Three Cheat Routine Actions To Take Control Of Your Work Day

Work can be like an intense game of ping-pong. Every day, calls, emails and texts are flying towards you grasping for your attention.

You can be in reactive mode and respond to your environment by hitting these metaphorical ping-pong balls back to anyone or anything that’s calling for your attention.

Or you can put down the bat, walk away from the table and get down to the real work of propelling your business forward.

If you want to feel more fulfilled and in control of how you spend your business day, follow these unique tips to make sure you make each hour count…

1. Find your minimum effective dose

In medicine there is a phrase called the minimum effective dose. This is the minimum amount of a pharmaceutical medicine a person needs to take for it to be significantly effective.

This theory can be used in the business world. In your business, what is the minimum amount of effort you could expend to make a drastic change in your business?

For example, if a large part of your business includes writing, what is the minimum amount you could write everyday that would give you the biggest outcome?

You may find that writing 600 words a day increases your energy, but after writing past 600 words your attention begins to fade and you begin to feel drained and tired. Writing 600 words a day, rather than trying to write 3,600 words in one day every week would be your minimum effective dose.

Try this: Today look for one activity in your business where you can find a minimum effective dose and try it everyday for a week. The shorter the activity, the better.

2. Plan reactivity and activity

Reactivity means responding to customers, your workers or other people vying for your attention as they contact you. Activity means spending time on tasks that help you reach your one-month, six-month and yearly business goals.

Ideally you want to outsource your reactivity tasks, but if you can’t, block out time in your schedule at the same time every day to work on both reactivity and activity tasks. For example, you can respond to calls, emails, texts, at 9am, 1pm and 4pm everyday for 30 minutes. During the other periods, you can work on activity and do things that propel your business forward.

If you stick to this plan everyday, you will find you will get more done, and you will feel more in control of how you spend your time.

Try This: For one day this week block out periods for activity and reactivity tasks. See if it increases your efficiency. If needed, mute all of your tech devices so you aren’t tempted to respond to messages as they arrive.

3. Spend 95% of your time on your top five priorities

Peter Bregman, Author of 18 minutes: Find your focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done advises people to pick their top five priorities and then spend 95 per cent of their time doing only those activities that fuel those priorities.

This gives you a compass on how to make decisions in your business.

For example, let’s say your top five priorities are to spend time with your family, grow your business profit by 5%, work with people with similar values, maintain your health, and have fun at work, when you are asked to attend a business networking event that is not fun, and involves people who do not have similar business values to you, you know that you should say no to the event.

Try This: For 24 hours decide whether to say yes or no to work or social opportunities based on your top 5 priorities. If you make decisions based more on feelings, you can change the priorities to feelings or values such as Joy, Power, Health, Love, Money etc.

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We believe there’s more that goes into a business than hard work. When you implement systems into your business that help propel you where you want to go, you will feel more powerful.

Let us help you grow your business. Contact us today for a free consult.