be honest

Everyone knows it’s not a good idea to scroll social media all day, but when it comes to focusing on low leverage tasks that don’t move the needle in our business?

We give ourselves a pass.

It still counts as ‘work’ doesn’t it?

I can still say I work 12 hours per day right?

Right?

On Instagram you can fake it. 

But your bank account won’t lie to you.

Here are some of the behaviors that kill you, let me know if they sound familiar:

• Let anyone book a call with you at any time

• Never do focused work, just fit some in between calls

• Constantly talk to your team and have slack open

• Have 100 tabs open 

• Don’t have a plan

• Don’t prioritise the most important stuff first

• Make sure to use as many excuses as you can

• Switch between tasks constantly

• Load up on sugar and coffee until your stress hits inhumane levels

• Go with your gut and try your best!

• Don’t block any distractions, just let them in every time

Without the right behavior, your time is worth nothing and your focus is worth nothing.

Here are some quickfire tips to help you change you get 10x more output: 

• Block the first 3-5 hours of the day and build your schedule so you can only take calls after 11 or 12. If you can’t do this in the morning, block your calendar in the afternoon. No matter what, have five hours blocked on your calendar and fit everything else around it. The world doesn’t explode when you don’t reply for a few minutes.

• Work with a 60 minute timer, then take a 10 minute break. After the 60 minutes, fill out a form that asks you what you did in the previous hour. This keeps you accountable, and tracks your work rate so you can improve it. Bonus points if you forward the form responses to an accountability partner. 

• Set a standard to never miss your ‘five focused work hours.’ Write it down every day like Bart Simpson. “I never do less than five focused work hours in a day” and start making it a part of your identity.

• Make a plan at night for how you will move the needle next day. Make sure you never get to your desk without knowing what you will do in each work block.

• To figure out what you need to be doing, make a list of every potential task you could potentially do.
  
  Then ask yourself “if I could only do one of these tasks, which one would have the greatest impact on the business?”
  
  Then that will be task #1.
  
  Then ask “If I could only do two tasks, what would be the 2nd?”
  
  And repeat for the third thing.
  
  This follows the idea that those top three tasks will bring you 90% of the impact, and everything else can be done later, done by someone else, or not done at all.

If that sounds like stuff you’ve heard before, why are you not doing it?

Are you too good to do all of these things?

Do you have such a strong sense of confidence, that you are ‘above’ doing all the things that allow you to work the right way?

I hope not.