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Strategic Alliance Of The Century
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Two Titans of Internet Marketing Have Joined Forces To Take YOUR Online Business To A Level You’ve Never Imagined…
Watch as Rich Schefren and Brad Fallon reveal:
- An unprecedented Internet marketing event (sure to raise your bottom line)
- How they're harnessing Strategic Alliances (and how you can easily do the same)
- How to leverage the strengths of others (and send your sales through the roof)
- And grow your business by leaps and bounds (faster than you've ever imagined)
View Rich Schefren and Brad Fallon video
- Apr 10 2008
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12 Comments
Cut To The Chase…Dammit!
Published in Blog
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Do you ever end your day wondering… “did I really get the important stuff done today?”
Most entrepreneurs, both online or off, do. Here’s a quick strategy that’ll eradicate any lingering doubts you might possess about your productivity. Because you’ll be certain you’re getting the important stuff done.
In my work coaching many of today’s top Internet marketers these questions surfaced quite often:
• How can I stop wasting time?• How can I get other people to stop wasting my time
• How can I get more done in less time?
• How can I feel good at the end of the day about what I accomplished?
Do any of these questions sound familiar? If so, you grasp increasing productivity is more than just working faster. In fact, it’s about discipline and purpose. Two traits entrepreneurs often struggle with.
Let’s talk about discipline first. If you find yourself struggling to accomplish what’s on your to-do list, or sticking to your schedule - these time-tactics often do the trick:
1. Use The More Powerful Part Of Your Brain. Know your most important outcomes for the next day before you go to bed. You don’t necessarily need to know how you will spend your day when you hit the sack… but certainty about the results you want - gives your unconscious mind a chance to figure out the best ways to get it done while you’re sleeping. The next morning… plan your schedule for the day and you’ll be surprised with what you come up with.
2. Use Anchor Activities. First, transfer your to do list to your calendar. But make sure to position anchor activities to keep you on track. An anchor activity is a task that will enforce discipline even if you don’t have any yet.(For example: left to my own devices when I am talking to a friend/peer the conversation might go on for hours, but if I have another important call to make 30 minutes later than I know I won’t spend longer than 30 minutes on the first call. So - the second call is an anchor activity.)
Anchor activities ensure what you might lack in discipline right now doesn’t interfere with what must get done.
3. Do The Uncomfortable First. Attack your most important, most intense, and highest leverage activities first thing when you start work. Here’s why: Doing so generates momentum and confidence you can ride the rest of the day.
4. Look At Yourself & Learn. At the end of the day evaluate your performance. If you did a good job-what specifically helped you get the job done? If you got off track-what took you off track and how can you prevent that in the future? This step is frequently neglected… which is a shame, because it’s the fastest path to ever-increasing levels of productivity.Now, let’s talk about being purposeful…
Way too many entrepreneurs don’t keep their eye on the prize. They go into meetings, get on phone calls, talk to staff and contractors, and plan their day not being clear about the specific outcome desired in each of these activities.
The solution? It’s simple. Get into the habit of asking yourself “what’s my outcome?” every time you transition into a new activity. To make it a habit, put visual reminders everywhere you can see them until it becomes your default way of operating.
What I do when I want to develop a new way of thinking is this: I write it in my daily schedule, on post-its on my desk, on index cards around me, and on a label on the bottom of my computer monitors. I find having so many reminders makes it simple to be consistent and anything you do consistently develops into a habit quickly.
So there you have it. You now have a strategy to get more disciplined, more purposeful, and ultimately much more productive.
What do you think? Let me know and everyone else how you do with the strategies… and, if you’ve got strategies of your own-we’re all ears.
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12 Comments to “Cut To The Chase…Dammit!”
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Posted By Rich Schefren
At age 22, Rich's very first business involved taking over a failing clothing store, which at that time, was doing 1.5 million dollars in sales (even though the breakeven was a whopping $3 million!) Within three years, the store was cranking in well over $6.5 million - with 25% of it dropping directly to the bottom line! -
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How true is it rich?
Time is nothing but an emotional representation…
isn’t in the past we felt the time running so much faster when we’re doing a passionate or an interesting work..
also when we are pushing ourselves into a work which is not so much intersting,doesn’t the same time felt like to be over the legs of a snail….
so it is better to do a purpose driven action plan than having a to-do list…
it is lot more easier to manage life than to-do lists…..
I just finished reading Rich’s Attention Age Doctrine 2 and I have been a Jay Abraham practioner for about 16 years. Since Rich suggests that you must “give away” your best practices to be socially received let me share something with you that will help with this massive overload problem that everyone is faced with. I recently attended the Strategic Profits seminar that Rich organized. All of the speakers were experts and willing gave great information to the 400 participants. I decided to do my own little personal survey of about 40 people. I asked the person first if they found the seminar of value. 100% said that they did. Then I asked, “now that you have been exposed to all of this great information, what are you going to do next to implement it?” 100% of the people that I spoke to who were all business owners said, ” Ireally don’t know where to start”. Years ago when I first started to attend Jay Abraham seminars that were packed with great marketing strategies that I have used in my businesses and with my clients I struggled with how do I take all of this wonderful stuff that I just learned and share it with my team? After trying 8-9 different ways to solve this problem I finally came up with a fairly easy to use process that since then I have personally used with more than 3,000 clients. Rich has just convinced me to share it openly with others. If you are intrested in knowing more feel free to send me an email at consultant@Vision-In-Action.com and I will figure out the best way to disseminate this process based on market demand.
