Today, I want to focus on YOU and the fact that all of you can actually control your lives even though sometimes you may not think so.
So the first step is to look at your life in detail. Look at all 24 hours in the day for every day of the week. How should we organize those days and hours carefully?
You should be aware that you can increase your productivity and your efficiency by about 25 percent when you have a schedule for every day.
By carefully doing so, you actually will have enough time to do most, if not all the things that you need to do. Therefore, the key is to plan and develop an extremely detailed schedule for every day.
One of my mentor coaches suggests that you pick one set time a week, say Friday before you close the office, to block 30 minutes to plan the coming week.
Include all the things that you have to do for your job, your family, social groups, and other things. Make it comprehensive, including absolutely everything, and the more detailed you are, the easier it is to follow. This allows you to begin the weekend with peace of mind, knowing exactly what the coming week looks like.
I covered this in more detail in another episode called: How to plan your ultimate day.
A person who I respect greatly, Tony Robbins, is probably one of the busiest people in the world. Tony does not have any more hours in his week than you or I, but he generally completes everything on his busy schedule because his scheduling is detailed and really tight.
As you begin this weekly scheduling, you will need to occasionally adjust it as things come up or you have scheduled too tightly. You will need to have a little bit of flexibility. Also, those of you in industries where you at times have to put out fires, allow for oops time, a 1-2 hour window that’s open for unexpected things. This way, if a true emergency arises – and it is up to you to decide if the incident needs your immediate attention – then you can stop what you’re doing and take care of this emergency. During the oops time, you can finish the task you were working on when this incident interrupted you. However, make sure to keep these incidents to an absolute minimum.