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- Sep 12 2007
- 59 Comments
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Some days, you wake up to challenges...The alarm clock didn’t go off. The modem isn’t working. The milk has spoiled.
And yet, there are opportunities...
You awake to the feeling of sunshine streaming through a window. You read a newspaper instead of scanning news online. You drink your coffee black.
Each day brings new challenges and opportunities. But what if you could turn those challenges into opportunities for greater productivity?
It’s possible, because I do it every day.
Here’s the secret: Focus attention on the tasks that will lead to success.
Before you make your coffee... Before you butter your toast... Before you drop the kids off at school or complete any part of your morning ritual, ask yourself this question about your business day:
What am I trying to accomplish today? It’s a short question, but it packs a big punch.
Many of my coaching clients, most of whom are online entrepreneurs, are blinded by the prospect of making lots of money without spending much upfront.The potential of having a successful online business is enormously attractive. Not only does it sound cool to say “entrepreneur,” but it’s even better when you can define the term by saying “look at me.”
Yet, the same low-cost barriers to entry can bring a low probability of profit if you can’t address the question: What am I really trying to accomplish?
You need to spend some quality time figuring out what your objective is and how you need to focus your attention to accomplish and exceed that objective.
- Do you want to become the best Internet business coach?
- Are you hoping to sell self-help books online?
- Have you discovered a way to feed the masses and end world hunger?Whatever your goals, whatever your talents, you have to give this your full attention. Anything less will lead you in the wrong direction – closer to frustration and further from your goals.
So, ask yourself again: What am I trying to accomplish today? And continue to ask this question every day, several times a day, to maintain your focus on achievement.
I know from asking several of my coaching clients that many people struggle with this question.
It’s not because they lack confidence. It’s not because they are trying to be evasive. It’s simply because – no matter how long they have been thinking about building an online business – they just haven’t given the question sufficient, serious thought.
What are you trying to accomplish with your online business?
I am asking this question within the framework of our discussions about attention and, more specifically, our anticipated return on attention.
If you choose to give your attention to something that will become your livelihood, you should certainly know what you hope to accomplish with all of this attention, right?
Remember the examples in previous posts about Starbucks and Apple. Their corporate and critical success is about passion, customer service and paying attention to the right things.
You have to find those same magic seeds and spread them among your customers.
Without a well-researched and well-executed plan for growth, you stand little chance of succeeding against a world of competitors as an online entrepreneur.Yes, I said an entire world of online entrepreneurs.
Remember, the Internet is not located on a street corner; it’s located on the World Wide Web. Your competitors may be found anywhere on the globe. Are you ready to compete with them and win?
So, ask yourself again: What are you trying to accomplish today?
How will your focused attention translate into higher profits for your business?
If you’re struggling for an answer, it’s time to maximize your attention on the subject. Here are some tips:
- Prioritize. Gain the ability to organize your tasks in a way that aligns with your goals.
- Determine really clear short-term goals. Long-term goals are great, but the short-term goals provide a “scorecard” to make sure you are completing the most important things that will keep you moving forward.
- Upgrade your ability to deal with information. Take a speed reading course. Discover new methods of research and study. Become informationally efficient.I’ll have more tips on how you can accomplish these attention goals in Part 2 of The Attention Age Doctrine, which will be released later this month.
But in the meantime, I want to hear from you.
What are you trying to accomplish with your online business?
Besides trying to make lots of money...
No one knows better than you about your passion and goals. Share some of them here and build a community of fans who will cheer for you as you exceed your own business expectations.
You have my attention... Now, start accomplishing your goals.
Show me how it’s done.
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- Aug 10 2007
- 43 Comments
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Today I'm going to share with you one of the secrets to boosting your productivity and how to inject a lot more fun into your life.
It's an important and transformational concept that's simple to execute and you'll get the benefits immediately. Actually, I've been eager to share it with you for quite some time, so I am really excited to get you started right now.
