A few years ago, I asked one of the more successful people I know how he keeps so many balls in the air and manages a huge team with so little effort.
Do you know what he told me? He said, “Stop making so many damn lists! Just get it done”.
And you know what, it sounds so simple but it really worked for me. When I simply stopped making lists and started returning the emails and calls I received everyday, I became about 15% more productive on average. Why? I got things done. That was his point exactly.
For example, when a task came up that would take a few minutes of my time, I may have stopped what I was doing to pull out my iPhone and jot it down in my favorite reminder application, setting the date, start time, timer, description, etc. The fact is, I already stopped what I was doing. My train of thought is broken. I could have completed that task in nearly the same amount of time as it took me to enter it in my program. Plus, I wouldn’t have to think about it again. Instead of being interruped twice (once by entering the task into the list and once completing the task) I am only interrupted once. Simple? Yes. Effective? Absolutely.
Time management in attraction marketing is a constant game of ping-pong, and one key secret to attaining success is keeping the balls moving AWAY from you. It’s not mind reading per-se but more just smart thinking.
Remember, you want to be providing value to your prospects and the primary way you do this is through providing useful information. Instead of marking an item unread after reading it, hit the reply button, type a quick two line response, paste in any requested links or files and send it out. Done!
Now it’s probably not going to be effective for the groceries, but when interacting with prospects it has been an invaluable tool in helping me stay connected with a large and ever-growing network of customers.
So that’s my tip of the day – don’t let your lists control your life. Use them sparingly, and you’ll find you have a lot more free time to focus on the important things in your life – like getting new leads.
Keep on moving forward,
Shaun Mackey
P.S. Thanks Matty!
