Planning is the only effective way to make sure that you get the job done. There is no way round it. If you don’t know where you’re going, it’s going to take you a very long time to get there. We all need directions to find the way -a daily A-Z.
My mother always told me that there is nothing you can’t accomplish if you just set your mind to it and where there is a will there is a way. I believed her. Believe it too and you will succeed in whatever you set out to do.
So every day, first thing in the morning, set your mind to achieving your daily goals. Tell yourself you need a plan of how to accomplish them and then forget about it. Eat your breakfast, walk to work or go to the gym. A perfect example of how this works is a situation we have all been in. You bump into someone that you’ve met before and can’t think of their name. The more you try, the more difficult it becomes. It can be quite embarrassing – particularly if they remember yours! The minute they’ve gone and you forget about it, the name will pop into your head. It’s true, isn’t it? You planted the idea that you wanted to know the name and your subconscious delivered. It goes back to the theory that we all know the truth about any situation if we give ourselves the opportunity to listen to it. Start now. Write down the first things that come into your mind and there is your plan. Believe it and it will work for you.
Happy endings
Always visualise a positive ending. It makes a dramatic difference. If you believe you can achieve, you will. List the steps that it will take to achieve the positive outcome and then dedicate 100 per cent of your energy to achieving it. It really is as simple as that. Let nothing stand in your way. By focusing all of your energy to the job at hand there is no time to get involved with the day-today problems that lead to stress. Office politics will become trivial because you simply don’t have the time for them.
Procrastination
Our parents taught us never to put off until tomorrow anything that can be done today.
Sound advice. Always work on the things you don’t want to do first, and leave the things that you’ll enjoy doing until last. It is a little mental game that makes you work harder to get to the stuff you really enjoy, ending the day on a positive note.
Procrastination is often a symptom of not being able to make a decision. Go on, just do it. In the grand scale of life, most of the day-to-day decisions we make are rather trivial. Will they really matter in a few months’ time? The more readily you are able to make a decision, the more confident you become. It’s about dealing in the here and now. It’s about finding your own voice.
Time zones
Set aside a block of time for each of your daily activities. Try to perform these tasks only during the time zones you have set. An example would be to plan to make all your phone calls between 10 and 11am and arrange all your meetings between 2 and 4pm. This helps to focus your mind and organise your day. These times don’t have to be cast in concrete as there will always be exceptions to the rule, but it will eliminate distractions during the time you have set aside to complete your daily goals. Let everyone know the hours that you set aside for these activities and you will be surprised to find how much more you can get done during the day.
