Your To Do List Won’t Get You There

Your to do list is not the answer

I love a long to do list. It gives me direction and makes me feel like things are happening. And there is something satisfying about crossing things off once they’ve been done.

But it can also feel exhausting. There are days where I have diligently been in motion all day checking things off, and yet feel like I don’t have anything to show for it.

Because in those moments I’m confusing activity with productivity.

When I have a to do list everything gets jumbled together without any thought as to what matters most. Making FORD calls to clients or following up on a transaction ends up on the same list as laundry and grocery shopping. And I have a whole lot less resistance to laundry than I do client calls. (Even though I know FORD calls work and I have the nicest clients. I still resist them even after all these years.)

So the laundry and the grocery shopping are easily checked off, and I conveniently run out of time to call my clients and follow up on transactions.

Has this ever happened to you?

No matter how many things you get done on your to do list you never quite get there when it comes to sales and business success?

Here are 3 tips that might help.

  1. Spend 2 minutes each morning focusing on the 80/20 rule. 20% of our actions give us 80% of our results and happiness. Ask yourself what actually matters? and more importantly – what can you skip?
  2. Assuming something like client calls is on the list, or something else business related that you typically resist – take another 2 minutes and visualize how much fun the conversations will be and how excited you are to connect and help. When we focus on convincing and selling it can drag us down. But connecting and helping is always fun.
  3. Plan something fun in every day. It’s a lot easier to get things done when we know we have something fun waiting for us.

Have fun with it. There will always be things left undone. It’s all about being intentional.

To your success!
Nicole

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