Zak Mustapha — February 26, 2019 — February 26, 2019
So, you’ve tried everything…
To Do lists…
Calendars…
Project management tools…
Outsourced to a VA or some other freelancer…
But, for some reason you don’t feel like you’re doing as much as you’d like to. Everything is moving slow. You’re not progressing fast enough.
Well you’re not alone…
It’s a common problem among the business community. But, I’m not here to make you feel good about yourself.
In fact, some of the solutions I’m about to share may require you to make drastic changes in your life.
Maybe after reading, you’ll think to yourself “I’m fine, I don’t need to change anything.”
But hold on. Why did you click to read this article in the first place? Surely, what you’re doing can’t be working as great as you want it to.
Well today I’m about to present to you some common problems that entrepreneurs face and how to fix them for good.
Let’s begin…
1. They’re in A Rush to… Nowhere
I’m guilty of this one. You look at the tasks you have to finish before the end of the day. Great! You go through them one-by-one… and you’re done (or maybe you’re not). But you start planning for tomorrows tasks and add the ones you couldn’t finish that day.
Wait a minute!
So, you’ve gone through a list of tasks for the day but have you really thought about what you’re doing?
Every entrepreneur has probably read Think & Grow Rich, but how many actually sit down to think of their next move?
Bill Gates spends two weeks in a forest to think every year. This is his time to think about the future. It is not vacation time.
Setting goals, breaking them into milestones and then scheduling them is a great start. But, actually taking time to think of new ideas and the future of your industry will give you a clear vision to progress forward.
If you don’t have time to think, then it means you’re spending your time too much on the present with no thought for the future. Knock off that extra task you were going to do and replace it with strategic thinking time.
2. They Don’t Ask Enough Questions
Many entrepreneurs go through their tasks without questioning them. They are always busy with something. But a look at their schedules will reveal that many of their activities only make them feel good about themselves.
The key difference between a nonproductive and productive person is a productive person focuses on activities that produces the most results. As an entrepreneur these are your income producing activities.
Learn to question every single activity on your schedule. Before adding them to your schedule ask yourself, “Will doing this get me closer to my goals?”
And instead of feeling bad about yourself for uncompleted tasks, ask yourself “why am I doing this at all?”
3. They Don’t Write Their Own Movie Script
After you’ve strategically thought of your future, made sure all your activities will produce the most results, and scheduled them on your calendar. Good start, but not good enough.
Rather than scheduling your activities based on the default 60-minute slots on your calendar, learn to specifically script every minute of your day. Imagine your life is a TV show and you’re the screenwriter, actor and director. Now how would your calendar look like?
4. They Live in a Bad Environment
It doesn’t matter what goals you have, what tasks you assign to yourself and how you script your day… if your environment doesn’t support it – it won’t happen!
You could have the most productive day cleverly scripted, but if the moment you sit down to do some work, a friend calls, or your spouse wants something from you… then that day’s episode has just been ruined.
Let everyone around you know that you do not want to be disturbed under any circumstances during your working hours. Take all measures to remove all possible distractions to ensure no one walks in while you’re acting out your day’s script.
You should be in control of your time. Remember why you became an entrepreneur in the first place… maybe it was to give life to that idea you had… maybe it was to control your own future… or perhaps to be your own boss… well now’s the time to be the own boss of your time.
The moment something walks in while you’re acting out your script – you know you’ve got a distraction to eliminate before re-filming the next scene.
5. They Think Before They Do
Everyone complains about procrastination. Some struggle with it really bad, while for others it seems almost nonexistent. Procrastination is usually a result of overthinking, overwhelm, fear of failure or success or lack of clarity.
Whichever one it is, for many… procrastination has developed into a habit they need to unlearn. It will take time to get used to NOT procrastinating but the key is getting into the habit of not thinking about what you’re going to do.
You’ve already planned and thought out what you need to do… you’ve written your script… ensured all distractions have been eliminated. Now’s not the time to think about it. Now it’s time to do. There are no replays, the camera is on and you’re on the air live.
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