Increasing your productivity is one of the best ways to increase your income. When you increase your productivity, you are able to do your work in a shorter amount of time and with a higher quality output. Here are some tips to help to help you increase your productivity, no matter what your job is.

1. Learn as much as you can. It is surprising how many people do not take advantage of every opportunity to learn more and increase their knowledge and expertise in their fields. Many employers have courses and other training available to anybody that asks. All you have to do is ask your boss or call the HR department and inquire. Many times you will be given time off to take classes that are paid for fully by your employer, which will allow you to be more productive at your job and eventually lead to higher compensation and personal income.
2. Cut off the distractions. One of the best pieces of advice that I ever got was “work when you work,” don’t socialize, and don’t catch up on the news or other information sources. Put your head down, put on the headphones, put up the “do not disturb” sign and work. Make a list of a few tasks that you want to accomplish that day, and don’t do anything else until you accomplish those tasks. Turn off the cell phones, BlackBerry, instant messaging, Facebook and Twitter, and focus on getting those tasks done. Afterwards, you will feel like you have accomplished a lot and you will not have any guilt about playing or doing whatever else you want.
3. Time block. Whenever I sit down to write a blog post, I know that I need about two hours from start to finish. Starting with an initial idea, doing research, drafting and editing takes about two hours. In my schedule, I have to block out two full hours where I know I will not be distracted and then I can fully focus without worrying about being interrupted and having to start again. There are emergencies that can’t wait two hours. You should do the same: block off several hours at a time to focus on one task. Cut off all distractions, let people know you will be available after that time, and then let your mind run with the opportunity to stop thinking about anything but the task at hand.

Finding ways where you can do things faster, more efficiently and with less distractions will make you more productive at your job. This will lead to higher income either from your current job or from the marketplace in general. It will also allow you to enjoy your free time without any guilt, because you will have already accomplished your tasks for the day.

Do you love your work? Everybody has heard the saying “Do what you love,” and most have become immune to the phrase. But what is the difference between working at a job you love and at a job you tolerate or are forced to do. What is it costing you to be working at a job that you like compared to one that you really love?

Let’s look at what having a job that you love versus everything else can mean to you:

1. Working longer – If you love what you are doing, you will be drawn to working at it more. Nobody will have to ask you to stay longer or to come in on the weekend; it will be something that you will want to do on your own. You will automatically start putting in 110% in terms of time. The market or your boss will take notice and your compensation will also increase.
2. Increased effectiveness and productivity – Because you love the work, you will want to learn everything about it and become the best at every little nuance of the job. It will be easier to get to the point where you can accomplish tasks perfectly the first time without having to redo them because of poor performance. Increased effectiveness and productivity will automatically lead to higher compensation and better pay.
3. Job security – Companies regularly lay off the low performers, especially in this economy. Picking a career that you love will make you immune to job layoffs because you will be the most effective person at the job. You will be producing as much as several other people can produce together. Letting go of you will cost the company a lot more than keeping you. And if you are ever let go, you will usually have many offers from other companies waiting for you.

Look over your job situation today and decide what you have to do to get to the job that you love. Start making a plan to get there as soon as you can.

In the previous posts in this series, we covered why it is a bad idea to identify who you are as a person with how much money you have and how to take the first steps to free yourself from this problem. This post continues to explore these issues.

Separating how you view yourself from how much money you have or earn will lead to the following:

1. An understanding that money is a tool. Just like any other tool that you can use to accomplish any task, money is also a tool. It is a very powerful and very flexible tool, but still a tool. It is not you. You are not money. You have the tool, meaning you have money and you can use that tool to get more money, or you can squander it and lose some of the power that the money tool has. It’s up to you.

   Knowing that money is a tool separate from who you are, and that you are in full control over it, should give you a certain sense of freedom in knowing that you can use this tool to earn more money and accomplish your goals without having the money control you and your actions.

2. An ability to think for yourself and make the best decisions for yourself. You will no longer have to rely on personal finance “experts” to tell you what to do with your money. Now you will see money as not a part of yourself, but as something that you can use to invest for the future and improve your life.
3. An awareness that money problems become objective problems and will not overwhelm you. Now, if you have a money problem, you can think about the problem just like any other, objectively and on paper, and come to a conclusion about how to deal with it. It will no longer feel like you’re “drowning” or being overwhelmed by financial decisions.

The title of this post might throw you off, if you didn’t read my previous post. I am not talking about separating yourself from your money. This is easy to do. What I want to cover is how to separate your identity, how you view yourself, from the amount of money you have.

The roots of the “identifying with your money as your life” problem generally begin at a young age. Parents indoctrinate their kids, either directly, verbally or indirectly, through actions which lead to lifelong habits and money patterns. If you think back to your childhood, you will be able to recall different things that your parents said or did that you can see reflected in how you handle money as an adult.

Was it wrong to count your money? Or were you considered a bad person if you didn’t save, or if you spent too liberally? All of this experience early in your life left a mark on how you deal with money now.

Another big factor is your social circle. Do you have to have a certain amount of money to be among your friends? Do you have to have a big house? Or drive a certain car? Do you feel you need to appear as if you are not wealthy even if you’re making good money? All of these forces can influence how you think about yourself and eventually may drive you to make decisions that might not be in your best interest.

The first step you should take is admitting to yourself that other people have influenced how you view money and how you deal with money. By doing this, you are acknowledging that up until this point you have given up control over how you handle money and that you have allowed other influences to make these decisions for you.

The second step is to accept responsibility for making decisions about money. By doing this, you will take full control over how you handle your money. It might seem scary at first, because you will have nobody to blame, but soon you will discover that it is very liberating to be making your own decisions about money without external influences.

In my next post, I’ll continue the discussion of how to separate your identify from how you view money.

If you watched the movie Fight Club, you’ll recall Tyler Durden (the main character) making his famous speech at the pub. He says “...you're not how much money you've got in the bank. You're not your job. You're not your problems....” Equating yourself as a person with how much money you have in the bank or how much money you make is one of the biggest “sub-problems” that people have with money.

This is a “sub-problem” because it usually lurks underneath the surface and cannot be directly identified. It has many different manifestations that show up as clues to this problem. Some recent tragic examples of this problem are the increase in suicide numbers as a result of the financial crisis. When the financial houses that these people built collapsed, some people thought that their entire lives collapsed and were no longer worth living.

The suicides are an extreme example of this problem; many other people suffer from this problem on a much smaller scale. A person losing a job and becoming severely depressed; holding onto a bad stock when it keeps on crashing; allowing the size of a bank account to dictate daily moods; inability to cut losses and put an end to financial bleeding are also examples of this phenomenon.

All of these problems, either big or small, come from combining your view of who you are with your financial situation. When faced with these types of circumstances, many times people end up making irrational decisions -- decisions that can end up costing them dearly. They view losing money as losing a part of themselves. So they have a hard time letting go and thinking critically about money, and have difficulty thinking about money independently of themselves.

One way to quickly tell if you have this problem, at any level, is to close your eyes and imagine a catastrophic experience. Do your emotions get stirred? Do you feel overwhelmed? Or is it just an intellectual exercise that starts you thinking how you will recover from this experience?
If you answered “intellectual exercise,” then you’re on the right path. If you answered with emotions and feelings, then read my next post in which I’ll discuss how to overcome this problem and separate how you view yourself from how you view your money.