If you believe that “what you think about, you become” then I am in trouble. I’m always thinking about what isn’t done, what I have to do next and “how am I going to get this done”?

What do you think about most often? Is it about what you want to achieve in life? Is it about creating something positive? Here is a small challenge that I promise will surprise and delight you.

Everyone has things that need to get done. Some people call is “maintaining life” others call them chores. I’m not saying ignoring these things is going to make them go away but I am suggesting, you can have a radically different life by adjusting how things are done. I’m going to ask you to THINK DIFFERENT.

Whenever I had a spare moment or whenever I found myself thinking unproductive thoughts, I chose to think “What do I want to create?” The beauty of this type of question is it is about all the possibilities. It is about creating a BETTER life for me. I sat down for 10 minutes and wrote down all the things I wanted to achieve in life. I captured all the things that were important to me.

I STOPPED doing daily things and ONLY did things that were heading toward my goals. Guess what? I achieved probably TWICE AS MUCH output but actually did ABOUT 20% LESS activity. How does that work? I only worked on things that mattered. I FOCUSED. All the things that I used to do that I thought that mattered, didn’t. I spent less time doing “stuff” and more time doing the RIGHT STUFF.

So how do you go about structuring your life to do this? It’s 3 simple steps

1. Have a plan
2. Set the priority
3. Eliminate distractions with systems

HAVE A PLAN

Most people just want to get by. They want their bills paid and not too many hassles in life. If they can enjoy their friends, buy the things they want and pay the mortgage they are happy. While this is a nice proposition, it doesn’t really GO anywhere. What they will find is they get to the end of their working career and find they can’t afford to do the things they dreamed about while working.

Take for example, everyone wants a little bit more money but few people set an action plan to get it.

There are 2 parts to planning.

1. Capture it on paper
2. Start immediately

A lot of people have great ideas and forget what they are down the road. Writing it down will make sure that doesn’t happen. Additionally, we can add, modify or expand on it as we go along as the situation changes. Capture the idea on paper as quickly as possible. That way you will get down all the details that you may forget later on.

Once you have the idea, BEGIN IMMEDIATELY, even if you don’t have all the steps. They best way to kill an idea is to not let it get momentum. Once an idea has begun, it can only continue if you give it focus. Never underestimate the power of momentum. Take advantage of the enthusiasm of a fresh idea.

The main advantage of a written plan is we have something to focus on. Unlike the unplanned life, where external influences make take our energy, time and focus, a definite plan will allow us to decide what we should be really doing. If you are doing something that isn’t on the plan, you are being distracted. If it IS on the plan, you know that you MUST ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL because that’s how you planned it.

SET THE PRIORITY

You may have several goals you want to achieve on your plan. Some will be dependent on each other; some will just be there because they are important. A lot of people go about their day just doing the things they have always done. I would much rather spend a day doing activities I KNOW is heading towards an overall objective. So rather than just doing, I am acting with PURPOSE.

A purposeful life is not only more rewarding it allows us to achieve more in less time with (usually) much less effort.  If I start doing something and I know it is not on my plan, it is easy to spot and change. If I don’t have a plan, how would I know I am not heading the right way? A plan makes it very clear what I should and should not be doing.

Additionally, setting priorities WITHIN your plan is important too. As mentioned earlier, dependencies MUST be done in a certain order. What happens if something comes up and you have to choose between 2 activities? You choose the activity based on the PRIORITY of the goal. It’s so easy to just do the activity that is the quickest and easiest rather than the most important. A perfect example of this is checking email. It feels productive to get email out of the way but how much of it really contributes to the achievement of any of your goals?

Priorities must be in place so you achieve the most important goal first. Otherwise you will be distracted achieving the many minor goals that are bound to pop up over time.

ELIMINATE DISTRACTIONS WITH SYSTEMS

In this case, I define distraction as anything that takes you away from your main goal. They may be as benign as watching TV to seemingly important activities that still don’t get us our goals like reading all our email.

A good way to start your day is plan the night before. Each night write down the 6 most important things that must get done. In the morning, start with #1 and finish it. Don’t start #2 until #1 is done. Simple and effective. It’s a great system.

I also have “no technology Fridays” (NTF). It can be any day you like but when it’s done on Friday, it sets up my weekend to be a proper break.  NTF’s means no TV, phone, ipod or computer (or any other technology that can take your focus/time away). There’s a small amount of planning required for this. The main advantage of an NTF is we are forced back to basics. Simple things are often the best. Go talk to a work colleague rather than texting them. It humanises us and gets us to connect the old fashioned way. Do your meetings face to face rather than on the phone. The best thing is if our phone is off and our email is off, we get SIGNIFICANTLY LESS DISTRACTIONS. You will be surprised how productive you can be without your gadgets.

Finally, when you DO get back to your technology, HAVE A PLAN how you will use them. For instance, I might not answer my mobile for a morning so I can be sure I can get certain things done. Another way for me is to FILTER ALL MY EMAIL. Anything from a subscription NEVER goes in my Inbox. It goes to a separate folder for when I have spare time. I use email flags (sometimes called labels) for everything in my inbox so I can sort/filter by project, activity (eg travel notes) or individual like clients or my PA. Almost nothing ends up in my Inbox except what is absolutely necessary to get my job done. The rest can be sorted or filtered to show when I want to see them, not when others decided to send them.

One last trick with email is I began checking email only twice a day 11am and 4pm. That way it didn’t distract me throughout the day. Over time, I changed to 4pm only. These days, I check about once a week. This is for 2 reasons. I trained the people I know to call me for urgent work. I know I can find any relevant emails when I need them because of my filters.

CONCLUSION

If you do these steps above, not only will achieving more become easier, it will become predictable too. The systems I have mean I don’t need to work as hard as I used to. I actually do less work these days and the things I do now are more controlled.

Work less, achieve more. I’m sure that appeals to you.