"How's it going?"
"Man, busy."
Notice how often that's the answer. A coach I worked with years ago challenged me to pay attention for one week to how people answered normal questions - about work, family, health, anything. Nearly everybody found a way to tell me how busy they were. The next week he had me say something totally random, like "Did you notice the sky was green today?" People still told me how busy they were.
I've done it too. Most of us have. We're running hard and not getting where we want to go.
You don't need more information
Here's the trap. When we feel stuck, we think we need more. More information. More goals. Another app. Another fancy planner. More motivation.
I've bought the leather planners. I've worked the planner instead of doing the work.
We don't need more information. We've had plenty for years. We need to apply what we already know, consistently. Great author Darren Hardy, who wrote The Compound Effect, puts it bluntly: busy is lazy. It's a lack of focus and a lack of priority. Darren says the most successful people he knows have more on their plate than most of us, and they still don't act busy. They've got it prioritized and planned.
What keeps us busy but stuck
A few things get in the way for almost everyone:
- Distractions. Our attention is under attack, and most of us start the day on someone else's agenda - email, social media, whatever's loudest.
- Low energy. A lot of us aren't lazy. We're overloaded, under-recovered and emotionally worn out.
- No clarity. Brendon Burchard teaches that seeking clarity is the number one high performance habit. When everything matters, nothing matters.
- The gap between intention and action. We try to change too much at once. We do a lot, a little bit, and then quit.
The fix isn't trying harder. It's a simple system you'll actually run.
A simple system: win the morning, day, week and year
Here's one built from four people I've learned from.
Win the morning
Tony Robbins says if you don't have 10 minutes in the morning for yourself to direct your day, you don't have a life. I'd say start with the first 15 minutes - about 1% of your day.
A simple 15-minute ritual:
- Reflect. What went well yesterday? Where did I drift? What needs my attention?
- Prioritize. What matters most today? No more than three priorities. If you've got more than three, you don't have any.
- Schedule. When will those things actually happen?
- Remove friction. Set out what you need. Put the phone a few feet away.
Of all four, this is the one that's made the biggest difference in my life.
Win the day
Andy Frisella, who started with one small supplement store in Springfield, Missouri, keeps it about as simple as it gets: five critical tasks a day that move the needle. Do all five and you won the day. Win more days than you lose and you win the week, the month and the year.
My suggestion: make three of them about your work, tied to your top one or two priorities. Save the other two for the personal stuff staring you in the face - your health, your faith, your family. And make them specific. "Complete the proposal" is a critical task. "Check email" is not.
I'll be real with you. This is the one I struggle with most. Some days I'm chasing my tail half the day.
Win the week
This one comes from Darren Hardy, and I've had to train it. Sunday evening, sit down for about 30 minutes and look at the next seven days. Don't try to perfect every hour. Just get aware of three things:
- What's scheduled that can't change?
- What's scheduled that's flexible?
- Where's my open time?
Then put the big rocks in first. Faith time. Family time. Fitness. Your top work priorities. Everything else fills in around them.
Win the year
Jesse Itzler has a giant wall calendar with all 12 months on one sheet. This is the one I've done naturally for as long as I can remember. Put the big stuff on it as early as you know it - trips, games, family time, health goals, business milestones. It keeps you from waking up at the end of this year in the same place you were at the end of last year.
The reps between the lessons
Years ago I took a few golf lessons. By the second or third one, the pro asked if I'd been practicing what he showed me between sessions. I had to be honest. No.
He said, "Then you don't need to keep coming. You'll show up with the same habits every time."
He was right. My golf game never got better, because I never did the reps between the lessons.
That's true of this article too. Reading it doesn't change anything. What you do between now and next week does.
Your One More Rep
Before you go to bed tonight, take five minutes with a notepad:
- Write down one outcome you're aiming at professionally.
- Write one to three priorities that line up with it.
- Write tomorrow's five critical tasks - three for work, two for you.
Then tell someone what you wrote, so somebody can hold you to it.
It's not about the numbers. It's about what it makes of you to go do it, and what you get to do for others once you have.
Have a great one, and let's grow!
