When every physical and mental resource is focused, one's power to solve a problem multiplies tremendously - Norman Vincent Peale -
The first key step to high performance is clarity. Identifying the key result areas of your work stimulates your brain to take action on them. In that sense, it is usually useful to ask the "why" of the things you do. Why are you on the payroll? This is a key question to define your key result areas that mostly hold the greatest part in determining the value and quality of your work and therefore the rewards you will get in return.
1. Define you key result areas
2. Give yourself a grade from one to ten on each one.
3. Ask yourself this question: "What one skill, if I developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on my career?". Determine the one key result skill that, if you did it in an excellent manner, would help you the most in your work.
There is a rule that mostly determines the quality of our performance: Poor performance produces procrastination. One of the fastest and best ways to stop procrastinating and become more efficient is for you to become absolutely excellent in your key result areas. Never stop improving.
The rule of three
Here is an exercise that Brian Tracy suggests to his coaching clients:
1. Define your three most important goals in your life now. You have only 30 seconds to do it!
By forcing your mind to figure it out in 30 seconds only, the subconscious mind goes into a form of "hyperdrive". It turns out that the answers are the most accurate to the surprise of the people doing this exercise.
In 80 percent of the cases, people have three goals in common: First, a business or career goal; second, a family or personal relationship goal; and third, a health and fitness goal. These are the most important areas of life.
2. Identify your three most important goals in each area of your life. Make plans for their accomplishment, and work on your plans every single day.
The mistake that most of people make is focusing on the first type of goals: the business goal. The fact is, fully 85 percent of our happiness in lives will come from happy relationships with other people, especially those closest to us.
Our goal should be to perform at our very best at work - to get the very most done and enjoy the very highest rewards possible for us in our career. Simultaneously, we should never lose sight of the real reasons why we work as hard as we can and why we are determined to accomplish the very most with the time that we invest. The more time we spend face-to-face with the people we love, the happier we will be.
The ABCDE method
The ABCDE method is a powerful priority setting technique that we can all use on a daily basis. This technique is so simple that it can make everyone efficient and effective in their field.
Here's how it works: You start with a list of everything you have to do for the coming day. Think on paper. You then place an A, B, C, D, or E next to each task.
An "A" item is a very important task that you must do as quick as possible. This is a task that will have serious positive or negative consequences on you if you do it or fail to do it. These items are the frogs of your life. If you have more than one A item, you can prioritize them by writing A1, A2, A3, and so on. Your A1 task is your biggest frog.
A "B" item si defined as a task that you should do. This means that someone may be unhappy or inconvenienced if you don't do one of these tasks, but it is nowhere as important as an A task; like returning an unimportant telephone message or reviewing your e-mail. The rule is that you should never do a B task when an A task is left undone.
A "C" task is defined as something that would be nice to do but for which there are no consequences at all. C tasks include phoning a friend or having coffee or lunch with a coworker.
A "D" task is something you can delegate to someone else. The rule is that you should delegate everything that someone else can do so that you can free up more time for the A tasks.
An "E" item is something that you can eliminate altogether, and it won't make any real difference. This may be a task that was important at one time but is no loner relevant to you. Often it is something you continue to do out of habit or because you enjoy it. But every minute spent on an E task is time taken away from a task or activity that can make a real difference in your life.
Start up every day with a list of tasks you should do. Use the ABCDE method to prioritize them. Discipline yourself to do nothing else until the A tasks are complete. After a month of practicing the method, you will have developed the habit of setting and working on your highest-priority tasks, and your future will be assured!
This article is inspired from the book 'Eat That Frog', by Brian Tracy
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