There is no doubt these are some chaotic times we are currently living in. You may feel like you are a ship without a rudder caught in the wind and waves of the sea. But you do NOT have to feel that way just because of the events surrounding you. Take back control of you life by planning to plan and following these 4 simple steps and increase your productivity. The more control you have over your life and business, the more success you will find since we are all more productive when we feel in control.
- Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan! Planning is the first step. Know what you want to do and commit it to your calendar. Then, make sure you actually do what is on your calendar. Treat it like it is sacred. Don’t let distractors or “small rocks” prevent you from doing what you have said is important enough to commit it to writing.
- Allow Time to Review What is Coming Up. Take time on Sunday evening when the kids are in bed and the house is quiet to review your calendar for the upcoming week. Make sure there are no Monday morning surprises for you. Don’t rely on your memory from last week, look at your calendar and mentally prepare yourself. Also, be sure to take a few minutes at the start of each day to check and prepare for the day.
- Review and Reschedule. Take a few minutes at the end of each day to review your calendar. If there is anything you didn’t complete reschedule it right now! Do not wait! Also, think about why the task did not get done. Was what you actually completed more important than what you had written down or did you let yourself get distracted?
- Allow for Review and Contemplation. Take some time at the end of the week and review the week as a whole. Did you finish the week where you thought you would on Sunday? What major tasks or “big rocks” do you want to make sure gets done next week. Now is the time to update next week’s calendar to make sure you stay on track.
Do not rely on available or free time to do these four steps — Planning to plan is key! Each one should be an appointment in your calendar with the automatic reminder turned on. It doesn’t take much to get yourself pointed in the right direction. The rudder of a ship is so small compared to the entire boat, but, it has a huge impact in direction. By developing the self-discipline to keep yourself on track you are adding that rudder to the ship (your business). Remember, you will “fail” from time to time. Life will happen. Some days you will “just not feel like it”. It is ok, you are human. But, the difference between successful people and unsuccessful ones are the successful people recognize it is ok to not be perfect and immediately get back on course and refocused.
Eric Zdanowicz, MBA, USAF (ret), is the owner of Millennial Center of Excellence, LLC. He specializes in taking over 30 years’ experience in management and executive leadership and using that to help small to medium size businesses in leadership, team building, and sales, centered around the DiSC™ Profile and the Five Behaviors of a Successful Team™. He can be reached Here
