I’m not very fond of the term time management or productivity.
Time passes, and it’s a phenomenon that we cannot control. We all have 365 days a year, and each day has 24 hrs.
How can you manage something that cannot change and will always be the same?
And productivity is just one aspect of being effective. To paraphrase Peter Drucker, you can be productive doing things that should not be done at all.
We can only manage ourselves: our focus, what we do, how we feel, and what we think.
I call it high-performance:
Thinking at your best.
Feeling at your best.
Operating at your best.
High performance requires intention. It’s not just managing random aspects of our life but a way of living. Where consider your focus and time as one of the most precious resources.
How does it work in achieving your business goals? Here are a few keys.
You are clear on what’s important.
Many people know what they don’t want. But when you ask what they want, they have difficulty responding.
That’s not the case if you’re a high performer. High performers are clear on the outcomes they want to create. They know exactly what’s important to them in their business and personal life. Strategic prioritization is a skill they’ve mastered.
You are intentional with your time.
Because they know what’s important to them, high performers intentionally spend their time. They develop routines and habits that make it easy to do challenging and fun things.
Focusing two hours each day to move forward on a key project will lead you to results faster than spending two hours checking your inbox to finally work on an e-mail you put on your to-do list two weeks ago.
OR
Making Friday nights family movie time isn’t the same as vegging on the couch for an hour every evening watching a Netflix show you don’t like to forget about a stressful day.
You can create time on demand.
High performers don’t complain about “not having enough time” or “being busy.” Once they decide something is important, they know how to create time to do it. They never feel busy because they are in complete control of their schedule.
You are proactive and plan.
As a high performer, you get to the point when you are hardly ever reactive. Yes, life happens to everyone, but it doesn’t happen “out of the blue” all the time. When you are proactive, you don’t need to put out multiple daily fires because you have done things to avoid many of them.
And this happens thanks to planning.
Planning creates space for your brain to be strategic and creative in your business, i.e., your competitive advantage.
It allows you to anticipate challenges and put measures to avoid or mitigate them. It gets rid of the never-ending, stress-inducing to-do list. It prevents you from overscheduling or triple booking yourself. It saves time and reduces stress by allowing you to make the most critical decisions calmly rather than in the heat of the moment.
You have your mind work for you, not against you.
Negative thoughts and self-talk happen to all of us. It is how humans were built and wired to survive.
What separates high performers is the ability to be aware when this happens and intentionally redirect their negative thoughts toward the ones that serve them better.
How do they do that? By having developed routines and habits in their day-to-day life that take care of their mind. I call it mindset maintenance. It works wonders!
Just imagine where you could take your business if you learned to assess your results objectively and improve by applying the learnings without beating yourself up for failures.
You understand the importance of self-care.
When you’re a high performer, you know that your body, mind, and soul are what create your results. And that you’re your own most precious asset in this world. So you sleep enough, take breaks, eat well, and stay active. This way, you gain access to your executive high-level thinking, producing better ideas and executing those ideas. And this translates to faster and more significant results.
To conclude, being a high performer is a way of living rather than just being good at “time management” or having excellent “organizational skills.” A way that helps you create outstanding results in your business while making you happier, more fulfilled, and at peace with yourself.
I teach all of this to my clients and yes, they do create incredible results for themselves.
If you want to learn more about what it would mean for you, click here to schedule a free consultation call with me.
