When Life is Spiraling Out of Control

With the economy, the pressures of daily life and the impending holiday season, control teeters on a delicate balance. Demands for our time and energy press inward from all sides.
Stop! Breathe! Relax your shoulders! Calm the swarm of butterflies in your system! Right now is the time to collect your thoughts and set up priorities. One of the age-old examples is a jar of rocks. Sort your “to do” list into three sections: major and urgent tasks, major but not urgent tasks and minor duties. The major and urgent tasks are the largest rocks. The major but not urgent tasks are the pebbles and the grains of fine sand are the minor duties.
If you fill your jar with the fine sand first, all of your time will be consumed with minor tasks. You will not have any time available for major and urgent activities. It is easy to become distracted with minor personal emails and little daily interruptions. When you allow your mind to wander rather than focusing on the task at hand, you are filling your time jar with fine sand. Spending time with minor distractions consumes all of your time and accomplishes nothing to move your business or your life forward.
Schedule your time in manageable blocks. One hour blocks work the best for me for the major activities. For instance every business everywhere requires marketing. Without marketing, you do not have customers and without customers, you do not have a business. This rule holds true from major corporations to franchises to home based businesses. Marketing is a major activity for all businesses. Schedule time to work on lead generation. Whether you choose to use online marketing, print media, social network marketing or recruiting friends and family, you must perform marketing. Marketing represents the biggest rock in the jar. Without leads you do not have customers and without customers, you do not have a business.
Another major rock is mindset. Developing a mindset for success is imperative. Remember “The Little Engine That Could?” That was a book from my childhood. The little engine kept saying “I Think I Can.” Believing that you will be successful and visualizing that you already are successful is so important. Dr. Wayne Dyer talks about seeing it from the end. See your success in all of its glory as already achieved. Experience that success with all five senses. Know it, feel it and believe it. When your mind totally accepts the success as a reality, the subconscious mind goes to work on making it happen.
When you place top priority on placing the big rocks, the major activities, in the time jar first and blocking time for their accomplishment, you are more likely to complete those duties. Naming the big rocks and blocking time for them is still not enough. You absolutely must focus totally and completely on those tasks during their time slot and finish them. Making the decision alone is not sufficient.
There were 5 seagulls on a dock. Two decided to fly away. How many were still sitting on the dock? All five. Making the decision did nothing until they took action on the decision.
Name your priorities, allot time to each one, focus on task completion and finish the job.
Once the major rocks are in the jar, then add the major but not urgent tasks. Follow exactly the same method. Decide what must be done, set aside the time to do them, focus on the completion and do the necessary task.
There will always be time in the day to pour in the fine sand of minor details. No need for guilt when you have already completed all of the big rocks and then the medium size rocks and pebbles.
Life is all about priorities.

Are You Busy or Productive?

Ever have days when you seemed to be busy all day long, but at the end of the day you did not have much to show for the time? There is a distinct difference between activity and accomplishment. Do you relate to that feeling? Me too.

My solution revolves around time management. Each evening I write my “to do” list for the next day. Back in my property management days, it meant looking at not only new items to be accomplished but reviewing the completed work orders to determine what had been completed. Frequently it also involved a site visit to personally inspect the work performed. With a home based business, the buck stops right here at my own desk.

I am responsible for the action items placed on the schedule and I am responsible for the follow through to be certain they are completed. Anyone who has ever owned a small business understands this very well. Owning a home based business generally means one person, or perhaps a couple in the case of a partnership or marriage, shoulders all of the responsibility. In this case, “if it is to be, it is up to me” has absolute significance.

Scheduling time slots for specific tasks and committing to a complete and focused performance of that specific activity and only that activity during that time slot is imperative. Avoid answering personal emails or personal phone calls or any other distraction. If you have to lock your office door and seclude yourself, then do it.

Schedule specific times for the five things every successful entrepreneur does every day.
1. Meditate and visualize your goals in absolute detail using all 5 senses. Be certain your goals are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely)
2. Income producing activity – lead generation, conversations with potential business partners and follow up conversations.
3. Personal development – personal development always precedes financial results
4. Mastermind with other leaders who have the same forward-thinking goals and mindset for success
5. Cultivate the expectation of leadership. BE the leader, DO what the leaders do, and you will HAVE what the leaders have.

These rules apply whether you have a home based business, a small business, or a franchise. These principles apply regardless of the industry.

Schedule your time in 30 to 60 minute blocks depending on the task. Plan ahead so that you know you can and will adhere to the schedule.

Time management insures that your time will be more productive rather than just busy. If it helps, you can set a kitchen timer or the alarm on your watch or the timer on your phone.

No one wants to face themselves in the mirror night after night and admit that nothing was actually accomplished that day. A day is a precious commodity, don’t waste it.