We’re living in an age of interruptions and distractions.
Email, social media, mobile phones, and other new ways of instant communication take our focus away from daily tasks and long-term plans.
But those nasty habits (like checking your email a zillion times a day) are not the only things that keep you away from doing meaningful work.
Small tasks are another issue with most people. Unless mindfully handled, they are problematic because:
When you look at your schedule, what do you see? Most people see too much stuff to do! Best case scenario, they see a manageable to-do list.
When I look at my schedule, I see opportunities to free up time. Seriously, that’s what I see because that’s what I search for. Every single day.
When I print out my schedule, one of the first things I do is start tweaking it. I try to identify things I can do in order to create gaps where there is uncommitted time. When I create enough of these gaps, I have much more of my day to use on things that are more important to me than work.
That should be a daily goal of yours. To create uncommitted time. Time that you can use for whatever you want. I’m not talking about being lazy or taking unhealthy shortcuts that lead to poor quality results. I’m talking about being strategic so you can F.R.E.E. up time…
F – FINISH a project.
R – REEXAMINE the essential.
E – EVALUATE your schedule.
E – EXTEND your activities.
A long time ago I tried to do a gazillion different things, and one day it hit me that I was just spinning my wheels. I was trying to do so much that I wasn’t getting anything done at all.
So, I decided I would narrow it down to what’s most important to my business. I asked myself this question:
In order to make as much money as I want,
what three things do I need to get it done?
And as I sat there scribbling on paper trying to departmentalize everything into three items, a plan became so crystal clear to me that I felt like an idiot for not seeing it sooner. Maybe this will be one of those moments for you.
There are some “non-negotiables” in my business. These are core beliefs and practices that I do not deviate from. That’s how strongly they are entrenched into my business and myself.
I’m a big believer in MASTERY. That is, it is a much better idea in my opinion to become a MASTER at ONE THING than to be mediocre at many things. Let me say that again, center it up and make it bold so you really let it sink in…
It is much better to become a MASTER at ONE THING
than to be mediocre at many things.
What would you do if you had an extra 3-5 hours of leftover time each week? Play a round of golf? Serve a needy cause? Plan a quality outing with your family? Just plain ol’ relax?
Go ahead and pencil your answer into next week’s schedule, because I’m going to give you three ideas that will “a.d.d.” an extra 3-5 hours of disposable time to your week. J
Seriously, these ideas have been extremely helpful in freeing up time for my clients and me. Might as well add your name to the list too!