So, with the previous blog, we’ve established that being busy isn’t always best. It doesn’t necessarily make you more important or even more successful. But busyness can keep you from focusing on what’s fundamental to your success.
But only if you let it.
Years ago, I listened to a talk by a salesperson who had been injured in a terrible cycling accident. He was very successful and, in fact, was attending a recognition event in Florida. He went out for a bike ride with his wife, and an elderly man accidently hit him with his car, leaving the salesperson severely injured.
His recovery was long and difficult, and his doctors finally cleared him to return to work—but with one caveat: He could only work four hours a day. He needed to build up his strength, and working more than four hours each day, they cautioned, would be detrimental to his recovery.
He was disappointed with the news, because he was used to working 50-plus hours a week. Also, he didn’t want to take a step back financially or compromise with lesser goals than he had had in the past. He was disheartened because he prided himself on hard work. Indeed, that hard work had proven to be his model of success. But the fact was, he could no longer be first in and last out at his office. His available time was extremely limited.
So he decided that desperate times called for desperate measures. If he only had four hours a day to work, he would focus only on those things that generated income. He would delegate—or simply not do—all those other things that made up the rest of his workday, even though he had always prided himself on being able to do it all.
The result? His income went up during that curtailed year. His earnings outperformed his expectations. You see, by only focusing on moneymaking activities, he cut out the busy work. He put first things first. Using principles from Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog!, he started his day with the hard, important tasks. Then he moved on to other important activities and didn’t make time for things that wasted his precious, limited time.
Now, thankfully, it doesn’t take a catastrophic cycling accident to make us focus on important activities and use our time wisely. We know what to do; we just need to do it.
And we can. It takes discipline and determination. It often means delaying gratification, but I remember seeing a great cartoon that read, “Instant gratification isn’t quick enough.”
Starting your day with Outlook isn’t the model for success. It is a path to busyness and wasted time. Instead, start the day with the most important thing you need to accomplish, and you will do what you do better.
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