Here Are Five Tips to Help Reach Goals; Do What Matters

Effectiveness Matters!
Many times I ‘ll work twelve plus hours per day and still don’t accomplish everything I’ve set out to do.  A lot of days I’ll feel like I’ve  done a lot, but still haven’t reached my goals and objectives, and unfortunately ended up spinning my wheels.
So from a bit of experience, here are some pointers to avoid time suckers,  get focused quickly, and reach your goals.

1)Turn off technology: when in the booth, set the timer for 30 minutes and proceed to turn off all email and telephone “sounds” or anything that distracts while recording. After 30 minutes, take a refreshing, brief break, get some water, return phone calls, etc.   Sometimes, a quick voice to voice contact can beat lengthy email exchanges.

2) Bite off the hardest task first. Tackle the biggest, hairiest bullfrog first. The job or task that is the biggest challenge of the day. Once that’s out of the way, You’ll feel much of the pressure is in the past and the remainder of the day goes more smoothly and I have a big sense of accomplishment.

3) Task batching.   Schedule sessions,  meetings,  during specific blocks of time each day to engage in social media, bill pay, send out invoicing, write blog posts,  do marketing, and read and answer emails. You get the idea.  Resist the temptation to hang out on Facebook or Twitter too long. Before you know it, an hour is gone.

4) “Rush” doesn’t always mean urgent.  Take control of deciding what you’re asked to do by some clients, friends, and family in lieu of  income producing activities.  Remember,  someone else’s poor planning should not become your emergency.

5) Bookending. At the start of each day, plan the items to be accomplished by listing them.  At the end of the day , list what came into your work flow to be completed the next and list as the priorities anything that carried over from the previous day. Make a list! Each day you are closer to your goals.