I’ve been so busy these past few weeks. Crazy schedules with the Acceleration2 seminar in Delray Beach, Fla., and a whirlwind of other business events have really tapped my resources of late, but the old energy is starting to come back. I’m feeling invigorated again, and not a moment too soon …
The past two months have been an amazing growth period in my professional life, and I hope in yours as well. In fact, this one technique I am going to share with you is one of the reasons for my company's phenomenal growth. I’m really excited about the prospects of our future conversations about business, life, and how they meet at the intersection of success and opportunity.
I want to follow-up on my promise to you in a May 16 blog post. In that post I invited you and my other readers to share 20 fun things you like to do. I then promised you I would show you how to use this list to dramatically boost your productivity and be a lot more successful, a lot sooner.
I was amazed at the number of readers that responded. To date, 206 readers shared with the rest of us the fun activities they enjoy in their lives.
I had my staff turn all these wonderful responses into a pdf that you can download right here:
Now I'll tell you the concept , why it's so powerful, the exact steps you need to take and the results you can expect from this amazing productivity tip.
A core problem for a majority of entrepreneurs is that we fail to schedule fun into our day. We do this because we think we will get more done, but in reality this has the opposite effect. We end up becoming less effective, procrastinate more, become less focused, more burnt-out, irritable and stressed.
Most entrepreneurs valiantly squeeze all of the fun out of their day in order to schedule more time at work, as if hours in front of a computer somehow magically translate into additional income. But too much work and too little play has that all too common side effect of “work” time being wasted because we are simply not productive or can't get started on the big projects.
I touched on this in the Internet Business Manifesto, and it’s worth a reminder here. If you are productive just four hours out of every day, as many entrepreneurs are, why insist on working 10 hours a day in spite of yourself? There are certainly better ways to improve our production, but adding more and more hours of procrastination, frustration, confusion and overwork just doesn’t seem the wise way to go.
You see, when you are staring at some big project that must get done, a part of you is thinking about how long it will take, and all the fun things you aren't going to be able to do. When you start thinking this way it's only natural to either procrastinate and postpone, or give a half-hearted effort.
So here's the prescription:
I want you to go through the pdf we compiled for you - and pick out 21 activities that you would have fun doing and that you are capable of doing without too much additional effort. Then I want you to schedule one activity per day right on your calendar in the middle of your day. The only condition is, it must be something you really look forward to doing.
Once again, you can download that comprehensive list right here.
I can hear you screaming, "But when am I going to get all my work done?"
Here's the counter-intuitive reality you'll experience:
You'll be much more inclined to work before you experience your fun activity (like gleefully completing all of your nagging tasks before leaving on vacation) and you’ll be much more productive and efficient while doing the work.
Why? Because you now have your fun activity breathing down your back forcing you to get as much done before you HAVE TO go enjoy yourself.
It’s time for you to commit to adding fun activities each day into your life, for the betterment of yourself, your business, your family and your community. Stated more simply, have fun each day and you’ll be more successful.
If you aren’t already enjoying each and every day, you are missing out on something tremendous. If you’re ready to make more and enjoy your life to the fullest, here’s all you have to do:
Step 1 – Review the pdf and highlight, underline or check the activities that you believe you would enjoy, that you can do without too much coordination with others, and can be completed from start to finish in less than two hours (you must come up with at least 21 of them).
Step 2 – Keep that list handy and break out your calendar, your to-do list, or whatever you use to schedule your day. Be proactive, start scheduling fun activities right now. Go ahead, really reward yourself. Do it for the next 21 days, I promise it will be worth it.
Step 3 – Whatever you do, don’t break the pattern. Make sure you do this each and every day. You’ll find yourself looking forward to new and fun events as you come up with more and more of them. By making them a central part of your day, and by including others, you’ll get the real benefit of refocusing your attention on what matters, and away from what manages to drive you nuts and suck the life out of your business.
Remember: Fun is an infinitely refreshing resource and the more we dip into it, the better we’ll all be.
