You Have All the Time in the World

What? Are you kidding me? Seriously?

We are all fighting the same battle of never having enough time to accomplish the demanding expectations before us. While that’s true, we have a choice. We can approach this problem with fear, stress, anxiety, and a victim mentality. Or, can we adopt the mindset of highly successful individuals and implement the 1-4-5 Achieve List. By preplanning and taking on a proactive mindset and preplanning our priorities each day, week, and month, we can say to ourselves we are creating all the time in the world to achieve our goals.  

Research has proven, the more you preplan, the more you accomplish. In fact, for every one minute you preplan you save ten minutes of time. The 1-4-5 Achieve List helps you preplan and attack your most important tasks first.

Have you ever said to yourself, “I’ve been busy all day but I didn’t accomplish what I need to get done today!” If so, the 1-4-5 Achieve List is designed especially for you.

Most of us have a huge to-do list that is extremely de-motivating. Even if you accomplish 5-10 items, there is always another 5-10 waiting to be finished. This means you feel like a failure each day because of all the undone items left on the list. The stress and disappointment takes up valuable time and slows us down.

The 1-4-5 Achieve List allows you to prioritize, focus and stay motivated each day.

First, eliminate your To-Do List.

Yes, I said it. It’s time to let go of that huge list of unaccomplished items, staring at you, and breathing on you day in and day out. Just let it go! Instead consider that big list of to-dos your “Grass Cather List”. This list ensures that nothing falls through the cracks.

The second step in creating your Achieve List is to identify your priorities for the day or week.

1. List your #1 priority for the day. What do you absolutely without a doubt have to accomplish today? What is the most important task that needs to get done that directly relates to you accomplishing your overall goals?
2. List your next 4 priorities for the day. Once you’ve achieved your #1 priority, what would be the next 4 items in order of priority you need to achieve to stay on track to achieving your goals.
3. List your next 5 priorities for the day. Once you’ve achieved your 4 priorities listed above, what would be the next 5 items in order of priority you need to achieve to stay on track to achieving your goals.
    

Now let’s say you accomplish all 9 items, now it’s time to access your grass catcher list and create another 1-4-5. What is fantastic about this process is you will feel motivated because you accomplished your plan, you’ve accomplished your top priorities and you’ve stayed focused on your priorities even through I’m sure you’ve been interrupted throughout the day.

In summary, here is how to achieve:

• Achieve priority #1 ~ Celebrate and move on
• Achieve your next 4 priorities ~ Celebrate and move on
• Achieve your next 5 priorities ~ Celebrate and create another achieve list from the items on your Grass Catcher List
   

This process is much more self-motivating than having a list of 20 items that never get accomplished in one day! Get the most critical, highest payoff activity completed first, then move to the next priorities. This is ultimate focus. It takes practice but you can do it!