Achieve Greater Productivity and Success by Eliminating Friction in Your Life, Part 2

In Part 2 of this series of articles looking at ways to increase your productivity the topic is:

Anticipate And Take Care Of Any Issues That Have The Potential To Become Major Problems

When I left home the other day there was a man marking the pavement with paint. The Water Authority is currently replacing the old Victorian waterworks system in London. As you can imagine, it's creating enormous congestion but it has to be done. The old system is leaky and thus inefficient and can no longer cope with the increased demands. So now the street where I live will be affected.

This means that at the very least I can expect delays to my journeys and disruptions to my water supply. But the good thing is that I know that this will be happening and I can make allowances. Often in life, we have warnings that certain events will be happening or are likely to happen but we disregard the signs and then lament afterwards.

Issues that might have just have developed into minor irritations become enormous headaches. There were signs that even the current global economic crisis was imminent long before it escalated to its current dire proportions. When things appear to be going well on the surface it can be all too easy to cast a blind eye and just hope that tomorrow will take care of itself.

There will always be challenges in our lives. This is partly what makes life so fascinating. We'd be bored and have to deal with a different type of stress if we didn't have challenges to deal with. However, the trick is to deal with challenges before they reach epic proportions.

So examine every facet of your life - your career, your relationships, your family life, your health, your finances, etc. and consider where you'll be in a month, six months, a year and even five years from now if you continue to act as you're currently acting. Now some things will come to a head long before 5 years have elapsed but you get the point.

We often allow complacency to set in. We may frequently ignore our nutrition and not exercise because it's too much hassle or we may not consider it to be a fun thing to do. However, it's less fun when you get sick. If you allow your body to get out of shape it's much harder to become healthy again. The truth is that it is much easier in the short and long term to maintain our health than it is to attain it once we lose our health.

It is interesting to note that a high percentage of all bankruptcies are a consequence of medical problems.

So an honest evaluation of your current habits will allow you to anticipate potential future trouble spots. Armed with this information, you can make prudent decisions as to how you need to change your current habits so as to avoid the pitfalls you have identified.

Remember:

"A stitch in time saves nine."