Follow the two simple steps at the end of this article and you will run your day instead of your day running you.
Would you invest twenty minutes a week in planning if it could save you a few hours a week in your time? Seems like a more than fair trade and I would be willing to bet you a new, shiny nickel that if you start running your day, hours of time savings a week will start to stack up. Try this for two weeks and let me know how it works for you.
Often, how you spend your day comes down to a choice you make before your day even starts. You can choose to take a few minutes before the day starts to plan your appointments, identify the items you need to accomplish and control the flow of your day. This is a proactive approach, running your day.
Or you can choose to not plan the flow of your day, react to each new task as it pops up, and be subject to constant interruptions and bounce from task to task with no concrete direction. This is a reactive approach, or letting your day run you. This is also called “winging it”.
We have all been guilty of having days that have run us, and sometimes despite our absolute best efforts, a day sneaks in there that causes us to be reactive instead of proactive due to circumstances outside of our control. But those days can be few and far between by being proactive and planning.
Step 1. Take 10 minutes on Sunday evening to review your Ninja Planner for the upcoming week. Check each day’s schedule and make sure all of your appointments are noted and that you have identified the names of the 10 people you will be mailing a personal note to during the week. Look at your FORD and Record section for the upcoming week. You probably already have a solid list of people to call but think back over your previous week and weekend and see if there are any new names to add for follow up calls. Finally, look at Monday once again and be sure you have a mental plan of how you want your Monday to flow. That’s it, now enjoy the rest of your evening knowing you are ready for the start of the week.
Step 2. At the end of each weekday take 2 minutes to review the upcoming day and add any new items to the FORD and Record section. If you have been using your Ninja Planner throughout the day and adding new items throughout the week as they arise, then this will be a simple review of your schedule for the following day. If you have been on the go and need to jot some things down, this is a perfect time to make sure that the appointment you wrote on the receipt from Starbucks doesn’t fall through the cracks. By reviewing your upcoming day the evening before you will actually put your mind at ease and be ready for the day ahead.
A major goal of Ninja Selling is to increase your income per hour so you can have a life. One of the best ways to increase your income per hour is by increasing the efficiency and focus of each hour you invest in your business. Running your day will do this for you.
