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I recently shared on Instagram a post about not going into work because my motivation was broken. When you get to certain times of the year, whether it's the end-of-the-year holidays, midwinter blues, you name it, the motivation can kind of slip away where you don't feel motivated to do anything. As an entrepreneur, you get into those stages quite a bit, especially when things are going slower than you want them to be, and also when you get in to those situations where there's a lot going on and you're trying to get everything done before yesterday. Well, pro tip, you're not going to get it at all done.
I found many, many, many years ago after a lot of bumps and bruises, and arteries being blocked, and heart attacks, and all the other fun stuff, that you have to just focus on doing a couple things a day. So every morning, I have an idea of what I'm going to be working on for this day. Now, mind you, there's going to be things that come up, such as illnesses of loved ones, or power outages, or you name it. There going to be all kinds of different things that'll become little road blocks for you getting things done. The key is just to get past those things and realize, all right, I'm not going to get all those things done. So, you pick up the next day, and away you go.
I usually use, basically, an online tool, although you can use paper, Post-it Note, whatever method of technology you choose to use to keep track of the things you need to work on. And every day, pick one or two and get those done. There's the phrase, I'm sure a lot of you have heard about, eating the frog first and that is doing the task that you hate, get that done first. I don't do that as often as I should, but there are days where I do that.
Yesterday, as a matter of fact, there's something that I've been meaning to and needing to do. Deadline was at the end of this week, and I finally got around to doing it yesterday. It was something that literally took me 20 minutes to do, wasn't this thing where I was going to be hours on end. It was 20 minutes and it's been sitting on my desk to do forever. Quite frankly, I should've done it when I had the opportunity because I had all the information to do it. But we run into those situations a lot. I'm sure you do, too. In the comments below, you can chime in on some of the things that you're struggling with and trying to get done that you need some help on. Hopefully we can help out and we can figure out a way to help you or encourage you getting those things done.
One things that helps, too, is when you start getting momentum of finishing things. There's going to to be this, I guess, euphoria of, okay, now I can work on other things. There's a couple things you could probably do, maybe keep another list of low priority tasks that you can work on. But, I want to warn you on taking on the world when you feel like you have all this momentum, because what happens is sometimes you can burn out your energy, and then the next day, you don't get anything done, so pace yourself. Figure out your rhythms. Figure out your energy levels, and I can help you with that as well. I match my task time with my energy levels. I found that I tend to be working a lot better in the mornings, so that's when I work on things. The afternoons, I try to keep open for meetings and a variety of other tasks.
Your homework for tomorrow is start thinking about how you would design your ideal day. Tomorrow we'll talk a little bit more about that.
Cheers.