Warmly,
Bob
One of the reasons why it is so difficult for people to use their time to the best advantage is because they don’t put themselves into the mix. I believe that much of the teaching, although very good, actually wants to put everyone into the same box. However, we are all different and because of this we have to take all the ideas and then see which fit our own situations and personality.
For example, “do the uncomfortable first” will stop me from getting anything done because it is a hurdle which grows and blocks out everything else. I tell myself that I will complete such and such first and then tackle the nasty while I’m on a roll. This works for me.
Don’t take too long making to do lists. Do, though, keep a list of what you have completed. Then at the end of the day/week/month you have a record of what you have done rather than a list of what you haven’t done.
This was quite useful Rick.
I also add that having to write my five successes for the day each evening (from T. Harv Eker) helps me to always keep my eye on what is a success and what is just killing time.
And I focus on understanding when is the best time for certain activities for me. As much as I try, I cannot design fashion items during the day with employees and customers to attend to. So I now design in the evenings or on the weekend.
What a ‘Light-Bulb’ post this is.
I’ve put it on my toolbar so that it’s permanently THERE!
The ‘Sleep-on-it’ theory was something I’d used years ago,
but let slip and eventually evaporate. I’d forgotten what a
good tool that is.
Thanks for the ‘JOLTS!’ Rich,
Pete.
One technique I use to stay focused is actually a tid-bit I picked up from a seminar on managing office gossip!
The discussion was on how to prevent the spread of gossip. So the speaker said to ask yourself “What would I do with this knowledge if I learned it?” In other words, if I DID discover that my co-workers Jon and Mary are having an affair, what I do with the knowlegde (besides spread it around)? Nothing. And therefore - let it go.
So, when something now comes along to distract me, I ask myself “What would I do with this knowledge if I learned it?” And 99% of the time, the answer is: “less than what I am doing at the moment.” And I can get back on task, not only guilt-free but secure that what I am doing is in fact the most important thing in the world, damn it!
Rick Carter
“Don’t Just Build A List - Build A COMMUNITY”
P.S. I like the “sleep on it” point also. Very Zen.
Dear Rich
Thank you for passing us on to Shawn and Tellman, I’ve gone through the 6 free learning videos even though 3 of them I was familiar with but it was really great following step by step just incase we had missed anything important.
Can’t wait till I receive more hands on stuff…..its great to meet people who care about those of us who have spent 1,000’s on dead end software that only give us half the story about making money online ……they are the real McCoy…that’s for sure..
thanks a lot
Paulene
Rich - as always some great points. An interesting experiment is to work with these same concepts when your dealing with teams.
Some of the work we’re doing brings the concept of shared vision and alignment to the forefront as you work to have a whole team maximizing their time and experiencing outstanding team results. And check out what we’ve determined.
Any vision or set of strategic initiatives that exists on more than one-page rarely gets executed to 100% accuracy! But it gets worse. Designating strategy without defining tactics and tasks, as well as those accountable, usually stalls projects and puts timelines in jeopardy.
So, like your concept of pre-determining outcomes, if working with teams it becomes imperitive to predetermine outcomes as a whole, including who’s responsible, and the daily tasks that lead to completing tactical measures that are necessary for strategic initiatives…whoa, talk about some planning time!
Another great trick is to define your desired outcomes in terms of themes and pre-determine the rewards when the outcomes are hit.
In our organization we set the themes for 90 days and the key outcomes are defined in terms of tactical measures that are getting us closer to our annual strategic initiatives. This quarter’s theme is to “Change Our World” a link to the team building activities that we’re building and how they literally change the lives of families in need with every one we run - fun and impactful.
When all of the outcomes happen, we’ll change our own world with a pre-determined investment that will be out of this world.
Focus and Results = Reward. Another fun stratgey.
Rich,
For once, I totally disagree with one of your comments:
re: “What I do when I want to develop a new way of thinking is this: I write it in my daily schedule, on post-its on my desk, on index cards around me, and on a label on the bottom of my computer monitors. I find having so many reminders makes it simple to be consistent and anything you do consistently develops into a habit quickly.”
That approach is a complete violation of David Allen’s superb advice in ‘Getting Things Done’. Simplify, centralize. Don’t get overwhelmed with too many places that have ‘to do’ reminders. Go to ONE place and one place only….regularly.
Mike Corso
Cool Site of the Day’s Guide to Building Profitable Web Sites FAST>
Mike, I appreciate your opinion however I disagree
What you are referring to is David’s advice on actions items.
But when it comes to thinking differently David agrees with my advice. He often suggests clients create visual reminders until they install certain important habits, like asking themselves the two vital questions that all projects require.
There is a big difference between “To Do” reminders “To Think” reminders. With a “To-Do” you get it done when you are in the proper context and then it’s gone for good. With a “To-Think” you need to do it over and over again until that style of thinking becomes your default mode of operating.
I hope that clears it up.
rich schefren
Most folks don’t get more done because the do not know themselves. They have no way to accurately evaluate the velocity of their decisions and actions.
All 4 of the elements above lead to…
Self-awareness and business-awareness.
This lets you “cut to the chase” because you intuitively know what REALLY is important. It’s not that people are not getting things done, it’s just the wrong things.
Peace,
Paul
The Original PLR Turnkey Business System
Great article Rich,
This is a subject entrepreneurs need to hear. It’s so easy to get sidetracked. I have struggled with bouncing around from task to task and not really accomplishing anything. The advise you gave about doing the uncomfortable first really has worked for me. Also I focus on the activities that will generate sales first and then finish the other activities. I like the advise that one commenter made about T Harv Ecker- writing down what successes you made at the end of the day..
Great info
Maria Cronk