How often have you protested, “I don’t have time!” when friends or family ask you to do something?
Time slips so easily out of your hands you’ve probably said that on dozens of occasions. So how do you wake up early enough to get stuff done?
Well, it has nothing to do with the time or how early you wake up. You have the same amount of time as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Jack Ma: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. So what’s the difference between you and them?
It’s time management. I probably accomplish more in a day than most people complete in a month. People ask me all the time, “Dan, how do you get so much done? I don’t have time.”
The question you should be asking yourself is, “How can you devote your time to what’s important? How can you get yourself closer to your goals?” That’s what you want to focus on.
You will always have an endless number of tasks. I have so much to do every single day. So what do you focus on?
To find your focus, ask yourself: Is this moving me closer to my goals? Is it going to make me money? Is it going to benefit my family? Is it going to make me happier?
I believe busyness is a form of laziness. People get so busy doing so many things. But are you actually producing results?
You have to make choices that get you results every time you decide what to do. Rich people are busy too. I’m constantly focusing on tasks that I cannot delegate that are worthy of my time. So let me give you three simple tips to manage your day.
1. Be Ruthless About Your Outcome
Number one is you want to be absolutely ruthless about your outcome. When you think about it, most people have a lot to do. But they don’t think about what their tasks are going to produce. You need to ask yourself, “How will doing this task affect my life?”
The way it affects you depends on your goal. You want to be absolutely clear about your outcome because if you’re clear about your outcome, the way you get there might change. You might think of ways to do the task more effectively and efficiently. That’s why you need to be absolutely ruthless about your outcome.
For example, are you trying to increase your revenue? Maybe you want to get more customers but you need a faster way to get there. If you’re clear your goal is to increase your revenue, then the fastest way to achieve your goal is not to get more customers but to sell more to your existing customers. Or you could increase your price. You want to do what gets you to your goal faster.
2. Accomplish Six Tasks A Day
The second tip is you want to think about six things, six important, major items that you want to accomplish every single day. Not 10, not 20. Plan on what these items are the night before.
That means when you wake up, you will have six items that you want to cross off your list. Think about it. Six important items times five days a week, assuming you work five days a week. That’s 120 important things accomplished every single month that will move you closer to your goal.
3. Write Down What You Will Do
The third tip is don’t keep everything in your head. When your mind is cluttered, you have no clarity. Without clarity, you don’t have the ability to act. Clarity is power and power is the ability to take action. To get clarity, grab a pen and paper and write everything out.
If you want to use an application from your smartphone, that’s perfectly fine. I like paper and pen because that way is the easiest. So don’t keep everything in your head.
As a final word of advice, have you heard of the saying, “How do people eat a big elephant? One bite at a time.” That’s so wrong.
Here’s what you really want to do: bite off more than you can chew and then you chew like crazy. Got that?
So choose six things, write them down, and be ruthless about your outcome.
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