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4 Methods of Completion

When we're talking about productivity, we're talking about doing things right, getting things done, whatever getting things done, whatever getting things done means in our particular context and so it's helpful toe have a working understanding of what done actually means in the context of a working business, and it doesn't really mean doing all of it believe it or not, there are actually a call these the four methods of completion there are four ways to get something done. The first is you could do it, you could complete, you could work on it until you get the result you're looking for that's great, but we have a lot to do, and sometimes very often some things are more important than others and we don't have enough capacity to do everything ourselves. So there are three other things that you can do to move something to completion you can delete it. You say this is not important enough for me to do right now scratch it off the list, I'm not going to feel responsible just no um deleting ...

if you can do it if it's not essential if it doesn't get the result you're looking for deleting is the fastest way that you can accomplish or complete anything right? Cross it off the list done takes less than a second most people don't delete as many things as they probably should and as I deleted or if I actually complete something I love to just scribble it out it just is like so much fun things like it's like white clean but I'll like doodle over it but it's really fun sometimes you just gotta just delete it and it's not a priority but it's really fun actually crossing things off yeah, yeah I mean, if if you already have too much to do why spend time doing things that are really important aren't going to get you the results you want, right? Just get it off your list so the third thing that you can do is delegated delegate to somebody else and that could either be an employee somebody who's working for you or a contractor who's really skilled at doing this particular thing um or somebody is just somebody who is not you write a business who specializes in that particular thing. Um delegation if you have a good person to delegate to is awesome because you immediately move it off of your plate onto somebody else's you cross it off your list and you just have a follow up check in with this person about x right shakes a lot less time but there's a trick to delegation which is you need to have somebody to delegate to where you can't do it all right so assistance could help contractors can help employees can help businesses can help uh and really you're looking for somebody ideally who already knows how to do the thing you want to delegate is comfortable with doing it has capacity to do it and doesn't actively need to be managed in the process of doing it because that defeats the purpose so delegation could be awesome if you have somebody really good to delegate to now the fourth option which kind of feels like cheating but it's not is deferring it right which a lot of people unfairly low moment into the procrastination realm right? I'm not going to do that yet I'm going to do that some other time now if this is one of the most important things that you you can and should be doing and you're not doing it then yes, that is that is a form of procrastination the form of a cross here but if it's something that really isn't important but it's something that you probably need to pay attention to just not right now you can actively decide to defer something until later that's an awesome decision in some context, right? I don't have the capacity to do it right now it's not super important so I'm going to decide to do that next month or next week right that's what calendars therefore just throw that down to a couple weeks so I remember having a conversation you're going through the process of learning how to type in coal mac and then you got a new job, right? Can you tell that story? Yes. Oh, I was learning cotton typing cool night from your book and I was practicing every day and I did about fourteen days and I could see the progress and then I started something new and then just stop doing it because I think it was time constrains yes, yeah, and so when a situation like that happens, there are a couple of different ways of thinking about it, right? The first is I failed, right? I started this project, I didn't finish it and that that is a totally not good thing in every respect because everybody should finish everything that they ever start forever, right? That's actually what I thought at first exactly, but that's not true, right? Because the reality of the situation is something was important, something that had increased priority and urgency something that really was important came up and you chose to reallocate your time from something of a lower value to something of a higher value that's a good decision we should celebrate stuff like that that's awesome it's good decision making but a lot of people feel like deferring is treating for whatever reason as long as you do it consciously it's a super good thing okay, good so the key one going through your checklists were going, you know a lot of us have to do lists that are five hundred items long if you unconsciously assume that you you have to be the one who does all of those things right now you're going to get overwhelmed and so going through a to do list this is a really great simple checklist you have four options not one and so just go through your list and figure out what are the things that I have to do what did the things that I can get off my list by deleting it what did the things that I can delegate to somebody else who could do it just as well as I can and where did the things that I can safely put off until later makes working through your to do lists way less of a chore the note otherwise might be questioned you consider outsourcing delegating yes outsourcing is just a fancy word for delegate perfect and you know it's in terms of ways to get help having assistance so there are a lot of virtual assistant services that are out there there are tons of ways to to hire help for all sorts of different things and you know one of the things that actually a lot of people undervalue particularly in a business context there's great value and delegating even personal stuff right particularly if you are running