Pareto Path

Remember that time you said “As soon as I get the new job, I’ll have made it”… and then you got the new job and all of a sudden it was: “When I get that next promotion…”.

Well, it’s not that promotion either, buddy. The treadmill of “When I have… I’ll be happy” is one that never stops turning. Don’t be a Happy When.

The good news is that you don’t have to get off the treadmill or run like a headless chicken the entire time.

No. Instead, you can have your cake and eat it too.  

Because let’s face it, most people’s 9-5, or 8-hour work days where they’re “so busy” consist of checking their phone for 1 hour, taking a 2-hour lunch, replying to low-priority emails for an hour and maybe doing 1-3 hours of actual work.

The rest of the time most people are as distracted and all over the place as a fat kid in an all-you-can-eat sweets store.

Luckily, there’s a simple way to get exactly what you want: work on it exclusively and focus on just one thing.

In this day and age, everyone and their dog has a side hustle, a full-time career, volunteering jobs, a podcast and a blog. And you can be sure that if you’re doing all of these things and are “busy”, then none of them are really being done to your best standard.

It’s time to embrace the slow and steady lane: focus on that which you know you need to do, one step at a time, and enjoy the process itself.

So, when you next wake up, try this proven, tried and tested method to getting the important things done:

1. Identify your natural optimal working rhythm. Simplified: are you most productive and focused in the mornings or nights?
2. Identify one problem for each day that, if solved, would make that day a success. JUST ONE. Then, spend your productive, optimal time working on just that one problem under the following conditions:
3. Lock your phones away in another room.
4. Close your door, lock your door, put up a red sign saying “Do not disturb” or plug in headphones and pretend not to hear people. Either way the message is clear: I’m busy for the next 1 – 3 hours. No distractions. (Training others to leave you alone for deep, focused work is essential, and people get accustomed to new rules quickly).
5. Do the work.
6. Enjoy the rest of the time after you have finished.

Let me know how you get on!

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I hope this has been of value, you can let me know in the comments. And remember AFQ: Always Follow Quality. 

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