First, get motivated:  As the saying goes, “if there’s a will there’s a way.”  Motivation is key for anything.  If you want anything bad enough you’ll do what you have to do to get it. Every other efficiency tip is a “way” but the will must be there to do anything.  Believe in yourself and get excited about your vision. Some great resources on Reddit’s  Motivation and LifeProTips pages.

Next, schedule time well:  The most successful people in the world have the same 24 hours as everyone else.  Although there are thousands of time saving tips, here’s one that I found to be very helpful:  schedule calls.  How often do you call someone or receive calls while they/you are in the middle of something?  It takes a typical office worker an average of 25 minutes to return to the original task after an interruption.  When you know a call is coming, you can have whatever materials, questions, etc. prepared beforehand.  This brings me to my next point…

Then, declutter:  An organized desk, computer desktop, etc. allows you to quickly find what you’re looking for.  It also helps you concentrate because there are fewer things out there to grab your attention.  If you don’t need it, file it or throw it away.  If you’re not sure, scan it and save it in the cloud.  Now you have it everywhere and nowhere (very zen, huh).  Ultimately, you’ll need a clean space to work.  Now that you’re prepared to work, this brings me to my last point…

Lastly, work focused:  Now that you’re working, you have to maximize your work-time.  One thing that works very well for me is listening to music.  Not just any music, for me I like non-lyrical, medium-fast tempo, instrumental music.  Spotify has great playlists that I follow.  Hours of crunching numbers on excel and reading industry reports for my clients goes by faster when I’m listening to focus music.

Here are some more efficiency increasing tips in my article.