your own business you don't necessarily need to be the person who cleans their house or your own house once a week right it's easy to hire somebody to do that for you so you no longer have to think about it you don't have to think about it you have way more time and energy to actually do the things that will build your business right so sometimes delegating the personal stuff is some of the most effective and easiest things to get off your plate on that note it's really kind of relates the personal stuff someone was asking you batch social activities like if that's a good idea to dio yeah actually you know most people kind of with the structure of most people's work day we kind of batch social activities anyway which is after work right but yeah doing that kind of stuff is is uh is really valuable um you know going on a trip and seeing a bunch of different friends instead of taking lost lots of smaller you know that kind of stuff we're half support twelve all right good one comment about something that you mentioned about uh taking the personal things and like fighting race of doing them so you can spend more time developing your business is so last week I got a housekeeper that can do all the ironing laundry housecleaning and then my groceries I did it all on auto delivery that's also that list so good because it got my project finished and it was very helpful and out of my mind and that's kind of a soft form of automation to right it's not just delegating at once as a decision, you're creating a system and a process, so the thing happens and you don't even have to think about it, it just shows up, right? So we do this the same thing we have a wonderful lady who comes in and cleans our house once every week, week or once every couple weeks, depending on what what's going on, and she just shows up and she cleans the house and the house is clean and beautiful, and we pay her and everybody's happy, right? So those are the types of things where, if you can create a system to handle that particular result without thinking about it that's a super, super efficient something that, uh we had a little preview of but but let's talk about it explicitly. Now, uh, this is not india called most important tasks, and most important tasks are critical tasks that will contribute most to your desired end result. So they're the things on your to do list that won't actually get you to the end result that you're working for building your business, accomplishing some awesome creative achievement all of that stuff, those air, the most important tasks, so, uh, for example, in the process of writing my books sitting down and writing working on the book was a most important task for you know, the months and months that I was working on each right was the very by definition the very most important thing that I could do that particular dais sit down and write the book the trouble with most important tasks is that they are very often buried in a five hundred item to do list alongside with a whole bunch of other things that also kind of sort of need to be done but aren't anywhere near is important right? They get lost so one of the best things that you can do keeping it to do less for reasons we'll talk about in a little bit is very effective right? Get it out of your mind and get it onto paper so you can see it but if the list is too long you're gonna have a hard time really picking out what's most important in the sea of overwhelming sea of all of the things that you need to do so here's what you do keep your to do list but you don't work from the to do list you work from something else and I usually use a three by five index card for this so I have a notebook where I write down all the things I need to do and then I have a three by five index card in the notebook labeled most important tasks and the rule for that index card is there are only three. There can only be three things on that card. And those three things by definition are the most important things that I need to do during the day to get the end result. Right. So right, right, this particular section of the book was almost always might number one thing of here's what I need to do today in order to get a good result, right? Most important task what's nice is that that little practice establishing the two or three things that will give you the biggest result during the day does a couple of really, really valuable things. The first is it makes your to do list way less overwhelming, right? Because it's no longer five hundred things it's three and it's on in the next card, right here, right in front of you, right, you keep a nor the to do list for now, here's the most important stuff. Those things are, by definition, the most important things that you could be doing during the day. And so you're it's also a way of giving yourself permission to not do things. That pop up during the day because by definition they are not as important as the things that are on your list rights they go on the to do list you look at it later but you're not going to do it right now because something else is more important so it becomes a way of in a smart way deferring all of the things that aren't worthy of your attention during that particular moment the list also acts as a nice little bookmark in your in your to do list notebook so it's easy to find your place so working off that really small list is one of the best things that you can do to make sure that you really are spending most of your time doing the things that will get you the result that makes sense anybody used this side feed this one of these like small cards yep so it makes me focus and like only write a few things on it and just focus on that task great anybody else do this we have greg d who says I've been using the three most important things from his book haven't fallen off much yet so I'd say it's working well that's right? Yeah very good um just one though does have a question about the to do list do you keep separate personal and professional to do it all the same thing because it's me who has to do them so, you know, it's it's, really, you know, sometimes the list is all three of them are professional things. Sometimes it's, a mix, sometimes it's, all three personal things. But important is important and it's, whatever it is that you're trying to, you know, thean result, you're trying to create that's. What defines importance on that list.