I’ve seen it happen again and again. You wake up in the morning ready to go. You’ve already decided, “Today’s the day.” It might be the day that you’re going to clear off your to-do list. Maybe you’ll spend the day making sales calls. Or maybe it’s the day that you’re finally going to tackle the new program that you’re creating. Whatever it is… “Today’s the day.”
Then…the day is over. You’ve been busy all day. You have not accomplished what you set out to do. You’ve been here before; unfortunately it’s familiar territory. “Oh well,” you think, “I guess I’ll do it tomorrow.”
I have found that there are three key things that land us in “What the heck happened? Where did the time go?” syndrome (okay, there are more than three but these are the biggies). Keep an eye out for them and you’ll be much more likely to accomplish your goals.
Mistake #1: Starting your day with email. Plain and simple… Most emails that you receive are someone else’s priority. When we start our day with email we put those priorities in front of our own. And It’s incredibly easy to get sucked into email and spend hours at it. If you absolutely must check your email at the beginning of the day, decide what you are looking for and what type of emails you will respond to, then set a timer for yourself to limit the amount of time you spend at it before getting to your own priorities.
Mistake #2: Doing one thing first. I think of all the mistakes this is the biggest, and we’ve all done it. Here’s what happens. You have a goal in mind. Let’s say you need to make a phone call to follow up with a potential client. You’re ready to make the call, but you decide to do one thing first. What happens is that “one thing” expands into many things and it pulls you off track. You end up forgetting what you needed to do or it gets to be too late to do it. The day ends and you still haven’t made that call. My suggestion here is quite simple. Recognize that this is something you are susceptible to and become aware of when you do it. You can start by asking yourself if what you’re doing is a what you want to be doing or is it “one thing first.”
Mistake #3: Starting off without a clear plan or objective. This is the quickest way to get pulled down a rabbit hole. The very first thing you do each day (and ideally the last thing you do in the evening when you close up shop) needs to be to decide what you’re going to do. Here are some thoughts to consider that will help you create your plan. What are your overall priorities? What project is going to move you closest to that priority? What steps are you going to be taking to move that project further along? The more specific you can be, the better it will be for you and the easier it will be for you to stay on track.
I’ve shared the three biggest mistakes I see entrepreneurs make every day in their business. These mistakes are stopping you from reaching your income goals. They are stopping you from reaching your business goals. Tell me what are you going to do differently TODAY to keep you on track and let’s make it happen.
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