The Get-It-Done Guy, Stever Robbins, Teaches Us To Focus On What We’re Productive At Doing

Stever Robbins, the “Get-It-Done” Guy

Stever Robbins is a graduate of Harvard Business School and MIT. He is a time management expert, executive coach and serial entrepreneur.

Stever’s Get-It-Done Postcast has remained in the top 10 downloads in the business category on iTunes for the last three years.

So, when he says there is no such thing as time management, only personal management, we need to listen.

Stever is the author of the new book, The Get-It-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less And Do More.

Stever shared some interesting, counter-intuitive ideas. For instance, multitasking,  where we split the brain’s attention, degrades the brain’s ability to focus. Multitasking, where we change activities quickly but focus on one activity at a time, is better for the brain.

Using this reasoning, one of the tips Stever shared about overcoming procrastination is to pick a task we’re procrastinating over and work on a task for 5-minute blocks—or speed dating the task, as he puts it.

Stever also reiterated an idea he took from Jack Canfield. Divide your days into three types of days: 1) Administration days, where you focus on administration tasks exclusively 2) Focus days, where you concentrate on what you’re most productive at and 3) Spirit days where you do something other than work.

Another counter-intuitive idea Stever shared concerns interruptions. We all have them. Stever recommends diverting them to paper and dealing with them at a set time during the day, rather than allowing them to interrupt us throughout the day. Putting them on paper frees the brain to focus on other things.

Stever also eliminated the confusion between being organized and being neat. Being organized doesn’t necessarily mean being neat. Organized is being able to find what you need when you need it, not having the cleanest desk in town.

For more great ideas, listen to the entire interview below: