business:
Posted by Amy Hale on October 24, 2011 at 6:54 am
Have you been putting off larger tasks because they seem so big? Or getting smaller tasks out of the way in order to immerse yourself into the larger task, except the little things keep cropping up and you don’t make much headway? That used to be what I experienced and those larger tasks or projects were the money making portions of my business. So what did I do?
I made the larger projects my first priority and created focus days. Now I take one or two days per week to focus entirely on the larger projects.
The smaller stuff doesn’t tend to generate income, so it can be organized into other times around my projects or an assistant can do the smaller things for me.
Focus Days are spent exclusively on high-income projects. This means no interruptions, email, phone calls (unless these are your high income activities). These days could be spent making proprietary systems or fine tuning the ones you have.
For a salesperson, Focus Days might include following-up with customers to see if their needs are met and contacting leads for future business.
Now if you don’t have someone to help you with the smaller tasks, you can create Support Days. These are the days you commit to tasks that help maintain your business. These are days you return phone calls, clear your inbox, file all of your papers, and set up more Focus Days.
With all of this, you must schedule at least one free day per week. If you don’t, you will suffer. Whenever I push myself further without a free day, my immunity goes down. So I’m a stickler for the free day. It relieves stress, lets you focus on non-business priorities, and allows you a day of fun.
A lot of people wince at taking breaks or time off, however, you will be more productive and more focused if you do so.
This Week’s Experiment:
First, figure out what your high income projects/tasks are and begin scheduling your Focus Days for later this week.
Second, use the days before as Support Days and plow through as much maintenance as you can.
Third, schedule your Free Day. Make a list of things you like to do. Go to a movie, take the kids out for a play day, or go for a hike. You will look forward to these days every week.
Remember why you are in business – to make money. So make sure you prioritize your high income projects into their own day. By organizing by the day, you’ll accomplish more and stress less.
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Posted by Amy Hale on August 26, 2010 at 6:00 am
Here’s my favorite time management trick:
Put on a piece of paper all the things you’d like to do in tomorrow. These are things that you know that you would like to do. Then you choose, among all these things, the one thing that’s the most challenging and important.
Now look at your list. What is that one thing that you’re most likely to put off? What’s your most important thing to do, the thing that really needs to be done; not necessarily the most urgent thing, but the most important?
Most people respond to whatever feels most urgent. Not even thinking about it. Go with the feelings. All day they wonder, “What do I FEEL has to be addressed right now?” And a lot of time the urgent things that come up as an answer to that question are really small. They’re nitpicky things: they’re just hassles.
So this is why you want to create the category of Worst First: You want to pick that one thing that’s hardest to do, that you would love to have finished and have it behind you. You want to make this your first priority. Nothing gets done until that gets done. Do the worst first. And watch the surge in energy and self-esteem that happens!
Please share your thoughts and successes. I enjoying sharing with you.
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Posted by Amy Hale on March 24, 2010 at 5:25 am
So many people speed past all kinds of opportunities that they can’t even see because a speeded-up person is always in the future, where nothing exists.
Trying to do too much too quickly leaves everything incomplete and you end up looking incompetent. And when it’s not complete, it kicks you where it counts. Speed is not the antidote to overwhelm, speed is how overwhelm gets created.
The great Thomas Merton said it this way, “To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of the activist neutralizes his work for peace. It destroys his own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.”
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Posted by Amy Hale on January 14, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Once in a while there’s a goal I set and for one reason or another I don’t reach it. I either change my mind or I don’t actively move toward it at all. When I don’t reach a goal, I take a few moments to review that goal once again. Usually I’ll find that the goal was just a middle of the road goal or mediocre goal that was similar to a lot of other goals out there.
A friend once told me that realistic goals are often mediocre goals and it’s actually easier to reach goals that at first seem unrealistic. He mentioned that’s how he made his first $500,000. You see, since most people set realistic goals, they find a lot of people making similar goals and it then appears to be a competitive goal. If many people are attempting to make ends meet and the average income is, let’s say, $60,000, why not shoot for more? There are far fewer millionaires than there are people making $60,000. It can be lonely at the top.
Another reason for setting unrealistic goals is that having a powerful goal and vision is far more motivating than having a mediocre goal. When you have a mediocre goal, the effort toward that goal is often also mediocre. This was my problem, I would set mediocre goals and give mediocre effort, but now I’m much more motivated by making the big ones.
Can you review your goals and make them bigger and easier to achieve?
Once in a while there’s a goal I set and for one reason or another I don’t reach it. I either change my mind or I don’t actively move toward it at all. When I don’t reach a goal, I take a few moments to review that goal once again. Usually I’ll find that the goal was just a middle of the road goal or mediocre goal that was similar to a lot of other goals out there.
A friend of mind once told me that realistic goals are often mediocre goals and it’s actually easier to reach goals that at first seem unrealistic. He mentioned that’s how he made his first $500,000. You see, since most people set realistic goals, they find a lot of people making similar goals and it then appears to be a competitive goal. If many people are attempting to make ends meet and the average income is, let’s say, $60,000, why not shoot for more? There are far fewer millionaires than there are people making $60,000. It can be lonely at the top.
Another reason for setting unrealistic goals is that having a powerful goal and vision is far more motivating than having a mediocre goal. When you have a mediocre goal, the effort toward that goal is often also mediocre. This was my problem, I would set mediocre goals and give mediocre effort, but now I’m much more motivated by making the big ones.
Can you review your goals and make them bigger and easier to achieve?
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Posted by Amy Hale on January 4, 2010 at 10:36 am
Fear comes in many forms. It’s hypnotic and no one entirely escapes its grasp. People rationalize their fears which helps them excuse themselves from moving forward with their goals and visions for themselves.
Hate is a form of fear. Where there is one, there is often the other. “I hate meetings” could mean for some, “I’m afraid of speaking up in front of my boss because he is mean.” It turns into, “I’ll speak up next time,” but that next time doesn’t seem to ever come.
Some people tend to look at some of their fear on the bright side. “At least I won’t look foolish” or “if I say that, then I open myself up for being put down.”
But then a week goes by and everything is still the same. The person hasn’t spoken up in order to be noticed enough to be a credible part of the team. So s/he stays in the same old cubicle.
Are things better off than a year ago?
If not, things aren’t going to improve by themselves. It’s time to stop putting on the brake and really take some initiative to move ahead? Do you want to spend the next 40 years of your life feeling the same way? How many years are you going to let yourself just hang there in the same place in the hellish dungeon of rationalization?
If you want your life to move, you’re going to have to move it. No one is going to save you. If they were going to, they already would have. So, what are you waiting for?
Un-optimistic fear tends to get people moving forward. I can’t believe how many people come to see me when they find out they might be cut from their job or their doctor just diagnosed them with diabetes. They didn’t move until they were afraid.
So here’s an idea, define the worst thing that could happen if you didn’t accomplished what you want to accomplish? What are you putting off because of fear and what is it really costing you – financially, emotionally, and physically – by postponing taking action?
What are you waiting for? If you say you don’t have time or the time is not right, I can almost guarantee that fear is standing in your way and your rationalizing it so that you stay in the same place.
This post is intended to be a wake-up call for you and the wonderful life that awaits you. By thinking about the worst thing that could possible happen by not taking action – like being miserable or bored in the same job, not being able to make ends meet and feeling like a worthless pile or even living with someone you just don’t even like anymore – you can motivate yourself to take action.
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