Having a brilliant business model, marketing plan and strategy won’t matter if you’re not taking action and making something happen.  The crucial part of bringing anything to life is getting out there and pouring in the hours and sweat equity - otherwise known as execution.

I’m not going to write a long winded or motivational post of what it takes to execute on a daily basis and constantly improving whatever it is your doing.  Rather, I’m going to write about focusing on the important issues, allowing you to be more productive, while kicking ass at the same time.

This post was partly inspired after refreshing the section “E is for Elimination” in The Four Hour Workweek, a bit of Tony Robbins’ “The Time of Your Life” program, while listening to Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”.

The more and more I try to be more effective in my work on a day to day basis, I find myself being distracted through things like email, phone calls, Twitter, Facebook, Google Analytics and a dozen other services that are seemingly urgent and not important.

Ideally, the place I want to be (or anyone else for that matter) is to be working on things that aren’t urgent and important.  Namely, the “killer features” that make for product or service compelling enough for people to part with their hard earned dollars.

What’s a guy to do when you’re prone to distraction, looking for excuses to surf the interwebs and avoiding the hard but important tasks?  You eliminate it or remove yourself from those distractions of course.

Some tips, tricks and apps that have helped me knock down the important stuff for the day are:

• Focus on the two most important things for that day and that day only.  Try and knock off your most important task by 11 AM.
• What’s the purpose for doing what you want to do?  Asking that question alone gives you a lot more clarity and reasons for your following through on the task.
• Write down your goals for that day on a piece of paper (I’d recommend using a PocketMod) and keep it apparent in front of you as a constant reminder to reinforce productive habits and behaviours.
• Apps like FocusBooster that use the Pomodoro Technique, create a sense of urgency to complete a task as it’s always in front of your face.
• If you’re prone to trailing (slacking) off to check email, your analytics, Twitter, Facebook, Digg.com or any timesink for that matter, you can use MacFreedom.  It’s a fantastic app that shuts down your internet for whatever period of time you enter and only allows you to access it after the time is up or if you restart your computer (decreasing the chance you might cheat). 
• Use web apps like RescueTime.com to analyze your productivity and pinpoint exactly where your time is going exactly so you can better learn to optimize your workflow.
• Put away your damn iPhone! (or any other smartphone for that matter) - this alone saved me hours of potential wasted time.
• Learn, review, use and leverage Parkinson’s Law and the 80/20 Principle (or Pareto’s Principle) at all times - they’re the secret to being super productive

What tips, tricks or tactics have you tried to supercharge your productivity?