Life is so complicated these days. You’re pulled in all sorts of different directions. You have a lot to do at home and you have a lot to do in business. It’s great that we have all this technology and all these ways to connect with people with our work – but is it all really to your benefit?
In fact, for all the wonderful technology we have, it doesn’t seem to be helping with stress or even productivity. There’s always more work to be done. The work never ends – there are piles of work left over at the end of the day.
There’s so much work, so much to do, and so many internal and external distractions, but you really don’t feel like your business is growing as much as you want it to.
It seems next to impossible to manage your time in the right way.
People deal with this in different ways. When some people are faced with having too many tasks and too much confusion and clutter, they sort of shut down. They fall back into patterns of procrastination and things like that.
If that describes you, then you’ve probably found that your work pile grows, grows, and grows. You scramble to get stuff done at the last minute, but you’re frustrated and totally burned out.
Other people don’t have as much of a problem with procrastination, but, they find themselves working on a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Then, they work on the other thing. There’s still more to be done no matter how hard they work. They wonder if there’s a better way to do it all.
They work all day long, many working more than 10 hours a day or 14 hours a day, but still can’t seem to get anything done. There’s still a huge pile of work to be done. There’s still too much to do. There’s still uncertainty and the lack of success to contend with.
It’s no wonder you’re dealing with this. Part of it is our modern society. It seems like it’s not okay to turn your work off. It seems like the right thing to do is to pile more and more on your plate.
It’s easy to wonder how the truly successful people deal with this. Surely, they have a lot going on in their business, just like you do, or even more so.
Well, that’s certainly true. But what else is true might surprise you. Some of the most successful people out there have gotten to their place of success because they’ve learned to simplify.
Sure, they work hard. But when they work, they work on things that truly matter. They don’t worry about the little stuff. They don’t flip from one project to another without completing anything.
Many of them do work very long hours, but you might be surprised about the short hours others keep. It’s because they simplify. They concentrate their most important work into smaller periods of time so they can enjoy the rest of their time doing the things they enjoy doing.
It’s Time to Simplify
Hopefully, you can see that it is maladaptive to have too much on your plate. Whether you’re a procrastinator or you’re someone who jumps from project to project, or you’re simply feeling overwhelmed with everything you have to do… It’s time to simplify.
Think about the things you do every day. Does everything you work on actually matter in the grand scheme of things? Do you spend too much time on projects that are never going to generate a lot of money?
The very truly successful concentrate on the things that are going to make them the most money.
The 80/20 Principle
I love talking about the 80/20 principle, or the Pareto principle, because it’s really one of the most important and helpful things you can do for your life and your business. If you pay attention to the 80/20 principle, then you can be so much more productive and manage your time so much better. Perhaps best of all, you can grow your business and earn more money.
The 80/20 principle tells us that just 20% of the things we do in a day lead to 80% of our profits or successes. That means that 80% of the things we do in a day are not the most important.
You can apply this principle to just about anything in your life. 80% of the things you do in a day lead to most of your stress and frustration.
If you think about the 80/20 principle, it can really help you cut down on the things on your plate. If you know that most of the things you’re doing aren’t leading to most of your success, then you can eliminate some of those things. You can start to concentrate on the highest priority things in your business. This means figuring out what the highest priority things are in the first place, of course.
Eliminating Distractions
It’s also important to think about the distractions in your life. Some of the distractions you’re dealing with are internal. You’re contending with the thoughts in your head, negative conditioning, negative self-talk, and things of that nature. Maybe you’re thinking of everything on your to-do list and you simply can’t concentrate on anything at all.
Some of the things distracting you are external. Maybe you work from home and your family is always knocking on your door. Maybe you’re dealing with kids, elderly parents, pets, or other distractions. Maybe your work environment isn’t really conducive to a solid work day.
If there’s too much going on and you’re trying to hold all the plates in the air with work, family, home, business, your office, your to-do list, and everything else, then it’s no wonder you’re overwhelmed. As humans, we can only handle so much at one time.
Start to take stock of what your distractions are – both internal and external. Then, figure how you can eliminate those distractions so you can simplify your life and be more productive and manage your time better.
Simplify In All Areas
Start to simplify in all areas of your life. Simplify and eliminate distractions.
Simplify and eliminate tasks that are only dragging you down. Focus on your most profitable and most important tasks instead.
Get rid of the things that don’t matter. Get rid of the negative thoughts that don’t matter. Only focus on productive things. And that’s part of it right there – you have to focus. When you simplify, you’ll be better able to focus on what’s most important.
When you start to focus and you start to simplify, then you can start to see success because you’ll actually be getting things done. The things you do in a workday will truly matter. You’ll probably also have time left over to do other things and to be able to recharge and regenerate.
Simplify, simplify, simplify.