047: Make Your Idea Happen: Lessons and Best Practices From the Team
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SUMMARY:
Having the right ideas is the fun (and easy!) part. Putting those into action is where the hard work starts. David, Jeff and Kevin are on the podcast today talking about the lessons and best practices that have helped them move their ideas and dreams into plans, and those plans into action.
Welcome to episode 47 of the podcast.
THREE KEY TAKEAWAYS:
1. You calendar can be more than your list of obligations. Let it be your plan.
Have you ever gotten to the end of the day and thought “I don’t even know what I did today?” Not because you weren’t busy, but because you didn’t have a plan. And because you didn’t have a plan, you went from obligation to obligation without being able to check anything meaningful off of your to-do list.
To solve this problem, every four weeks David does a deep-dive into his calendar. Yes, he blocks out things like vacation time and meetings, but what about the things that often get pushed aside when you get busy? Like working out, cooking dinner, or even spending time with your kids or spouse. When you make a plan for how you’re going to spend your time and schedule it, you have instant accountability to know what you need to be doing and when. It helps you prioritize the things you care about, see any gaps of free time and feel like you’re actually accomplishing what you want to.
2. Still no time? Determine where you’re overcommitting.
Make it mathematical. If you’re trying to base it on projects or causes you care about, you’ll always be overcommitted. Figure out how many hours you want to ideally be spending with family, on work, and in recreation. Then, based on those numbers, figure out how many extra hours of free time you have. If you find that you have 8 hours of free time per month, but are involved in your local chamber of commerce that eats up 25 hours a month… something has to give. Lay everything out on the table, make it mathematical, and then cut back.
3. Strategic Relationships
When we’re busy taking care of action steps, we can forget about the people. Who are the strategic people you need to focus on when you’re planning out our week or month? Spouse, child, co-worker, peer networking? Don’t forget about the people.
LINKS AND RESOURCES:
Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality by Scott Belsky