"Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One person gets only a week's value out of a year while another gets a full year's value out of a week." Charles Richards
Our personalities, personal preferences, and our specific strengths require that each of us understand what works best for us in terms of getting organised.
A simplified example is that the linear thinker is content with doing one thing at a time, the visual person will want to be able to see what needs to be done, and the creative type enjoys thinking and doing a number of things all overlapping. To work effectively, we need to understand what works for us.
Technology has helped in many ways but it has also overloaded us. We know that if we don't prioritise our activities, we find ourselves spread so thin that we won't have time for those things that are important to us.
Whatever system you choose to use, whether personal or professional, begin each year going through and highlighting all recurring events on your calendar. Schedule your "think times" and also your "catch-up times." Use your calendar for follow-ups, tracking projects, or list the names of people to contact, etc.
So, how do the most successful people choose to spend their time?
Successful people think differently. And it is their thinking that shapes a different set of choices they make, which ultimately yields incredibly different results from the rest of us.
The Problem:
Most of us delay the day's most important activities, the A’s, by consciously or unconsciously allowing our attention to shift to less important tasks, the C’s. To someone struggling with priority dilution, it can sometimes feel like the harder they work, the more they fall behind. For every email they send out they get two in return. And each task they complete seems to hold behind it two more additionally that need to be done.
Their life is often characterised as a constant state of interruption. They are spread thin. Overwhelmed. Under-rested. And they feel like they are falling further and further behind.
The Solution:
Too many times we have a focus on all that we did instead of all that resulted from what we did.
Success usually is the result of focusing our talents, money, time or energy in one priority direction for a shorter period of time to create a desired result. The beauty of unbalancing your resources in one direction for a short period of time is that once you create your desired result, it is usually much easier to maintain that level of performance.
Strong focus on results that really matter is the reason why financially successful people choose to be paid on their results, rather than their time. They choose to take a chance on themselves. They believe in their own self-discipline and their own ability to produce results.
Results are what matter, and they are what you keenly drive toward. If you focus on producing results without limiting your ideas about how to create those results, you will come up with amazing solutions.
Reference: Rory Vaden: ‘Procrastinate on Purpose: 5 Permissions to Multiply Your Time’.
Business Tips
Is Time Your Biggest Challenge?
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