Tag: challenges

I Am Done: How to Finish Everything You Start, and Then Some

If you have been inside any of my training courses you probably see the phrase "I am done" showing up a lot in the comments, especially in the "Challenge" posts.

Whenever you teach somebody something, it is in both your best interests that they go ahead and complete that task - isn't it?  It is one thing to get people to PROMISE to complete something; but it is just as important that they come back and tell you when that has been finished.

And that is why, when I offer membership challenges, I always tell people to come back and post "I am done" in the comments. That way I can easily do a search and figure out who has finished and who hasn't.

So How Do You Know That You Are Done?

And how do you make sure that you finish as many things as possible?  First off, only focus on one project at a time.  You might have to change your thinking.  I know that for a long time I had many different projects going. When I was finished High School, I was taking AP Tests, going to school, working on a long-term programming project, creating products of my own, and writing my own books.  I had about five or six projects going on at the same time - and I had to switch gears so often that I hardly got anything done!

If I had spent just one week finishing the book I was working on, I wouldn't have to think about it ever again.  If I had then turned my efforts to finishing the script I was working on, the program, I'd be done!  If I then focused all my effort on the large project, I'd be done!

So don't leave things unfinished because you underestimate how much effort it takes to switch between tasks.

Also, set a deadline for everything you do. You know yourself; you know how long something is going to take you based on how focused you are on it.  If you have to record a set of five videos, and you know you can only record one video a day, it will take you exactly five days - and that becomes your deadline.

It is important, though, to have not just a DATE-based deadline, but a TIME-based deadline as well. Don't say something is going to be finished "next week"; tell me it is going to be finished "next week, Wednesday, at exactly 4.30pm."

And to make sure that you HIT your headlines, keep what you have shippable, so that you can be done at any time.  This means that when you are recording that video course, if you can get away with only having three videos, and that is Version 1 of your course; and Version 2 contains five videos, then you can meet that deadline without having to stress about it.  You could launch the product with just three videos instead of five, if you had to.

And finally...

Don't Tell People Everything You Know!

Look at the way Apple launches new items versus the way Microsoft does: Microsoft announces things years in advance and always misses their deadline; while Apple keeps their new stuff secret until it is perfected and it's ready to go.

You don't have to announce every single thing you are going to launch because you might not end up launching all of them - and then you appear to be unreliable and a joke!

Those are the ways you are going to get more stuff accomplished in less time:  By only having one project at a time and finishing what you start; having a time-based deadline; keeping it shippable - and don't announce everything you know.

What is your best productivity tip to get your tasks finished? Leave me a comment below telling me right now.