10 Ways to Be More Productive With the Core Values Index

Some people view psychometric assessments, or their less-than-professional brethren, personality tests, to be merely theoretical in nature, or worse, purely for entertainment purposes only.

Bah!

The Core Values Index psychometric assessment has real-world applications that can provide immediate and substantial positive impact in your professional and personal life.

Although psychometric assessments are most commonly used by employers to gain a more thorough understanding of prospective candidates during the hiring process, individuals use them to map out education and career tracks, improve communications and relationships, and even for marriage counseling.

One of the ways you can take the CVI and immediately apply it to your personal life is to use your new-found knowledge of your psychometric profile to become more productive.

In this article, we describe the top ten ways you can use your CVI profile to become more effective and productive in your daily life.

Maximize Your Productivity

1. Know your strengths. If you find your joy gathering and sharing knowledge, seek tasks and activities that tap into that strength. If you are a natural leader, seek positions where you can contribute best by motivating and leading others.

2. Know your limitations. Don't waste time and energy on tasks that don't align with your hardwiring. If you are a creative person, don't waste time on logical tasks.

3. Delegate effectively. When you identify your limitations, tap into those who have the hardwiring to do the job well. Give them the information they need, then step back and watch them bang it out.

4. Complete the Highest & Best Worksheet. The Highest & Best Worksheet, included as part of your comprehensive CVI account at eRep, helps you identify the areas of your workday that closely match your hardwiring and areas that don't. Adjust your workload accordingly. The Highest & Best Worksheet is one of our most powerful and useful tools for honing in on where your workday is spent efficiently and where you are wasting your time, all based on your specific psychometric profile.

5. Complete a Happiness Index. By identifying the areas of your work life that bring you the greatest joy and those that do not, you can quickly identify the areas that need the most attention. By finding your happiness, you will find your effectiveness. Watch your productivity soar.

By finding your happiness, you will find your effectiveness.

→ The Happiness Index is included free as part of your CVI account at eRep.

6. Understand yourself. By taking the CVI and reading your comprehensive report, you will gain knowledge about how you are hardwired that was never before available. You will experience revelations when reading your report that make you think, "I never knew that about myself." You will also have moments when you validate aspects of your personality that you always suspected but never confirmed.

7. Understand others. Taking the CVI doesn't just help you understand your own hardwiring. It can help you learn how other people are hardwired, too. This enables you to see things from their perspective and learn where they are happiest. Being able to read the room gives you a distinct advantage when working as a team, delegating to others, and being a more productive contributor to the efforts that matter most.

8. Find the system that works for you. There are many ways to get things done. You can almost fill an entire library with books that claim to show you how to track tasks and get them completed. Ultimately you need to find the system that works best for you. Understanding how you are hardwired is the first and most important step.

Some people are great at starting tasks but need help completing them. Others want nothing more than to mark "done" on their to-do list, but can benefit from adopting a more efficient approach toward completion. Identify your personality profile and you can identify the system that works most effectively for you.

9. Learn how you learn best. Based on how you are hardwired, there is a method or style of learning that will be most efficient for you. By being able to learn more efficiently, you will not only save time and headache, but will be more productive with your new knowledge and skills.

→ See "Learn How to Learn Best"

10. Go slow to go fast. Some people want to dive right in and seek completion right away. Although this may align with how you are naturally inclined, it doesn't always mean you'll be more productive in the end. Any time you have to go back and re-do something, you've lost time and efficiency. Starting on a task or project without having a clear idea of what success will look like, or ensuring ahead of time that you have all the tools and skills needed to complete the job, will lead to frustration, missed deadlines, or orphaned efforts.

If you have six hours to cut down a tree, spend the first four hours sharpening the saw.

The saying, "If you have six hours to cut down a tree, spend the first four hours sharpening the saw" really applies here. To some, this may feel like wasted time. Planning is a skill and an attitude, and not everyone has it. Delegate to those who do, and let them harness their personal joy by planning the work, then engage your own skills by working the plan. Alternatively, if following a plan isn't your thing, you have two choices: learn how to effectively engage that part of your personality that does, or get others involved that can keep the team on track and make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

Your comprehensive CVI report has all the insights specific to your psychometric profile that you will need to become more productive.