My friend recently held a productivity workshop with a group of experts. It was a three-day workshop with loads of content. When I heard the news, I was shocked and told him so. My friend disagreed, insisting that the information was extremely valuable. I agreed with him, but at the same time, I felt that he was taking a concept that was quite straightforward and making it much more complicated. He then asked for my ideas on productivity, and it soon became apparent why I wasn't part of the summit – my approach was too basic. However, I’m sticking to my basic approach and believe being more productive boils down to three things:

1. Scheduling tasks. It is not enough to simply think about tasks that need to be done; you need to plan out when you will work on them and add them to your calendar. Treat the event like it is as important as a meeting with your most important customer. Many of us create our schedules based on what we want to do rather than what needs to be done. Changing that attitude and making the events mandatory, can give greater importance to the activities and make them seem more necessary.

2. Accomplishing tasks effectively and with a minimum of wasted effort. Effectiveness implies we must finish the work as proficiently as could be expected under the circumstances in the minimum measure of time. To start with, you need to know how long a task will take. Second, you need to decide if you can decrease that time without trading off quality. It's insufficient to simply schedule tasks. You need to be careful about the measure of time the tasks really take. Monitor to what extent specific activities take and work towards decreasing the time without trading off quality.

3. Concentrating on the present. Distraction is the biggest roadblock to productivity. Even if you have an effective plan, if your mind wanders, or you're pulled away by a phone call or email, your productivity will suffer. To start, get rid of anything not required for the task at hand. That means phones, the Internet, and people should be turned off while you work. If you have difficulty concentrating, set a timer for five to 10 minutes to remind you to stay on track.

You don't need to consult with experts to be more productive. All you need is to concentrate on what you're doing and not make any excuses.