Success: Design your day with success in mind

Monica Carter Tagore

 No matter how busy you are, you likely have some dead time on your hands.

That dead time could be the thing standing between you and your success.

If you're like most people today, you seem to have more on your to-do list than you can possibly achieve on any given day.

Well, you need to tweak your to-do list.

Here is the deal: You can't do everything you'd like. And only a few things you need to do will really have the biggest impact. So focus on the few to get the biggest bang out of your day.

Go over your to-do list. Consider each item that's on it. Now determine which one or two items have the potential to make the most impact today. Which items are important enough to you that, if you did nothing but those two things, you could produce amazing results? Now, focus on those two things.

Designing your day for success means making tough choices. Perhaps you would like to do all the things on your to-do list, but if you want to get results, you have to choose which of those things you will focus on, and which you will either move to another time, let someone else handle, or drop altogether.

Popular culture has brainwashed us into believing that we can have it all, and all at the same time. That is a fallacy that is setting a lot of people up for failure. The concept of having it all, all at the same time means ignoring the power of focus. It also forces us to pursue unrealistic goals. So instead of trying to do every single thing, choose the one or two that will have the biggest impact for you.

It may take a bit of getting used to at first, when you're used to trying to fit so much in, but once you start approaching each day with focus, you will meet with success. You will zoom in on the high-impact tasks and move to complete them. Suddenly the number of completed tasks will increase because you are giving appropriate time to what's important, instead of rushing through a bunch of unimportant tasks as well.

Here are four questions to ask about each task on your to-do list. Asking these questions will help you figure out which are the most important tasks to tackle on any given day:

• 1. What will be the impact of this task if I complete it?
• 2. What will be the impact if I do not complete this task?
• 3. Will completing this task move me closer to my ultimate goal?
• 4. Is there anyone else within my organization that I can allow to complete this task instead of me?

What you may discover is that you've been spending too much time on tasks that may need to be done, but do not need to be done by you. If that is the case, are these tasks you can completely eliminate or are they tasks which need to be handled by someone else? For instance, if your strength is writing books and speaking on your book's topic, should you outsource your accounting or bookkeeping responsibilities? If you need to focus on bringing in new sales, should you really be the one dusting the office and dumping the trash? Which of your tasks need to be done by someone else, allowing you time to focus on what you do best?

This same concept can be applied at home. Perhaps it's now time for you to hire someone to help with housework, or for the rest of the people in the household to take on some chores so all of the work does not fall to you. This could give you more time to do the most meaningful tasks, and still make sure other tasks - such as mopping - still get done.

Design your day for success by focusing on what is most important.

Monica Carter Tagore speaks and writes on success, goal achievement and entrepreneurship. She is the author of Zoom Power: Your Key to Hitting Your Personal, Business and Financial Targets. Learn more at http://www.knowledgewealthseries.com/.