I hope you are implementing the 7 Keys to Increasing Your Value (The 1000% Formula for Success) that we’ve been discussing the past couple of weeks…into your day, business and life.
Small incremental improvements (as little as 1/10% each day) lead to big changes over time…26% in 1 year, 100% in less than 3 years and more than 1000% in 10 years.
Here’s a quick recap and links to the previous posts:
1. Read 30-60 minutes each day.
2. Re-write you major goals each day.
3. Plan each day and week in advance.
4. Be a MonoManiac…always be working on your #1 task.
5. Turn your car into Auto University.
6. Review every action: What did I do right? What would I do differently?
7. Treat everyone you meet like a $1,000,000 customer!
Treat everyone you meet like a $1,000,000 customer! This is Key #7 and our final key to Increasing Your Value by 1000%.
Let’s call this the “Golden Rule Key”. From Wikipedia: The Golden Rule is an ethical code that states one has a right to just treatment, and a responsibility to ensure justice for others. A key element of the golden rule is that a person attempting to live by this rule treats all people, not just members of his or her in-group, with consideration.
So, exactly how would you treat someone who had purchased $1,000,000 worth of your products or services? I suspect pretty darn good. And the truth is that you never know what a relationship might lead to…be it physical purchases, lifelong referrals or valuable friendships and partnerships. And be sure to begin this effort at home. I often hear people talk about being less forgiving and compassionate toward family members than they are toward their customers. The people at home should always be treated like the most important people in our lives…because they are!
So remember, next time you shake hands or say hello to someone your meeting for the first time…smile and be encouraging…because you might be speaking to your next $1,000,000 customer!
Key #5 to Increasing Your Value…Leverage Your Drive Time Through Auto-U!
Begin using your drive time for continuous learning, improvement and encouragement. If you only spend 1 hour in your car (bus, train, etc.) each day, that is 365 hours of learning you could be benefiting from each year. Instead of listening to mindless talk radio or news (although I do occasionally, including classic rock) buy a non-fiction book on CD or download an MP3 and listen to them through your car stereo.
Even if you only attend Auto-U for half of your drive time, you’ll be absorbing nearly a book a month. WOW! What will you learn first…a new language, a better way to manage your time, or maybe even a way to improve the quality of your relationships.
Need to start an audio library? Please accept my gift of a free MP3 (click the link to immediately download): Brian Tracy Tele-Seminar on Achieving Work-Life Balance.
In this Bloomberg Businessweek article, New York City business research company, Basex, reported: “Roughly once every three minutes, typical cubicle dwellers set aside whatever they’re doing and start something else–anything else. It could be answering the phone, checking e-mail, responding to an instant message, clicking over to YouTube or posting something amusing on Facebook. These distractions consume as much as 28% of the average U.S. worker’s day, including recovery time, and sap productivity to the tune of $650 billion a year.”
The solution to combating this and Key #4 to Increasing Your Value…be a Monomaniac! No, not in the paranoid, pathalogical sense of the word, but in the passionate singular focus sense of the word. Choose to focus singlemindedly on each and every task until 100% completed.
That’s right, lock the door, clear off your desk, silence your email notification, turn off your phone and finish something! You will get more done in less time and reduce your stress level. (To make this work, be sure to allow larger time blocks in your schedule and be sure you have everything necessary to complete the task when you sit down.)
In his time management book, Eat that Frog!, Brian Tracy stresses that, “Every bit of planning, prioritizing and organizing comes down to this simple concept. Your ability to select your most important task, to begin it and then to concentrate on it singlemindedly until it is complete is the key to high levels of performance and personal productivity.”
Want to increase your productivity by 25%? Then, at the end of today, make a list of what you will do tomorrow. I know it sounds too simple or perhaps even impossible because of the inherent
interruptions you experience throughout your day, but if you’ll give it a try, I promise you’ll experience improvement as a result. So what if it’s not a 25% improvement…because remember, we’re shooting for consistent incremental improvements that lead to permanent changes and big results over time.
So, Key #3 to Increasing Your Value – Plan Every Day in Advance! And every week and month for that matter!
Here’s how…you’re sitting at your desk this afternoon, preparing to go home. Take a sheet of paper or open up an excel spreadsheet and list every action you can think of that needs to be completed in the foreseeable future (these might just be one-step actions or could be the next step in a multi-step project). Don’t try to organize your list at this point…just get it off your mind and onto the paper (or your computer). Now, if this is the first time you have ever done this, the first time will take a little longer, but once this is a regular, daily habit, we’re talking less than 10-15 minutes each day. (Productivity experts say every 1 minute spent planning saves 10 minutes in execution.)
Once you’ve gotten everything down on paper, then go back and assign a due date for each item. Then, if you have multiple things due on the same day, go back and prioritize them from the most important to the least important. One way to do this is to consider the consequences of completing or not completing the task. Obviously, something with consequences like getting fired or losing the client has a higher priority than something that has little or no negative consequence. Once you’ve finished your list for tomorrow, shut off your computer, put your pad away and go home for a restful, rejuvenating evening.
When you arrive tomorrow morning, pull out your pad or turn on your computer and start on your list. You won’t have to waste any time figuring out where to start. Now, was reading your email the first thing on your list. If not, then don’t read it yet. This is where many people fall down in this exercise and decide list making doesn’t work. A major key to making this work for you…DON’T DO ANYTHING UNLESS IT IS ON YOUR LIST. If a call comes in, take it, but if it results in an action item, don’t just dive into it, put it on your list and decide where it comes in priority. Work through your list, checking things off and developing momentum as you go through the day and before you know it, it will be time to write your list for tomorrow.
What would you do with an extra 2 hours each day?