It is imperative to “schedule” some spontaneous play into your day. Be a child again. Make play a part of every day and learn to smile again. An added benefit will be the great ideas that come to you when you are out there having fun. (Haven’t you ever noticed that your best ideas come when you are away from your computer, work or office?)
Apply this seemingly simple principle – adding fun to every day – and you’ll find, in short order, that you will be more productive. You’ll feel more refreshed, less frustrated and increasingly eager to get your work done so you can race to the next fun item on your calendar. It’s a built-in reward system – the “workday candy” that we offer ourselves – that keeps us focused and going strong.
Don’t you want to have more fun?
Just to be clear, the key to the “21 things you enjoy” exercise is not to shirk work or otherwise diminish your self-worth and work responsibilities. Quite the contrary. Scheduling more guilt-free play in your life can attack the underlying causes of procrastination, lack of focus and marginalized results. It’ll make you a much more productive, lively and enjoyable person. I promise!
It’s time to change the way we speak to ourselves about our work. It’s time for a total attitude change when it comes to looking through our own prism of productivity.
The importance of play must be emphasized in business, particularly in an age that sucks us in through incessant information overload. You’ve heard me rail about this many times before.
There has to be a separation in life that provides a necessary “breather” in our busy schedules. Looking forward to fun activities allows us the oxygen to move forward with confidence and our full focus.
Should we throw away our career responsibilities, ignore pressing deadlines and avoid the hard work that needs to get done? Of course not. However, recognizing that we are more likely to work productively when we can anticipate pleasure and success can prove to be a tremendous advantage for our personal health and the health of our respective businesses as well.
Let me know what you think and what exciting ideas and inspirations have come from your newly scheduled fun time. Keep me and the rest of my readers updated on your success with this unconventional, yet highly rewarding strategy.
Now, go have some fun!
To Higher Profits,
Rich SchefrenP.S. I'll have a lot more in store for you over the next few weeks, including the final installment of my Attention Age Doctrine.
If you are new to this blog or if you would just like to join in the fun – literally – check out the list of enjoyable things to do and add your own recommendations. Make sure fun is an important part of your day. Then post a comment to let me know how you made out.
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- Mar 27 2006
- 0Comments
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So, did you take action on the last post?
Were you more effective because of the 5 minute exercise you did?
If so, keep up the good work - If not, why not? Did you not follow through? Did you pick the wrong activity? Did you not do the exercise?
Remember, in everything you do, whether good or bad, strive for clarity!
Yesterday I promised I would share with you what I believe to be the five skills necessary in order to be an strategic entrepreneur. The five skills are:
1 - Managing Your Time
2 - Focusing Your Efforts On Important Results
3 - Making Your Strengths Productive
4 - Concentrating Your Efforts On Those Activities That Are Most Important To The Results You Desire
5 - Making Effective & Strategic Decisions
The 2 core skills - (#1) Managing Your Time and (#4) Connecting your Efforts On Whats Really Important, determine how strategic and effective you, the entrepreneur really are. You can get more of every resource except for time.
Time is your most constricting resource - so time management is critical to getting the right things done. So, step one (and the basis for your assignment today) is to get really clear about where your time goes and then doing whats necessary to eliminate those tasks and activities that waste your time and the time of those who work for or with you.
Your assignment for today:
(1) Go to the link below: http://www.crypto-central.com/html/timekeeper.html
(2) Download TimeKeeper and start using it.
(3) Use the billing code to represent the different roles or areas of responsibility you currently have.
(4) Use the software for the next 7 days you are working.
(5) Print a weekly time report and email it to me before our next one on one call.
Why I recommend TimeKeeper... If you work in front of your computer and you've never attempted to work in a focused manner on the activities that are most important, then simply having the software will improve your productivity all by itself. But the real benefits will be next week when we get a clear picture of how you are currently spending your most precious resource - YOUR TIME!
Don't delay get the software now, and start using it today.
You'll thank me later - I promise.
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