Focus should be given to the second principle for highly effective people, as structured under Covey's highly publicized book. The principle advises people to 'begin initiatives with the end result in mind'. You may readily infer that this assertion is intended to convince people to be results-oriented and at the same time be more productive. They include capital accumulation via investments, dissemination of new technologies, domestic innovative efforts, enhanced division of work, higher levels of education, organizational and technological production modes from world-class models, and the development of physical and social infrastructures, Impacts of productivity increase Higher productivity will first make its presence on profits and ultimately on people s wages. Productivity measures of knowledge work are more loosely structured and less accurate than the measures of other types of work. People are always reluctant to accept anything less structured and less accurate. Suggested solutions In the past, knowledge work has been exempted from productivity evaluations because of complexity. If you just keep thinking of the past, this will serve as a reminder of your failure. And if you keep thinking about your defeat, you will undergo a never ending cycle of blaming yourself for the things that you did not really opted to do. - set your own pace. While it is true that being competitive is a key in terms of achieving goals, there would always be times when you will get tired of running after so many things because you don t want other people to finish before you. If you come to the office on time, you could start working early. You would observe that at the end of each day, you are able to achieve and complete more tasks. Lastly, maintain your focus. You should resist using the Internet for unnecessary activities. It would be better if you could work offline so you would not be tempted to surf porn or just chat with online friends using online messenger or real-time messaging services. Productivity Measurement A Short History The year 1970 saw the publication of two books, Kuznets Economic Growth of Nations and Solow s Economic Growth in 1971. Unwittingly, it marked the start of a rare professional consensus on economic growth. In his book, Kuznets summarized his decades of empirical research.