Normally, I’m the king of planning and organization.
After all, most of the speaking and teaching I do centers around “Life Rhythm” and FOCUS on the things that MATTER.
Doing this requires a fair amount of work on prioritization throughout the day . . . knowing that as the day progresses, more and more distractions will show up.
So my “normal” day includes a very intentional protection of the the first half of the day to knock out the most important things before the distractions take over.
This strategy works quite well with respect to “moving the ball forward” and I believe is THE reason our Real Estate Sales business has continued to thrive throughout this recession.
FOCUS MATTERS!
There’s a “by-product” of this intense focus . . . It’s all of those little bits that are less important but still need attention that begin to pile up . . . Next thing ya know, there’s paper bits and random files scattered all about the office (because negotiating the deals has taken precedence over keeping up with the office organization).
War is HELL!
For me, the threshold of time that I can allow this level of dishevelment to accumulate is 2-3 weeks . . . at which point the office becomes non-functional to the extent that it’s HINDERING the work flow.
Suddenly, it MATTERS to clean up the mess.
That’s when I pick a day and clear the schedule for that day – no appointments – and dive in with ZERO structure other than the intimidating goal of reducing that pile of paper . . . and fielding whatever random calls come at me.
Today is such a day, and I’m feeling a tad guilty about my departure from my routine and the break from my normal lead generation and client servicing habits.
I’m sharpening my saw.
and while doing so, I’ve scheduled appointments for next week with 4 new clients.
Hmmm . . . so . . . periodic “Lack of structure and organization” is not only necessary for the purpose of tidying things up . . . it’s also potentially profitable.
The only thing is . . . I’ve decided it’s not something I can “schedule” . . . it’s something I hereby give myself permission to declare: “TODAY will be an unstructured day” whenever the time is right.
Oh!
This also works for those days when you wake up feeling burned out.
Just call it a “sick day” 🙂
OK!
My pile is done – It’s 12:40 PM – No afternoon appointments . . . Hike in the park.
🙂