Performance & Success Advice Blog Post # 18 - Disciplined Time Management

To make better and more productive use of my time, I recently implemented a new system of Disciplined Time Management.  

This time management system empowers you to: 

• Use planning to map out your daily and weekly courses of action
• Prioritize the most important tasks to get them done
• Use active procrastination to delegate and put off lower value tasks
  
• Track how productive you actually were vs. how productive you wanted to be
• Have the self-discipline to hold yourself accountable to your desired results by pre-planning your days and evaluating your results

I didn't invent this system, I implemented it thanks to Michael Janke's book, Take Control, and tweaked his system to work in my life.  This is not the only system out there, but use it as a guideline if you want to see huge results and leaps in productivity.

Here is how it works:

1. You must first commit to having a Disciplined Time Management system.
2. You then buy a notebook as your planner *Michael recommends that you personalize it* I wrote out my best contacts, my mission statement, my goals, and how I will achieve them to personalize mine.
3. Every Sunday you plan your week.  At the top of the weekly page, you write "Week of..." for example mine for this week says "Week of August 23rd-29th."  You now make one big box and divide it into four areas.  *Michael suggests - Work, Home, Personal, Life-goals* (personalize these 4 as needed).  Mine are Work, Magazine, Personal, & Life-goals.  Under each of these, you write out the tasks that you need to/would like to accomplish throughout the week.  As the week goes on, you fill them into the day you wish to complete them and cross them off as you complete them.
4. Every night, you plan for the next day. Write the date of the next day at the top of the page and on each line, you draw a box and write out the task that you need to/would like to accomplish.  After you have written everything out, you want to create a course of action for each task. For example, yesterday my first task was "Interview Dave Mirra for the Collegiate Performance Magazine."  My course of action was "wake up at 7:00 am, brush your teeth, put on your suit, eat a healthy breakfast, do some pre-call planning, and call Dave at 8:00 am."
5. Prioritize your daily activities.  I use the letter system Michael suggests in Take Control and Brian Tracy recommends in Eat That Frog: A=Top priority, B=Important, but not an A, C=Would be nice, but not crucial, D=Delegate or delay, E=Eliminate.  After prioritizing, complete your activities and cross off the boxes as they are done, starting with the A's and working your way down (make sure to cross them off the weekly planner as well).  After you complete each day, fold the corner of the page (don't fold the weekly planner) to mark your place.
6. Evaluate your productivity each evening and at the end of each week.  This will help you to learn to focus on the highest priority activities and help to better prioritize in the future to bridge the gap between how productive you want to be and how productive you are.
7. Have the self-discipline to keep up the habit every night!  If you can do this, you will find that this system will yield higher levels or productivity and huge results.  Remember though, it is only as good as you make it!

This is one of the tools that I have armed myself with.  This system of Disciplined Time Management works for me because I made the commitment to becoming more productive so I can achieve more DAILY to accomplish my life-goals.

In order for this system to work for you, you need to follow up with it and do a little every day.  There is a reason I have blogged about all of these things...success is a combination of many things and when used in synergy will yield MASSIVE RESULTS.

I use this Disciplined Time Management System to increase my productivity and improve my focus on the most important daily activities so I can achieve my goals in life.  How do you ensure you achieve your goals?

Questions?  Comments?  Blog with me!

Performance & Success Advice Blog Post # 12 - Get "It" Done!

As I type this blog post, this topic is one that is painfully relevant.  Since my last post, I have been jotting down ideas for my future posts. There was, however, one missing element.  I never took the time to actually sit down and Get "It" Done.

When I look at the phrase "Get "It" Done," I see two distinct definitions:

Get "It" Done-

1. Taking the necessary action (and time) to see "it" through
2. Doing everything within your power to ensure you accomplish whatever "it" is you need

We all practice definition #1 in our lives as we accomplish our goals and objectives.  It is definition #2 that I strive to achieve in my daily life.  

For this definition to hold true, you must recognize where your individual locus of control falls.  We are all accountable for our own actions.  Likewise, we all have the potential to do everything we dream of.  In order to achieve our dreams and goals, you need to be willing to take your life into your own hands, taking accountability for the things that you really want.

locus of control- One's belief about what causes the good and bad results in their life

• External - The degree to which you associate your fate, fortune, failures (and successes) to external factors as opposed to internal factors.  [Ex. Blaming tardiness on bad traffic (traffic being the external factor)]
• Internal - The degree to which you associate your fate, fortune, failure (and successes) to internal factors as opposed to external factors [Ex. Taking accountability for the poor grade you received on an exam for not studying harder (you not putting forth enough effort to study being the internal factor)]

*TIP* - Develop a winning attitude and an internal locus of control!  Together, this will allow you to hold yourself accountable for your results (positive or negative), ultimately achieving greater levels of success.

Here is a real life example that I find amusing of how to take control of your life and Get "It" Done!  As of a couple weeks ago, I had only a few weeks left of one Marketing Strategies class until I graduate with a Bachelor's of Science in Marketing and a concentration in Sales.  All that I needed to do was pass the class with a C or higher.  This week in particular, I had an extra case of "Senior-itis."  Instead of studying or reading the Harvard Case for the exam, I only skimmed through it once.  When I got my grade, the result, of a 68% on the exam, I knew precisely what internal factor caused this.  I realized that in just a few short weeks if I didn't get a C or better in the class I would not graduate.  I knew what I had to do...take control and Get "It" Done!  What did I do?  I prepared extensively for the next test by reading the Harvard Case several times, highlighting the important information, and talking about the case until I was confident I knew the material.  The result - I was the only person in the entire class to get a perfect score on the test, so the professor gave me 107%.  Today, I have a 98% average in the class and will graduate with the Dean's List Honors.

The moral of the story is simple.  I was not happy with my result - the 68%.  The "it" that needed to get done - graduate!  My locus of control - Internal, since I knew my lack of preparation was the cause.  What I did - own up to my mistake, laugh about it, and buckle down to do everything in my power to ensure that I graduate.

This is no secret.  Like Nike says..."Just do it."  Take control, do what you've gotta do, and Get "It" Done!

Do you procrastinate?  We all do...learn how to use active procrastination to get done what you need to, and put off the things that are not so important in Eat That Frog!

Questions?  Comments?  Blog with me!

Performance & Success Advice Blog Post # 9 - The Importance of Reading

I haven't always been a reader.  Since becoming an entrepreneur and a salesman, reading has become a mandatory part of my life, as it should be in yours.

Here is an example of how it plays out for me. As a 21 year old entrepreneur, my goal is to learn from highly successful people as a means to improve and grow on my skills.  With only 2 years of hands-on business experience, the most time and cost-effective way for me to learn is to study what other successful people have learned from their years of experience.

The bottom line is this - by reading from successful people, it allows you to learn from their experience thus shortening the learning curve for you!

One of my role models, Brian Tracy, sums it up really well in his Performance Magazine article entitled "The Discipline of Reading."  He says, "Remember, it may take an author ten to twenty years to learn his subject and years to write a book on it.  You probably are getting the results of twenty-five years of effort by one of the smartest people in your field."

*TIP* Many other successful professionals have advised me personally to take on speed reading and Brian Tracy even suggests this in the above article.  Many of them, including Brian Tracy, have recommended the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics program (found below).

We are all familiar with Sir Francis Bacon's famous quote "Knowledge is power."  If knowledge is the fuel for our mind, reading is what fuels our mind with knowledge!

What have you read lately?

Questions?  Comments?  Blog with me!