Tag: Business

Eating frogs and time management

Posted on by philipdodson

There is a temptation with work to head for the quick ‘to-do’ and the tasks that seem straight-forward, dare I say easy.

uglyfrog

We feel that we can quickly get them off our ‘to-do’ lists and then get on with the bigger and what we perceive as the harder or more time consuming tasks.

We start our days with enthusiasm and tear through the list getting stuff done and at the end we look at a long list of things we’ve done, all nicely ticked off, or I some cases scribbled off with a real sense of achievement, as we cross out another task.

Often though at the end of the day, feeling a little mentally frazzled and tired from all that activity, there is a sense that there is still lot’s to do and we still have those larger tasks hanging over us, weighing us down mentally.

Well there is a reason for that.

I have learnt the hard way, which is often the case with me, that you need to change the mindset on daily activity.

It is not about having giant ‘to-do’ list of things that need doing, as often you will spend the day doing lot’s of low value tasks and then not have the energy to start, or complete, the more important and higher value tasks.

Learning from experience and from various people like Debbie Huxton, Bernie Mitchell and reading a superb book by Brain Tracy years ago called ‘Eat That Frog’, I have finally got a system that works. The system also means, that I get on with the important stuff first and I am getting a lot more of them finished, which as a consequence is having a greater impact on my life and business.

Like all things in life, you have to stop what you are currently doing, especially, if like me it wasn’t working, then take a moment to analyse what’s important to your life and business.

Then look at say three things, that will bring in 80% of the results that you want in your life and business over the next year. Despite what I think, I am not super human and none of us are. So you have to be realistic about what you can achieve in any given time period.

I have set myself 3 things that I want to focus on over the next year and they are 3 things that will have the biggest impact on my success in achieving my longer term goals.

I have then broken them down further into 90 day chunks (thanks Bernie) and then looked at the things I need to focus on for the next 3 months. From that I can plan each week.

Now I no longer have a ‘to-do’ list filled up with low value tasks, I have instead an action list, usually of 3-4 things that I need to complete that day, that will take me forward on the important things that I am focussing on.

Brain Tracy talks in his book ‘Eat That Frog’ about seeing tasks as frogs you need to eat each day. So he says to take the biggest ugliest frog and eat that first and continue eating it until you have finished it.

That means, look at your action list and take the task that will have biggest impact on your life and business, which you have already worked out, and do that thing first thing at the start of your working day.

The big task should then be broken down into more manageable chunks, a bit like cutting up the big frog in order to eat it in bite size pieces. No good trying to swallow that big frog whole.

Since Debbie Huxton talked to me about an action list, I have been so much more focussed on the important things each day and combining that with the things I learnt from Brain’s book, I am find myself much more productive.

Sometimes things will crop up that have to be dealt with immediately, so it’s OK to stop and do them, like dealing with an urgent issue. Other than that, once you start one of your items on your daily action list, you should then continue with that until it is done.

This is the hard thing, but if you look at the list of things that need to be done and pro-actively procrastinate on the unimportant and low value tasks, then you will find that you have more time for the bigger tasks.

Now, if this happened every single day it would be brilliant, but I am slowly but surely building the habit to make this happen.

What you look for is what you get

Posted on by philipdodson

So yesterday I posted on Facebook about what you look for is what you get? That got me thinking about that whole thing. Often, none of us realise the signals or messages we are sending out.

looking for

I mean in life, not just business. I hear so many people saying ‘I need these type of clients’. Yet you then listen to their ‘pitch’ and who they are targeting and then you think, that doesn’t match what you are looking for.

Also, people write and talk about certain values and yet in reality their actions don’t match what they say or write. It is a tough one this. None of us are walking on water and perfection is something you should never strive for in my opinion.

I love imperfection and it will only cause no amount of beating yourself up for failing, when you strive to be perfect.

So, I am not sure that, there are many people who live every moment of their life, living completely true to their values. However, the closer what you do, matches what you say you are going to do, then the happier you will be.

So going back to opportunities, we miss so much of what we are looking for in life because we send the wrong message/signals and that can often attract the wrong people/opportunities. This can leave us wondering why.

The reason I think is, if we behave in a way that matches our values and are clear in putting out the message, then that tells others what we want and what we stand for. Then all of sudden, we attract the right people and then those people help us see and unlock the right opportunities.

Often in life, we assume that others can almost read our mind. We say things internally to ourselves about what we want, types of customers, type of partner etc, but then we do not verbalise that message clearly to others.

So we think that we are, but in fact when you stop to look at what we do say or how we act, then you realise, I have many times, that the message is either wrong or we are putting in the wrong way.

It is often useful to write these things down, starting with working out what our values are and what we stand for, then verbalising that in a clear message that others will understand.

Interestingly, once you start doing this, it is amazing how you start to attract the people that you have always wanted to and you seem to find the wrong people, who perhaps you previously attracted and didnt know why, de-select themselves.

Then it is important to put your values into practice in all elements of your life. When I say life I mean exactly that, all to often people, mistakenly in my opinion, live a work life and a home life. They are the same thing. We talk about this work mask and home mask.

I have learnt that happiness and therefore success, only comes if you are yourself and if you are, as often as you can be, are true to your values. Then you surround yourself with the right people and then it is amazing the opportunities that come your way.

You are sending out the right signals, the right messages and that then, like a magnet, pulls towards you all the right opportunities.

Then over time what starts to occur is the compound effect, that gradually week by week, month by month, these consistent small steps create momentum.

However, it all starts with that change in the message, change in the signals. Get yourself happy and put out positive vibes, matched by action and then you start to open the right doors. Then that leads to the next and so on.

The same in reverse, unclear and perhaps negative signals/messages might not open any doors, however, can often open the wrong ones and take you down a different route in life. I know that, cause I have been down the wrong paths many times and not realising it was all due to the wrong outward message.

Rarely do we wake up and say ‘let’s screw things up today’ so often we get frustrated as to why we are not getting what we want. That goes back to my original point, what you look for is what you get. So start looking for the things that you really want and back them up with the words and actions that match that. If they are aligned to your values, then they will make you happy and successful.