Clarity powers productivity. And it does so for anyone and everyone. Here are seven of the most important ways:

1. Uncommonly clear goals

A clear destination opens the door to action. Specificity is the key here. When you know exactly what you are trying to achieve, you are able to focus. You don’t have to waste time guessing, fishing for more information, or convincing yourself that you are on the right track. You are also less likely to be distracted by peripheral issues, unimportant details, or totally unrelated diversions. Specificity increases focus and focus generates speed.

Year-end goals, no matter how clear, don’t power productivity. They are too far in the future. Progress happens one step at a time. One hour, even one-quarter hour, at a time. To be ultra-productive, you need to pursue a very specific outcome over the next small block of time.

Overall productivity depends on the productivity of each individual hour. Hour by hour clarity may save only 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there, but those really add up. However, more often than most people realize or are eager to admit it, a little uncommon clarity saves entire hours.

To achieve ultra-productive clarity, ask yourself constantly what must be different at the end of the hour.

2. Clear, specific next steps

Even if you have a clear goal, you won’t be very productive if you don’t know how to achieve your goal. If you feel you are faced with an impenetrable jungle, you will not be ultra-productive. However, if you have reliable, repeatable method that you trust to get you good results, you can fly through the work with ease. Tried and true methods power productivity. If you don’t have a clear method as you are about to start a task, stop and establish one. The alternative involves wandering around, in and out, back and forth.

3. Shared process clarity

We’ve already talked about the value of process. Let’s take that a step further. When you and your co-workers have a shared understanding of a process, you will all be much more productive. You can synchronize your efforts and focus all of the brainpower. Synchronized focus and a clear series of steps powers team productivity.

Too bad so much of the workday is spent without this shared process clarity. This is true for pretty much any activity less well defined than your leanest production processes. It is incredibly true for your meetings, email, conversations, planning, problem-solving, and decision making – all the activities that you don’t even think need, or even use, processes.

4. Clear, transparent decision-making

We make thousands of decisions a day. And every decision is an opportunity to waste time, stress out, and make a mistake. This is especially true for group decisions, which often go on and on and around and around. If there is one activity where shared process clarity could make an enormous difference in productivity it is decision making.

I have yet to encounter an organization with a shared decision process. And yet without one, groups typically conflate the multiple steps in any decision into one muddled conversation. To make matters worse, they aren’t always even focused on the same decision. When I listen in, I can typically count five distinct decisions under discussion simultaneously even in the most focused, most earnest, smartest group. And when I provide that clarity and enumerate those decisions, suddenly it is obvious what decisions need to be made and in what order. It’s like opening the starting gates for racers. Clarity starts everyone running, and in the same direction.

Clear, effective decision processes increase productivity in another way as well. If you follow a good process, your decisions are more likely to be accepted. Furthermore, even your bad decisions are likely to be defended! Think of all the time currently spent worrying about buy-in, making decisions by consensus, and trying to make people believe they are being heard (a.k.a., manipulating them). You can eliminate all that wasted time with a clear, effective, and transparent decision process (see 7 Rules Naturally Clear Leaders Follow When Making Decisions).

5. Real problem solutions

You can’t solve a problem without eliminating its cause, right? So why do so many people leap to “solutions” long before anyone has figured out the cause of the problem? I wish I knew the answer. But do you have any idea how much time your company wastes implementing “solutions” that do nothing to solve the original problem and probably create new problems instead? Clarity is needed! Clear problem definitions, clear causes, clear confirmation that the cause was actually eliminated. In short, you need shared process clarity around a sound problem-solving process. The benefits can be significant, and not just in terms of productivity.

6. Short, powerful meetings

Meetings are the single biggest drain on productivity in every organization. Every one of your meetings should be much, much shorter. 75% shorter is a reasonable target. Yes, you read that right. I know. I’ve done it. And you don’t need to master anything new just for meetings. Meetings are not a problem in and of themselves. They are wasteful completely due to a lack of clarity. Pair uncommonly clear goals with clear steps understood by all, especially when making decisions and solving problems, and you will get most of the way there. Forget about trying to control people with rules and tools (see 5 Reasons Meetings Never Improve). Strive for clarity instead.

7. Reduced impact of office politics and difficult people

When you emphasize a commonly understood process, you shift power away from rank and personalities. Suddenly it’s a new game, a game that allows everyone to contribute effectively. Furthermore, because of the shared understanding of the process, anyone can correct course should that be necessary. For example, imagine playing a game of cards and someone skips your turn. You, and everyone else at the table, would feel free to speak up and correct the course. It wouldn’t matter who it was that skipped your turn. It wouldn’t matter if it were the Pope! Think of how much time you would save if you didn’t have to dance around difficult people or wrestle with power struggles.

Clarity powers productivity. There can be no doubt about it. The only question is are you sufficiently aware of the magnitude of this opportunity to take advantage of it? Or are you content to hide behind business as usual and leave future productivity improvements to wishful thinking or bullying your troops to do more with less?

Ann Latham is an expert on strategic clarity and author of The Clarity Papers.

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This article first appeared on Forbes, March 4th, 2018.