Maximizing Your Potential!

Insanity is doing the same thing that already wasn’t working over and over.

So you could say sanity is doing things that work over and over.

When you go to implement something to make your business grow you run into certain barriers that make it difficult:

Real slow at first

Confusion

Distractions

Feeling awkward

Feeling stupid.

Doubts about whether it is going to do any good or not

Forgetfulness

You have to realize that you are going to bump into these things whenever you try to implement something new.

This is probably why people keep doing the same things over and over that never really worked anyway.

How to implement a new tool or system

1. Evaluate the system or tool or skill and decide before hand whether it is worth implementing. Is it going to give you a good ROI for the time, money and effort that you put into it?

2. Realize that when trying to implement it you are going to run into the barriers we just talked about.

3. Decide to work on it every single day until it is in.

4. Continue to review what you are doing and refer back to anything you studied to learn it and continually tweak what you are doing.

5. Schedule a time every day for the next 21 – 28 days to implement it.

Implement Only One New Thing at a Time

It is too easy to get sidetracked and go off onto other things that are constantly coming across your plate in these days of information overload.

When you’ve got that skill down, or that system or tool fully working give your self a pat on the back and KEEP ON DOING IT.

Then decide on the next skill, tool, ability or system to put in that will give you a good ROI for the time, effort and money you invest in it.

Technorati Tags: 28 Days, Confusion, Distractions, Doubts, Forgetfulness, Information Overload, Insanity, Invest, New Thing, New Tools, Pat On The Back, Sanity, Single Day, Time Effort, Time Money, Tool, Tweak

I know, I got what you’re saying.

It’s one thing to apply this to your self and have a totally beautiful desk that is now polished to a high sheen thanks to Pledge. How the heck do I get those around me to help me keep my desk uncluttered???

First off, let them admire that beautiful, uncluttered desk. Maybe you can even share the posts that helped you do it, if you are feeling particularly generous. But, seriously, what do you do?!?

It’s really quite simple. Get them to put things in writing. Sounds simple, right? Have a little basket mounted right outside your door with 2 slots. Have a sign posted that says, “Got a question or problem??? Put it in writing. Take a minute to fill out one of these forms and put it in the top basket. I will review all requests at 11:45 AM and 4:30 PM and get back to you the same day in most cases.”

Just think about it. The toughest thing for any person to handle is the interruption. You lose you train of thought with the task you are dealing with. As a result, you probably go down the emotional tone scale into antagonism or anger and you are not at 100% in terms of brain power for solving the persons problem when you get it.

I guarantee that this simple little tool will save you oodles of upset and lost production.

If you are the manager in your office or wind up being a problem solver for those around you you can have another section on that same form which says, “State the Problem.” Then a section below that, “Possible solution.” And then one more section for you which says, “Comment.” This is where you can say, “Great solution, go for it.” or “I don’t think that will work. I recommend you do ‘X’.”

The bottom line is that you have now established a protocol for how to deal with interruptions and problems and it will make you and those around you much more effective.

Next time we will cover how to handle your pending basket!

Technorati Tags: Anger, Antagonism, Beautiful, Bottom Line, Brain Power, Desk, Emotional Tone, Great Solution, Heck, Interruption, Interruptions, Little Basket, Pledge, Possible Solution, Problem Solver, Protocol, Sheen, Slots, Tone Scale, Tool, Toughest Thing