tanner shepard is the co-founder of ranch road and eco-friendly digital printing company that is on the rise in the Austin business scene
sleep, and then again right when we wake up in the morning. Th is is the defi nition of reactivity since email is the act of choosing to let the person on the other end of the message manage our time, intention and focus. Now before you stop reading, I know you can’t stop answering emails, responding to texts and cut off communication – that simply is not realistic. However you can and should stop the cycle of reactivity so many people are caught up in. The good news is that this is actually much easier than it sounds. The solution is proactivity. We call the solution “Planning and Solitude,” and the good news is that you can start tomorrow morning! While we cannot completely eliminate the reactivity that inevitably follows us throughout the day, we can proactively decide to start each day. So when you wake up tomorrow morning, stop checking your email, stop watching TV, stop checking Facebook, and stop anything else that may distract you from setting up your day. Find a quiet place and ask yourself the following questions: 1. What will be the best use of my time today? 2. Which items on my agenda require immediate attention? 3. What items on my agenda will create momentum?
4. What can I delegate? 5. What can I delete? 6. What will I do today to progress toward my goals? As you go through these questions, keep a journal or notes of the answers on a daily basis. These will provide you with a roadmap of where you’ve been and where you are today. You’ll fi nd that there are patterns in what you’re doing, and you will quickly identify where you can apply leverage to get more out of every day. You can also keep a list of those things that you commit to doing each day and make sure they’re getting done. John D. Rockefeller had a habit of selecting one or two things that would move his world forward on a daily basis and refused to leave his office until they were completed. He attributed most of his success to this very discipline. How much more success would we see in our lives if we committed to doing that and beyond? You may be asking yourself, is getting “out of the weeds” really this simple? Trust me, I have gotten this question before; thousands of entrepreneurs that we have trained have asked the very same thing. What they found in the end just after a few days or weeks is that this is the most valuable time that they have every day. They wouldn’t trade planning and solitude for anything!
A u s t i n MD m A g A z i n e . c o m
45