Many years ago, I began a daily habit that serves me well to this day. I started carving out an hour in the mornings to work on my projects—to implement. I call this time my “Time Capsule.” This is a capsule of time that I take every day (except Sunday) to focus on my top projects and take action. During this time, I don’t take phone calls and I don’t get involved in anything but working on my projects. The only person who can contact me during this time is my wife. If you have a key staff member who needs to be able to contact you because you are still working “in” the business, let that person know how to contact you, but to only contact you during that time if it is truly an emergency.
The best time for your Time Capsule is early in the morning before anyone else is awake. Especially if you have young children. Once you get involved in the duties of the day, it’s difficult to get back to your quiet time. Make a pact with yourself and impose a rule that you can’t do anything else until you’ve done your Time Capsule. You may groan at having to get up an hour earlier, but I would ask you if your dream is compelling enough. Do you have a dream? What do you get if you take massive action? What will the outcome be if you actually implement the things you need to implement? What is the cost of not doing it?
Impose a sense of urgency upon yourself (like the trip to Hawaii) and pretend you are going on vacation tomorrow. Do that every day. Speaking of vacation. I love the beach and one of the things that always helped me was to have a trip to the beach planned each quarter. I knew that if I worked really hard for three months, I had a nice reward at the end of it. Put your vacation in your plan and use that as a source of inspiration.
Focus on the biggest return-on-investment (ROI) projects. Once you’ve taken the Born To Win Business Assessment to see where you are now, pick four projects to build your systems. Pick the four strategies that you know will move your business forward in the next 90 days. Pick those that you know will help you reach your sales goals.
When you get overwhelmed, busy, and distracted, refocus by going back to the Phenomenal Four Projects. Work on those every day during your Time Capsule. Take action on your projects every day.
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