Success Report (previous issues)
Work Like it's the Day Before Vacation
By Tonya Grimes
Mar 14, 2004, 13:29

It was Saturday morning. I didn’t have to homeschool my four children. I didn’t have any appointments. I didn’t need to leave my home for any reason. “Wow! I’m going to get a lot done today,” I said to myself.

The first thing on my list was to get on my treadmill. I messed around trying to find a book I could read while walking, and then I needed to get a glass of water. I stopped to read a section of the newspaper because the headline caught my attention. Since I was close to my computer, I went ahead and checked my emails with my tennis shoes sitting on my lap. By the time I responded to everyone who needed a reply, forty-five minutes had quickly passed. As I stood up, my tennis shoes fell on the floor. “That’s right! I need to get on that treadmill.”

After I finally got that treadmill moving, I thought to myself, “Why do I have days when I can be so productive and then have other days (like today) when it seems like I’m not getting a thing done?” Do you know what the answer is? For me (and I suspect the same is true for you), I had too much free time and no deadlines to create a sense of urgency. I was busy, but I wasn’t busy with the things that counted.

We do this with our businesses too. Often we don’t have that sense of urgency until a deadline is right on top of us. Most of the time, when we do sit down to make phone calls, we are distracted by the 573 other things that need done. We jump from one thing to another without completing anything. We end up being busy, but not doing a single thing to move our businesses forward.

Do you know when most company incentive trips are earned? During the last month of the contest period----often on the very last possible day. Why is this? It’s because people didn’t work steadily and consistently throughout the whole contest period. They procrastinated because they had a false sense of security in believing they had a lot of time to earn their quota. They didn’t work with a sense of urgency from day one.
Some people may say they work better under pressure. The truth is none of us works better under pressure----it’s just that we finally do the work. Anyone who believes they work better under pressure is perpetuating a myth that allows them to procrastinate. Don’t you fall into that same trap.

What happens the day before you go on vacation? Isn’t it amazing how much work you get done? Why is that? It’s because you have deadline when you need to get things completed. You finish one task and you move onto the next one with a sense of urgency.

Mark and I are always telling our kids, “When you finish something, move on to the next thing. Never allow yourself to have idle time.” That is a powerful message that is lacking in parenting today. It’s a message that most adults can take to heart too!

Get into the habit of working every day like it’s the day before vacation. The reward is the peace and calmness you will feel (and you’re family will feel) because you’re not running around at the last minute trying to squeeze a week of preparations into the last few hours before you leave on vacation or before you must meet a business deadline.

What can you be doing right now with a sense of urgency to move your business forward? My guess is that you have a whole list of people who need you to follow up with them on the phone. Is that right? What is preventing you from picking up the phone and making those calls right now----and then what will prevent you from moving on to the next task after you’ve finished with your calls? You see, it’s about discipline----doing the things you need to do and doing them now. You can bet the successful people in your company are doing what they need to do right now-----won’t you join them?

Until next time, keep doing the next thing!
Tonya Grimes


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