Let’s look at 2 familiar scenarios and how to harness your brain
Today, this beautiful fall day, our topic is less sexy than the fall colors: time and tasks. This cake slice lives on the third layer of the Productivity Success Cake -in the productivity layer. It’s important because there are sometimes false ideas that to do a task, you just write down ‘Jones Project’ and you get ‘Jones Project’ done in your to-do list. NOT TRUE!
I am going to show you two different methods to do this. Pay close attention.
Method One: “Okay, today I want to do the Jones Project. I want to exercise, I want to make client outreach calls, and I want to figure out my health insurance”. I would say that this isn’t bad because you’re actually doing something to plan your day.
However, a better way to do all this is to dial it down to specifics….see below.
Method Two:
- 6.00am, get up
- 6.00am – 6.15am Coffee and stretch
- 6.15am to 6.45am Shower and dress
- 6.45am to 7.00am Breakfast
- 7.00am to 7.20am Drop off son
- 7.20am to 7.45am Meditate and set intentions
- 8.00am Jones Project
Notice I didn’t add, “check my email.”
Pro tips:
Within the Jones Project, start a new list. “Jones Project” is not a task. It’s a project. There are many situations like Jones. Maybe it’s a client proposal, maybe it’s a letter or letters you have to send out – it’s more than just a simple ‘pick up the phone and call somebody’ and you already know who you’re going to call. For each PROJECT, there are multiple steps. Those multiple steps come with their own unknowns and their fears behind the unknowns, and that’s what causes procrastination.
In Method Two, notice that I’m adding the preparation to my day. You may want to add things like affirmations and whatever you want to do to get ready for your day. Once you look at your PROJECT, start with an outline. Scope of work? Timeline? Gather materials? Each one of these is its own little list.
Ask yourself, “to start the Jones Project, what do I need for that?” Stuck? Many times just gathering the materials will help you get going. I have worked a lot with salespeople who might, for example, want to call four prospects or four clients every single day, but it just never gets done. What I suggest is to pre-think about that list of people that you are going to be calling, the phone numbers and all the information so that when you get down to doing the task, you’ve already got the list, it’s already set up. You don’t have to wonder “Who am I going to call?”. Lets face it, nobody wants to pick up the phone anymore.
To sum up, planning ahead with steps may not feel sexy, but it sure helps to remove procrastination. How about you?
Please let me know, what was your best takeaway?
What will you move forward on today?