Have you ever gotten a lot done only to find that you were not any closer to your main objective? What I'm talking about is spending too much of your time doing things you think are important but really aren't. When you learn to focus your actions on the few things that make the most difference in your results, you will not only save time, you'll also reach your goals much sooner.

I remember doing a lot of little useless things in my days as a sales person. The main key to becoming good at sales is to spend the majority of your time selling. That's something a 2nd grader could figure out. So what did I spend my time doing? I organized my desk, filed papers, made contact sheets, set appointments with non-decision makers, learn more sales skills, etc. Needless to say, I failed miserably at being a sales person. I spent the least amount of my time doing the most important thing that would guarantee an increase in my income.

Have you ever done something like this? You actually think you're being productive just because you're doing stuff even though you know there are a lot more important things you could be doing. I mean, how many times does your email have to be checked during the day anyway?

One of the keys to success that you probably already know is to take massive action. The problem is that many people get into the habit of taking busy action, things that just keep you busy instead of bringing you closer to your goals. You can spend an entire week taking massive amounts of action, getting all sorts of tasks done only to realize that you barely got any closer to achieving your goals.

So what should you do about this? First, you need to figure out the 2 or 3 things that are the most critical to your achievement of your outcome. Then, schedule out your time so that you are spending at least 70% of your time engaging in those 2 or 3 things. Anything that isn't part of those 2 or 3 things should be pushed to the end of the day or not be worked on at all if possible. Of course, you will have things that aren't important but need to be done anyway. For these things, you might want to consider delegating it to someone else if you can so that you have more time to focus on the things that will bring you the most results.

Being able to focus your actions on doing the few things that make the biggest impact on obtaining your end result is a skill, that once mastered, will put you ahead of the majority of people. Your goals will be achieved faster and your life will improve tremendously. Continue wasting your time on doing a lot of things that don't matter and you'll probably be where you are now a year from today and that's a frustration you can do without.

Until next time...