Staying organized and focusing on tasks at hand can be very tough. I know for me that is one of the things I struggle with often. Things can get really messy if you have tasks that are not arranged by high priority to low or even worse no tasks at all.

Shooting from the hip is an old Cowboy saying that symbolizes the Wild West, Shoot first ask questions later.

At work this may seem true, we are all rushing to finish the day regardless of how sloppy we get the job done. Of course our clients or employers may not like our tactic but it seems like just like in life, we worry about rushing to get things done without slowing down and making sure we do it the right way with no lazy short cuts.

I just recently moved to the DC Metro area from Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach is such a laid back Podunk town while DC is a fast paced business oriented city. It seems like everyone in this area has to drive 80 miles just to reach their destination everyday even if its less than 2 miles away. Back in Virginia Beach, I see people “cruising” all the time just enjoying the ride, in DC I don’t think I have yet to see 1 person just “cruise” otherwise they will get yelled at for going to slow.

So the point is sometimes you have to take a step back and re-evaluate things. Stop worrying about reaching your destination so quickly, take a step back and re-focus espeically if you want to improve or change your life or business.

Effective Activities and Behavior

In Business or in Life there are times when we do things redundantly or ineffectively that doesn’t make sense in doing.  For Business for example, there are many activities that are more detrimental to our success than it is to make money.  Many people waste time doing useless tasks and activities that are not helping the overall goal of making money.

As a Loan Officer, I was always caught up in doing paperwork during the day that was very time consuming and left me little time to effectively prospect.  Prospecting is how I get business and if I don’t get any business then I don’t make any money.  I had to re-arrange my priorities and spent less time doing paperwork at work and brought most of the work load home or delegated to an assistant.

The same time consuming activities can also apply in life.  My brother was an avid poker player at the local bars where they would hold tournaments almost every couple days.  In the past his Girlfriend would always get mad at him because he would spend too much time at the bars and never enough time with her.  This is an obvious poor priority management.  The solution to this problem is that he could make work out a deal by going once or twice a month depending on how comfortable his Girlfriend would be and to shift over some of his poker playing maybe at the house or on computer.  Whatever the solution was going to be the point is to re-prioritize and ask what will it take to make it work.

A few key points to remember when re-arranging your priorities to work towards your goal or end result.

Is this productive?

1.)  Ask Yourself is this productive? Keep asking yourself this very important question over and over through out the day.  I recently came across a survey with the top producers in a sales industry and almost every single one of them had this strategy down as one of the tips to being a successful top producer.  Get your priorities is straight, if its something not making you money or helping you out with your business in the long run, then change up your game.

2.)  Write down your priorites – I have always been a big promoter of this strategy.  Most people in this world are visual thinkers and sometimes in order to get organized we need to lay our objectives and priorities down.  Start with the most important priority and work your way down to the least important.  This work wonders.

3.) Change it – They say a person is truly crazy if they keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.  If things are not working the way you want it to be, don’t just wait for change, go out and make things happen.  Go out and change your habits or priorities in to making things a success.  You control your own destiny is what I always say.

Tags: Behavior, Business, Life, Priority