

To have real passion, you have accept that sometimes, other things in life have to play a secondary role to your work life [This means you never talk about work-life balance - even if you go home on time usually]

Genuine interest in people

Passion can only take you so far. If you don’t have or develop a genuine interest in people and how you can harness their immense potential, you cannot become a successful person. Great relationships means word-of-mouth praise, which I find is the most effective way of marketing yourself. A word of caution: Do not try to manipulate people – you may be unpleasantly surprised about how many people can easily read this. Understand genuine concerns, show empathy and try to truly help people.

A successful track record is of no use if people under you refuse to give their best, due to some unconscious anger at you. You will have uncooperative people, who will balk at every work that you assign, delay their tasks and as a result, you end up doing all their work.

One other benefit of being able to interact with people well is that you become naturally good at networking. You will not need to fake things when asking for help – on the other hand, people will feel it an honor to work with you.

Ability to understand subtlety

You can call it reading between the lines or know the flow or oh whatever, but I have found this to be one of the most underrated secrets of successful people. This could be a situation or a person talking to them or a set of numbers being thrown at them. They can analyze what the situation is and come up with an answer that is simply awesome.

I really can’t explain this, but I am sure you can connect with the idea.

The obvious question at this stage is, can we develop these attributes? I haven’t found my answers completely. Have you? Let us know in the comments. If you have noticed other things which you feel are common among successful people, those are also welcome in the comments.

After reading JD @ Get Rich Slowly about writing down goals, I was inspired to write down my immediate goals for 2008. I have been keeping all this my head and when I sit down for a moment of rest, activities related to these just crowd in and have a party.

Writing them down should, at the very least shoo them away.

This is just a list, without any order and includes all sorts of goals. Some of them have timelines while others do not.

1. Insurance on the house mortgage (Immediate)
2. Read "Know How" by Ram Charan and review on Lifesays
3. Take a health insurance plan for my parents (Immediate)
4. Beef up emergency fund to at least 3 months
5. Create a Coffee-table book using my best pictures
6. Complete blog design and join a blog network

The last one needs some time, which is what I don’t have right now. But the biggest goal which is more like a continuous one is to spend quality time with my daughter.

How do you plan your goals? Or are you one of those lucky people who can juggle a hundred things in their heads?