Prioritize every item on your list. A simple way to do this is look at your list and ask yourself, 'at end of today, what one thing on my list, if finished, will have biggest positive impact on my life?' The answer to that is your number one priority. Ask that question again with remaining items on your list. That's your number two item. Continue this until your list is complete.

7. Schedule those activities

For every action item in step 5, schedule when you will do it and how long it will take. Resolve to stick to schedule. You can take two approaches to scheduling. First, and way to ensure you get most important work done, is to schedule your first priority item first in day, then your second, and so on. You can also schedule your high priority items during your most productive hours. You have high and low productive times during day. You know when they are, not me (if you don't know, pay attention to yourself for next couple of weeks and figure it out). Scheduling this way ensures you devote your best time to most important activities, but if your most productive time is not first thing in morning you run a greater risk of your high priority items not being done.

8. Go with Flow

Be aware that day has a way of stealing your time. Keep your 80/20 priorities in mind when new things come up. Make sure to prioritize and evaluate new things that come. Don't sacrifice an important item on your list to do something less important. At same time, keep an open mind and be willing to flow with new items. Your schedule and list is there to help you - if something new comes up that will be more beneficial for you, go with it.

9. Go one at a time

Work through you list and schedule in order you have it. For big tasks, don't be overwhelmed by number of tasks, just work through them one at a time. Put your attention solely on task at hand. For vital action items, try to remove distractions. Turn off phone, close door, or work at a time when everyone else is asleep. You can finish a task that you might think would take you three hours in one hour if you put 100% of your attention on it.

Try following these 9 steps and watch your productivity explode!

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In above example, company worked hard in defining, tracking and increasing all corporate assets - not just those inside company, but outside too, along entire value chain. Beginning initiatives moved inventory turns from a meager 3 to almost 15 in less than one year. This freed-up working capital and reduced short-term debt. By working with firm's vendors, (real-time stock programs and moving to partner relationships) they were able to get more of ‘right' inventory at right time. This increased firm's flexibility to deliver product to customers. Scrap levels were also lowered. Strengthening product life-cycle management (see Marketing Tip #106 Product Life Cycle Management - It Pays!) had tremendous impact on asset productivity. Raw material obsolesces went down by a factor of 10. Manufacturing was able to move to a build-to-order mode. This reduced finished goods inventory by 90%. At same time, customer delivery went from less than on week to shipments of 85% of firm's product offering in same day with no margin penalty.

The company also put-into-play longer-term asset improvements as part of their business practices and new product design philosophies. Strategic decisions regarding engineering designs and manufacturing strategies (relating to build and quality levels) are now more coordinated and expected to yield on-going benefits.

Clearly, a paradigm shift occurred in senior management's thinking. The company now routinely tracks their asset productivity gains. Asset management and improvement objectives are an integral part of their annual operational plans and a key aspect to their business strategy.

So far, this organization realized an increase in asset productivity of almost 19% - equivalent of over $1M dollars of improvement in first year. This financial flexibility allowed senior management to return more stakeholder value while more aggressively investing in additional, growth-oriented marketing, sales and engineering programs for future.

Parting thoughts

Freeing up working capital is a significant by-product of strong asset management. Senior executives at well-run companies understand value of working capital. The more you have more flexibility for company. Smart managers turn this flexibility into good choices that increase shareholder value and build future growth for organization.

Be one of these smart managers and work on increasing your asset productivity today!

Frank Williams is a marketer.

With many post graduate courses in management, leadership, marketing and technology to his credit, Williams is a widely respected speaker, author and technologist. He has significant knowledge in marketing strategies and is the founder and CEO of Global Marketing, Inc. - a leader in business, marketing and sales consulting