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The first step in getting more done is to get a birds-eye view of the things that matter most. You have to take the time to figure out what you''re good at, what you enjoy the most and what will bring the best results into your life. Until you specify what outcome you''re trying to achieve, all the activity in the world won''t help. Figure out what matters to you.

To set yourself up for success, you''ve got to lay a good foundation first. You have to pause and figure out what is the outcome you want at the expense of all other possibilities. You need a bird''s-eye view of where you''re at right now and where you want to head in the future.

So how do you do that? Some suggestions:

Suggestion 1 First slow down and prepare yourself to start over if necessary

If you feel like your life is currently heading in a nonproductive direction, stop doing what is creating momentum.

Reduce the time, effort and possibly the money you''re investing in what currently limits you.

This is easy to see with an investment. If you have an investment which is performing poorly, ask yourself: "If I were starting over at today''s prices, would I purchase this investment?" If the answer is "No", then get out of it post haste.

Don''t let your decisions of yesterday steal away your opportunities to achieve greatness in the future. Admit you were wrong and move on.

Suggestion 2 Understand the incredible cleansing power of a brief pause

Sometimes, immediately after you send an e-mail, you regret it but it''s too late. In that scenario, you paused to think about what you''re doing at the wrong time. If you were to avoid sending the unproductive e-mail in the first place, it would have been better.

In a similar vein, there''s lots of real-life situations where it''s easy to act rashly. To guard against that course when planning out your life''s achievements, it''s sometimes helpful to pause the action for a few minutes while you catch your breath. Even just a brief pause can help make you act a lot smarter.

Key Thoughts"A few seconds. That''s all we need. To intentionally choose the direction we want to move. To keep ourselves on track once we''ve started to move. And to periodically notice whether-after some time has passed-we''re still moving in the right direction."

—Peter Bregman

Suggestion 3 Sometimes you''ve got to stop a bit in order to speed up

If you want to train to run your first marathon, the accepted training schedule is to spend four days a week doing short runs, one day a week doing a long run which gets progressively longer and two days a week resting and doing no running at all. When you think about it, that''s actually a good way to structure a work week as well.

A career is a different kind of marathon. If you''re not careful, you get into the habit of working nonstop from when you get to the office to when you go home. That might feel like you''re getting things done but a smarter approach is to build in some regular rest stops where you can recharge your batteries. It may sound counterintuitive but sometimes the best way to achieve more is to rest up between bursts of activity.

Elite athletes have off seasons where they do other things.

After their off season, athletes then go through a form of spring training where they revisit the basics of their sports and check they haven''t picked up any bad habits. This might be a useful model to adopt for a career as well.

Key Thoughts"There''s a method of long-distance running that''s becoming popular called the Run-Walk method: every few minutes of running is followed by a minute of walking.

What''s interesting is that people aren''t just using this method to train, they''re using it to race. And what''s more interesting is that they''re beating their old run-the-entire-distance times. Because slowing down, even for a few minutes here and there in the middle of the race, enables you to run faster and with better form."

—Peter Bregman

Suggestion 4 Make a conscious effort to see the world as it is not as how you want it to be

Psychology has proven humans have what''s termed a"confirmation bias" -we all tend to look for data which confirms our view of the world and to ignore data which does not. It''s very easy to do this in business as well. You can look for things which confirm your assumptions and ignore everything else. A few examples:

Kodak had been selling film successfully since 1888.

Therefore, when digital photography came along, Kodak was very slow to get into the new technology. Kodak has never recovered from giving its competitors a massive head start.

Encyclopedia Brittani ca had built a two-hundred-year-old franchise selling massive books to consumers. It was completely blind sided by digital technology and never adapted.

To avoid being fooled by your biases, look for what''s different rather than what''s the same. Keep asking yourself: "What''s different?" as you look at your industry. Encourage your people to argue against your existing business strategy and to suggest new ideas. Test and question your assumptions every day and expect to be proven wrong.

Suggestion 5 Don''t become your work-expand your view of yourself

When you meet someone new, one of the first questions which often gets asked is: "So, what do you do?" Many people have become their professions. It defines everything they do and are. That''s fine but it also means if that person loses their job, they suddenly feel lost and rudder less.

To avoid that, diversify. Be passionate about building your career but be equally obsessed about being a great parent, a good friend, a part-time artist perhaps and a committed charity worker. Have multiple dimensions to your personality and interests. That way if for any reason you lose the ability to do one thing, you''ll have lots of other things to work on. That''s good for your health and well being as well. Create multiple identities.

Suggestion 6 Recognize your own potential-and don''t settle for anything less

There are things you''re good at which others find hard to do and vice versa. Be prepared to recognize your own potential and give yourself permission to excel. That''s all part of being human so relax and use your talents.

Suggestion 7 Let knowing where you want to land guide your reactions to events that come along

Many people act in accordance with a simple and direct event-reaction-outcome chain like this:

An event comes along, you react without thinking and it ends up generating an outcome which is unhelpful or even destructive. Spontaneous or knee-jerk reactions can sometimes lead to disastrous outcomes.

A much better alternative is:

If you can get into the habit of pausing whenever an event comes along and considering what kind of reaction will lead to the outcome you want, good things will happen. Put another way, if you can learn to stop reacting to the past and instead react to the future, you can be more productive.

This applies to time management and personal effectiveness in a direct way. Knowing what outcome you''re trying to achieve and reminding yourself of that outcome throughout the work day will help you focus on what really matters. This is a good way to escape the common whirlwind of activity where you spend all day spinning your wheels but fail to generate any momentum in the right direction.

Key Thoughts"These behaviors will help you see yourself, and the world, plainly and distinctly. They''ll send you up in the air to see what''s below more clearly. They''ll help you cut through your-and other people''s-unhelpful biases, preconceptions, and dead-end ruts. They''ll help you experiment and tap deeply into resources."

—Peter Bregman