Hi everyone. Rem Jackson, the CEO of Top Practices.
During this time when we have some extra time, I want to share something with you that I have actually shared with many, many people over the years. And it's something I call my Deceptively Simple Yet Extremely Powerful Tool for Getting Organized and it works just like this:
Find some time. Which you can do right now in a place where you have no distractions. Turn off anything that beeps, vibrates, buzzes, and simply focus on this list.
- Write down, line-by-line, everything that you need to do. Everything. Everything you can think of, personal life, business, life, absolutely everything, and just get it down on paper. Once you have it all, paper or your computer, whichever, however you do that. I would do it on my laptop, obviously, but just get your list.
- Then take a little moment. Relax, and then look at that list and begin to rank everything on that list. This list could have 150-200 things on it and give each one of these items that you have to do a number. And that number is either a 1, a 2, or 3.
- (1) is, this is really important. If I could just get this done, in the next 12 weeks, I would have enormous gain from having done this.
- (2) is, this is on my list and it's important, but it's not as high as a one.
- (3) is, it's on my list, but it's not a two or a one.
- Once you've gone through that exercise, take all of the 2s and the 3s and remove them from the list. Keep them on their own separate list, but now you've got your list of your ones.
- Now, you take those 1s and you do it again.
- This time you say, what's really a 1 of the 1s?
- What's a 2 of the 1s?
- And what's a 3 of the 1s. You know, important stuff, but some are ranked higher.
- Now you want to really work on this until you have no more than 10 1s of 1s.
- And when you've done that, take those 2s and 3s. So the 1s move them over. They're prioritized above the other 2s and 3s, but now you're left with this list around 10 things that if you could just really get done in the next 12 weeks would be remarkable what it could do for you.
- Then you take that list and you rank it. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.
- What's the 1 of the 1s? What's the top thing? If I could accomplish this, my team and I could accomplish this in the next 12 weeks, this would be the biggest gain that I could get.
- What's 2?
- What's 3 and all the way down to 10?
- Then you take that and you move. You'd move 4 through 10 over and focus on just 1, 2, and 3.
- Put those into a 12-week plan and begin to execute against those. All of those other things.
Now here's the thing. 90% of the gain that you want, you will get out of those top 10 things. And if you have all 10 of those done, one year from now, you'll never care about the other 170 or however many there were. Because so many things that we could do. The question is, should we do it?
So, now you've created what Gary Keller in The ONE Thing calls your should-do list, not your could-do list. And then start knocking those off one by one, utilizing 12-week plans and 12-week plans are beautifully illustrated in Brian Moran's book, the 12 Week Year, which I highly recommend you pick up as well.
So the Deceptively Simple Yet Extremely Powerful Tool for Getting Organized. Now, if you've done this in the past because you've just done this or you've heard me talk about it, let me ask you when was the last time you did it? Most people, when I say, have you ever done it? And the people that say, yeah, I did this and I loved it. I'll say. Have you done it lately? And they're like, no, I really should do it again. No, you really shouldn't do it again, it should become part of your life, constantly revising that list. Very soon you're going to get down what you have to get down, down to a really small number, and you're gonna feel great. Not like the water level is here or even here, but you know, somewhere around your waist or even lower. Wouldn't it be great if your real pressure, the water level you're standing in was around your knees or at your ankles?
The Deceptively Simple Yet Extremely Powerful Tool for Getting Organized. Deceptively simple because it's just a list. I didn't make up anything special here. It's just a list. Extremely powerful because it works.
Let me know what you think. Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, and I'll see you soon.
Feel free to visit our website at www.toppractices.com, email us at [email protected], or call us at (717) 725-2679.