3 Simple Habits My Most Productive Clients Have

Everything we do makes a small adjustment to the trajectory of our life and the results we get. Some of the actions are one-offs, but some of them we repeat every regularly, and they become our habits.

Habits are not a bad thing. Habits are a great thing. They save us precious brain power because we do them mostly unconsciously which saves us valuable brain power. Habits are a workflow brain program. It just depends on what habits you have. Some habits we have don’t always yield the best results or serve our best interest

How awesome would it be if you could develop habits that would be great for you, would run on autopilot and help you exponentially accelerate your efficiency and growth?

But where to start and which habits you should develop?

Here is what inspired me to write this article.

I work with approximately 40 clients a year. They all inspire the hell out of me with their courage, actions, and the goals they pursue.

There are few, however, who really stand out regarding their performance!
They complete a massive amount of work in between each session, just as they said they would. They are making ‘ten-mile’ leaps forward every month.

I want to share with you three habits they all have in common and religiously stick to.

Why? Because one of the best ways to become better at something is to learn from the people who are already great at it. Normally I’d suggest to follow them (metaphorically speaking), study what it is they do differently to get such results, and then to replicate it.

I’ve done the observation and analysis for you, so all you need to do is to put the following into practice!

Here are the three habits my most successful clients have in common.

Habit 1 – Diligent planning

All of my top clients are diligently planning their days and tasks. I’m not talking about scribbling something on a napkin. They are using planning apps like Calendars, DayMap, Trello, or even just Google Sheets. They keep themselves organised.

Your planning tool must help you actually get organised and more importantly you need to stick to it.

There is no point doing something for a few days and then drop it. This is where the word ‘diligent’ comes in.

You may be thinking; OK, planning, big deal!

Well, do you actually plan your every single day, week, and month? Do you have your plans structured with milestones or a timeline (or ideally both)?

It may sound too simple to have any effect. The simpler the tool, the better. Why complicating it?

To-Do: Pick one of these tools and plan your every single day for the next 30 days and you’ll see how massive impact it will have on your productivity and progress.

Fun bit: When we were setting some new goals during our last session, one of these clients said ‘I really want to do this but there is virtually no more space in my calendar’. That’s when you know you’re getting the most out of your time.

Habit 2 – Progress tracking

The second habit my top clients have is diligent/obsessive tracking of their progress. OK, I’m myself pretty diligent/obsessive when it comes to progress tracking and statistics in general.

If you are thinking; what is he talking about? Then you have not discovered the joy of seeing yourself making progress on a chart.

One of my clients is tracking (amongst other things) his ‘daily fulfilment score’ (as that is what we’re working on). Last week we had a session, and I asked him about his progress. He presented a chart, A CHART!, and commented ‘See, it has a positive trend which is great’.

Can you imagine how happy this made (the nerd in) me?

Another client just finished tracking her ’30 days with no sweats challenge‘, as well as getting her daily dozen (12 pieces of healthy foods as recommended by the book “How Not To Die”). She tracks a lot more.

Why tracking your progress?

When you track your progress, it boosts your motivation. It keeps you on track because it gets you much more immersed in your goal and progress. It encourages you to keep going because you’re being reminded how much work you’ve put in already. It’s also really satisfying to see your growth and climbing up the chart. If you can quantify your goal (and you should be able to because all goals should be measurable), use Excel or Google Sheets and plot a chart.

Hopefully, you’ll see a positive trend, too.

No goals or tasks are too small to not track.

Habit 3 – Welcoming Challenge

Finally, the third habit which is more of an attitude. With these clients, we never have a conversation along the lines of; I didn’t feel like it, I’m not motivated, I’m too scared to try something new.
They are always up for a challenge.

Are they uncomfortable with the challenge? Of course. 

We all have a comfort zone that feels like our bed when we wake up.
Oh, it’s just so cosy and warm and feels so nice, why should we EVER get out of it?

Most of us realise that if we stay in our bed for days and days, it will have quite a serious consequence on our life. So we just get on with what needs to be done, shower, brush our teeth, commute, work, face people etc.
But we also know that the outside world has so much to offer, fun, novelty, excitement, opportunities and gains.

It’s the same with our comfort zone in life.
Some people just prefer to believe that the ‘warm bed’ is better than the outside world. 

When I present these super-productive clients with a challenge, they say; OK, let’s do that!.

It’s the CAN DO attitude. It’s so important.

Your life will not improve as long as you always make a fuss about trying new things and avoid challenging your abilities.

May be that’s your bad habit that needs to change? 

Don’t be afraid of not being perfect or 100%. Don’t be afraid of failing. When you stretch yourself to the new heights you will grow in the process and that alone is worth the risk. 

The above three habits may seem too simple to have any impact.

If you think so, then maybe it’s your belief that change must be hard that is actually making it hard for you.

Keep it simple, start small.

If you need the support of a life coach, you’re always welcome to contact me and let’s find out if we’d be the right match.