We all know how to be busy little Bees, but are we doing the right stuff to achieve success? Have you ever felt like me, that life has got a bit out of control and the activities of life are controlling you instead of the other way round? Well this all came to a head the other week. I had written my goals, I knew exactly how to achieve the success I wanted. If I reached my targets my Bank Manager was going to want to know where I was hiding my money tree – so what went wrong?
Life got in the way. Other people were louder than I was and wanted their ‘stuff’ doing now, urgently, no excuses! I was out of my league in shouting them down or negotiating a time delay. Their issue seemed to take over, and I was drawn in to the world of self-sabotage. My goals were quickly put aside and forgotten. Is it any wonder that by the end of the week I didn’t get that call from the Bank Manager? I didn’t even have any extra spending money, and it was all down to the choices I took.
Having just come back from the Property Super Conference you would have thought that my motivation to achieve more in property and my business would have been sky high, however I hadn’t made that mind-set change that meant my goals would have to come first. I would have to place higher importance on the tasks I set myself in order to forward my business. Have you sat in many seminars, conferences or even networking events and hoped you would have a change of direction towards success as a result of an inspirational talk?
If you have made a change then that’s fabulous, however I know that I have done this lots of times, got a high from the ideas that are flowing, felt great knowing that everyone in that room is actually gunning for me, but there has still been something else that was more important and I tucked my goals back to the bottom of the pile. Reading, listening, attending seminars and networking are all critical in building our knowledge, increasing our contacts and raising the potential for success in property or business, but you can do these things for ever and still not achieve anything – can you think of anyone other than yourself who seems to be doing all the attending and none of the action? Well this is your time to change what you do and make a difference to your bank account; the time you spend with friends; your lifestyle and your business success:
What type of action do you need to take?
Put each step that you would need to take to achieve your success goals on a post-it note. Then with a different coloured note write a list of the smaller elements of those steps.
When you can put them in order by timescale then you will know which you have to do first in order to reach your goal.
When you have done this then assess the amount of income that each task generates for you. Perhaps you don’t actually get the benefit of the income until you reach the final step. Make sure you know which of these smaller steps are critical and how long each is going to take. Put an estimate of time next to each one.
When you then plan your day’s activities you can plan the right amount of work for the day, allowing for interruptions and you will feel as though you can actually achieve them.
There is nothing worse than setting yourself a task which is too big, or that will take all day. If the task is too big you won’t achieve it and you will feel frustrated and de-motivated. If you have to sit and do the same thing all day then the urge to give in and do other things will be far stronger. You will need to vary your day, but make sure you concentrate on one thing at a time.
Woah! You’re a female – I thought multi-tasking was the best thing since sliced bread!
In my experience and that of other personal development authors and speakers such as Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins and Fiona Harrold, the best way to tackle anything is to focus on it, concentrate all your thinking into that world and continue until it is finished. Often this is the hardest thing to do, and it would feel easier to do lots of little tasks first and get them out of the way.
I promise you that those little tasks have a way of taking over and distracting you from everything else that is going on. E-mails popping up didn’t used to be a distraction 17 years ago, and working was much more structured. Now that Social Media is available 24/7 there isn’t a time when we can turn off the world and time out from working unless we decide to do this.
Try answering e-mails only twice a day, and for only 1 hour max at a time. If you were in a meeting you couldn’t respond immediately, so block out your time for specific activities and stick to it.
Identify the most important and urgent actions and make them top of your list. The actions that move you forward towards your goals should take priority.
If you could pay someone to do the things that take up your time, and you could earn more by doing something else during that time then you are being efficient. It’s exactly the same principle that we apply in property investing. If we can borrow money at a lower rate than we can gain by investing it then it’s a good deal. This is how we should value our time. You can only do this however if you have identified the value of each task you are doing. Once you have your post-it note list then you will be able to give each a £value and work out quickly which tasks only you can do and which other people may well be able to do better.
How to make sure you take that action
– coming soon………………
Yvonne has written some great eBooks and e Courses. For further advice and help take a look at her excellent eCourse Your Property Strategy Blueprint
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