5 Ways to Get More Done
Set Goals for the Month:
I’m not going to tell you to set goals. At this point in your life you should know the power of this and hopefully you have already finished them. (I’m going to assume you have) Having goals will guide you on what you should be spending your time on and you will get more done.
Journal:
Ever since I started working for Tony Robbins, I have been journaling. I can remember EVERY TIME I saw Tony he had his journal and was writing in it.
“Success leaves clues.”
I journal everything.
It makes you smarter. It clarifies your thoughts and it can keep you on purpose.
Here’s how to use your journal to help you be more productive.
In your journal, take your quarterly goals and break them down into projects and then break your projects into weekly outcomes.
Use the weekly outcomes to decide what you need to do daily.
And then plan tomorrow.
Then each night before you go to bed (or when you leave work) review your day. Did you finish what you needed to? Are you progressing on your goals? What are you going to do tomorrow and how long will each task take?
Do this daily. This will keep your re-associated with your goals.
Block time:
After you figure out what you want to accomplish the next day… literally block your calendar in 15min. increments. Take the tasks in order of importance and block them on your calendar or in your journal. (I actually have it on my digital iphone calendar and look at as work) Blocking your day will let you know what you should be doing every moment of day. This also, will allow you to gauge how you’re progressing throughout the day.
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”
Work fast, set deadlines and pretend they are real:
Very few people work fast. Just watch ‘em. There is an old axiom that says “activities expand to the amount of time allotted”… for some people work just expands.
I work fast. I always have. Maybe it’s from my childhood when my mother would tell me I couldn’t go play kick-the-can until my chores were done.
I finished them in Olympic time.
Or maybe, it’s because I am unbelievably impatient – I’m not sure, but it is a trait that has served me well.
As an entrepreneur, you have more to do than there hours in the day so it is imperative that you be conscious about how ‘fast’ you are working.
One way to work faster is to block the amount of time you believe you will need and then be intense about finishing it in that amount of time. Deadlines work!
Be ruthless with your time:
If you have any kind of success in your business, you have realized by now that time IS your number one asset.
Guard it like a pit bull. Be ruthless.
Meetings for ‘coffee’ and ‘phone meetings’ to me are one of the biggest vampires of your productive time. If you are going to get on the phone, have an agenda set.
What is the purpose of the call? Ask the question “When I get off the phone I want to have accomplished what?”
If you are going to do coffee (I’m not talking about sales appointments), arrange to meet close to your office and be clear about the amount of time you have. I imagine a half hour is more than enough. In addition, if this is something you do on a regular basis (I don’t know why would?) Schedule them all on the same day.
I know what some are thinking right now…”Coffee is a great way to network…” And my response is, “Networking 1-on1 so people ‘get to know you’ is for people that don’t understand and don’t use the power of 1-to-many communication”
One time when I was speaking to one of my mentors Chet Holmes, I asked him if we could meet for lunch and he told me that he doesn’t “DO” lunch. “It’s too unproductive…”, he said. Now, at this point of my career, I know what he meant.
There you have it, 5 Ways to Get More Done. By simply becoming more deliberate about what you should be spending your time on, more aware of what you are spending your time on and more vigilant guarding your time, you will get more done in a day than most do in a week!
Loving, Living, Giving Large,
Jeff
