In This Episode…
My mornings are very busy once I start work. There is a lot to do since I began doing a daily post on LinkedIn and broadening my network by commenting on others’ posts and expanding my growing list of connections.
Sometimes I let that effort drift longer into the morning than I’m happy with.
So in today’s episode I share my experiences of getting much more focused this week by using a very simple technique to ensure I tighten up on getting my commitments done.
Episode Transcript
Hi, and welcome to today’s episode of the Profit Productivity Podcast . It’s your host, Michael Tipper. Who else would it be?
Today I want to talk to you about a sense of urgency and how to create a sense of urgency.
Now, there are all sorts of ways of doing that, but one of the ones that is most powerful is that of having a deadline.
So think about this – on the last day at work, before you are due to go away on holiday, what is that day like?
Well for me it’s likely to be manic. It’s likely to be full of stuff. I’m likely to get much, a lot more done than I’d would normally do.
I make decisions quicker, I prioritise much more effectively, and I seem to have this sharpness and an edge and an urgency about me.
That means so much more gets done and even done well by having the deadline and knowing it is a hard deadline because you are going on holiday at the end of the working day, come what may.
This forces us to become much more focused.
This week, at 9:00am every day is I’ve been attending a free sales training series, which consists of a watching a half hour webinar.
Now in the morning when I get up, I do a morning routine and am usually ready to start work around about 8:00am-8:30am.
One of the first things I do in the morning is go on to LinkedIn and do a whole set of routines around posting and commenting.
That’s part of my marketing strategy, and that can take anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour. I need to get it done before 9:30am.
This week 9:00am-9:30am has been taken up with the daily webinar I’m attending.
What I’ve found is that I’ve been getting my LinkedIn activities done before this webinar starts even though I have less time to do them than normal.
I’m much more sharp, much more focused because I know I’ve got to finish by 9:00am in order for me to keep to my timetable.
I’ve noticed that this week, how much quicker and how much more decisive and how much more clear I am in writing the stuff I do write on LinkedIn, and that’s all because there is this deadline.
It’s been really interesting watching how that’s evolved over the week and see just how much more effective and efficient I have become.
What I’ve started to realise is that our urgency muscles become flabby when there is no urgency. But once we tap into that with a deadline, it is a great way of doing it.
Initially it takes a little bit time to get up to speed, but you can re-find it again. You’ll tap back into the urgency, the focus and the drive necessary to get things done much, much quicker.
It’s almost like I’m someone else today.
That’s today’s episode.
Until tomorrow.
