What does a ‘Perfect Day’ look like?

Over the past few years, a number of people have asked me what sort of tools and techniques I use to best prepare myself to have a successful and productive day. This blog post is simply an explanation of what I do to make sure that I do everything that I need to do in order to maintain a high level of productivity.

My approach has developed significantly since I started my own business. The time is now my own; no one else is paying me for it. I am fully accountable for the success or failure of this venture and with this accountability comes the necessity to be exceptionally productive.

So how do you set yourself up for success – how do you prepare to have a ‘good day?’

Well, this starts at the end of the previous working day. My wife normally gets home at around 7pm, which signals the end of my working day. 7pm is when the computer gets left alone and emails stop getting checked. My focus turns to my family and making sure I take the time to listen and hear how her day went. There’s not much point in building a business, which supports your family at the expense of weakening your relationship with them. That’s the domestic equivalent of ‘winning the battle at the expense of the war.’

At 6pm I stop working and take 20mins to meditate. It still feels a bit strange to tell people that I do that but I find it very helpful. It’s taken me a few months to get to the point where I can completely switch off but I can now do it and afterwards I get absolute clarity of thought – it is energising more than anything.

At 6.20pm, I reflect on the day. I take my ‘to-do’ list and write in a journal what I have delivered that day – what are the actions that I have done. This keeps me connected with my goal of what I want to achieve which will make my business successful. It confirms that everything I’ve done that day will take me to where I want to go.

I also write what I have learnt – even if it is just a couple of bullet points. When you start your own business, the learning curve is steep, it is important to capture as much of it as possible so that at the end of the week you can see how you are developing. I also take Shawn Achor’s advice.

For those of you that don’t know him – watch this TED talk – https://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work?language=en

I write down three things that I am grateful for and I relive and write down a positive experience for the day. This coupled with meditation and exercise helps keep me in the right frame of mind. Building a business is about playing the long game.

Every worthwhile accomplishment big or little, has it’s stages of drudgery and triumph: a beginning, a struggle and a victory – Ghandi

It is important to remain connected to the ‘victories’ and your ‘reasons why’ to keep you motivated and focussed. In order to keep your energy levels up – you need to look after yourself.

At around 6.40pm, I plan for the next day. I do this now because my mind is still in the game and I am still focussed on my work. If I try to do it first thing in the morning, I find that I am disconnected from what I did yesterday and it takes me longer to do. I plan my list of tasks starting with ‘the most important thing that needs to happen to make my business successful’. I use the Eisenhower matrix (see previous blog – ‘Are you really busy?) to really plan this in detail. If I have any meetings, I make sure that I have booked time in advance to do a bit of research on that person and prepare for the conversation. Typically, I ask, what do I want to get out of this conversation? How do I make best use of this person’s time so that we can exchange the most amount of value possible?

This whole process can take up to an hour, but normally takes a little less than that so that I can spend a bit of time with my daughter before my wife comes home.

Time is our most valuable resource. Being busy and being productive are not the same thing. Being busy without a clear picture of what you want to achieve and working towards it is like getting into your car and driving without a clear idea of where you are going or a plan to get there. You’re really just burning fuel.

How you are regularly measuring success is also important – do you have a balance of lead and lag indicators that you regularly check? Revenue and profits are all lagging measures. They are a measure of your success from a historical perspective – they tell you how well you’ve done but they aren’t great predictors of success in the future – they don’t tell you how well you are going to do.

Let me bring this to life with an example…

I know that in order to build my business, one of the best things I can do is build a network of people who understand the value of leadership. These are the people that understand that building a long-term successful business requires you to develop the skills and capabilities of your people and they are willing to invest in it.

So every week, I make a commitment to meet eight new people and have a conversation about what we do and see if we can help each other out. I am actively looking to build relationships and help people because I know that this is where great opportunities come from.

Meeting eight people is a leading indicator. It is a target that drives my behaviour to ‘get out there’ and connect with more and more people.

This week, I’ve exceeded my target. I’ve met eleven new people so far and have six planned meetings/telephone conversations over the next two days. It has been a bit of an exceptional week but I went to a networking event last night, which explains why the number is unusually high.

The magic number though is eight. I know that if I keep meeting eight new people and explain to them that what I do ‘saves them time – typically around a day/week’ – it sparks their interest. The following conversation allows you to find out how you can help them to be more successful which I’ve found to be a great starting point for some really powerful relationships.

So how are you planning to be productive in the short-term so that you can be successful in the long-term?

Do you or does your organisation have a clear vision for what you want to achieve? Is it measured with a balance of lead and lag performance indicators? Do you talk about these regularly?

If any of this interests you, please feel free to get in touch. Equally, if you think that this is useful, please feel free to ‘like, share, comment’ and invite me to connect.