April 5th, 2010 by Kevin Ngo
Have you ever gotten a lot done only to find that you were not any closer to your main objective? What I’m talking about is spending too much of your time doing things you think are important but really aren’t. When you learn to focus your actions on the few things that make the most difference in your results, you will not only save time, you’ll also reach your goals much sooner.
I remember doing a lot of little useless things in my days as a sales person. The main key to becoming good at sales is to spend the majority of your time selling. That’s something a 2nd grader could figure out. So what did I spend my time doing? I organized my desk, filed papers, made contact sheets, set appointments with non-decision makers, learn more sales skills, etc. Needless to say, I failed miserably at being a sales person. I spent the least amount of my time doing the most important thing that would guarantee an increase in my income.
Have you ever done something like this? You actually think you’re being productive just because you’re doing stuff even though you know there are a lot more important things you could be doing. I mean, how many times does your email have to be checked during the day anyway?
One of the keys to success that you probably already know is to take massive action. The problem is that many people get into the habit of taking busy action, things that just keep you busy instead of bringing you closer to your goals. You can spend an entire week taking massive amounts of action, getting all sorts of tasks done only to realize that you barely got any closer to achieving your goals.
So what should you do about this? First, you need to figure out the 2 or 3 things that are the most critical to your achievement of your outcome. Then, schedule out your time so that you are spending at least 70% of your time engaging in those 2 or 3 things. Anything that isn’t part of those 2 or 3 things should be pushed to the end of the day or not be worked on at all if possible. Of course, you will have things that aren’t important but need to be done anyway. For these things, you might want to consider delegating it to someone else if you can so that you have more time to focus on the things that will bring you the most results.
Being able to focus your actions on doing the few things that make the biggest impact on obtaining your end result is a skill, that once mastered, will put you ahead of the majority of people. Your goals will be achieved faster and your life will improve tremendously. Continue wasting your time on doing a lot of things that don’t matter and you’ll probably be where you are now a year from today and that’s a frustration you can do without.
Until next time…
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Great points regarding wasting time. I wonder if sometimes we do unimportant things because we are hesitant about whether we will succeed at what is really important to us, We can't bear the idea of failing at these things, so if we put them off by doing mundane things that we are sure we can accomplish, we don't have to worry about failure and can still hold the thought that we have not failed…and that we CAN and WILL do it, but just haven't gotten to it yet… What do you think?
That's definitely one reason why people spend most of their time doing busy work. Another reason is because they associate pain to doing the task even if they know it's important. It's easier to do things that you don't mind or even enjoy like checking email, Facebook, Twitter, or other unimportant tasks. Of course, there's also being lazy 🙂
Exactly what i'm suffering from, please give me more advice
i really love this sayings i wonder and i now know that this this will really change my life authomatically
This article has far reaching consequences even besides wasting time. It's as important to work smart as it is to work hard. I've met lots of people who work hard but they do it without a plan, especially a long term one and a result they don't achieve as much. Sometimes we motivate ourselves to do the wrong thing and then wonder why we got nowhere.
The key is knowing what you want, then start planning and execute. very well said. Thank you so much for sharing. This makes me guided everyday.
Thanks for the comments.
if u r standing in the crowd u r doing something wrong … this makes me come out of that shell
Achievers will always be outstanding in every field of life. To achieve great depends on the input. The much it is in the correct proportion the better the result.