The Biggest Difference You Can Make to Your Working Day

In my last post I talked about a way to get more done in your day in less time.

And to get more done, it makes sense that you know what it is you need to get done before the day starts.

If you don’t – and we are all guilty of this – you fill your day reactively. You carry out tasks no matter how mundane and no matter how low their priority. You check your emails and respond to the demands of others. You get distracted by shiny objects be they emails, pinging messages, social media notifications or the urge to buy that something online.

In essence you waste a precious day, a day in which you could have achieved so much and which could have ultimately made a big difference to your business, which could have given you a confidence boost and an emotional break from the stress that is your to-do list.

Here’s the biggest difference you can make to your working day.

Prepare for it!

You knew I was going to say that but doing this is so important and here’s why.

If you don’t prepare for the day ahead, you won’t achieve the things you need to do in the time you need to do them and the quality of the results will reflect that.

This is because not only haven’t you set out what you need to do, but also you haven’t put yourself in the right frame of mind to be focused and productive. Plus, your brain hasn’t become tuned into the tasks that you need done and started working on how best to tackle them.

And if that’s not bad enough, because your brain isn’t tuned into the things that you need to do, it’s in default ‘open to distraction’ mode.

Our brain loves to be distracted – our brain, like all other animals, has evolved to be alert to the sound of something that might want to eat us.

When our email tool announces we have new mail, or our phone pings with a message, our brain is compelling us to respond to it. It’s itching to discover what this new message is. And if you succumb and check your emails or your messages your brain will reward you with a little injection of feel-good hormones.

The bottom line is that if you don’t prepare for your day then, almost as retribution you will end your day feeling…

  • Down because you didn’t achieve much;
  • Tired because you ended up working more hours because there were things you had to complete;
  • Guilty because you didn’t do your best work;
  • Angry because you really needed to get these things done and
  • Stressed because the tasks haven’t gone away and you’ve now impacted the days ahead.

I talk more about how our brains work to make us unproductive and I give 7 top tips for on how to be more productive and get thing done, in an article which you can find in my library of free resource.

Know what your key priorities are for the day, which ideally, should already be mapped out as part of a planned week and month, and estimate how long each task will take and hence, what tasks you should be able to complete in your time-restricted day.

Plan your day like this (and use your calendar) and restrict how many hours you work as we discussed previously.

Implement what I’m saying in this and the previous post and in the article in the membership site and you will not only get more done but you get more of the right things done – things that will benefit your business and not just fill your day.

Do check out my library of free resource, if you haven’t already – there’s a ton of material to help you build a successful business.