How Do You Know If You've Won?
The other week, while mowing, I had a podcast turned on one that had been shared with me and it was on winning the day.
Having your main 5 tasks for the day ready to go and once you’ve accomplished them - you can be finished. Yes…even if there’s more to do because there will always be more to do. At some point, we have to turn.it.off.
When it ended it automatically went to the next podcast in que.
The next one, no joke, talked about winning the week. Winning the day could have you feeling less than because you could not win 3 days and it would feel like a lot. So looking at the whole week was more helpful.
As I listened, I laughed a little
In many cases, these two are both experts in their own field and they were simply sharing from their perspective. They were able to share why they felt their way of thinking was more helpful than the way someone else does it.
And really… Does it matter? WIn the day or win the week?
I think so. We’re our own biggest critics as far as how “productive” we are when it comes to our task list and too often feel like we haven’t done enough. This could be true because we legit chose not to do the things or we set unrealistic expectations…or we’re somewhere in the middle.
But, I like to back it up…steps in a process that is 💃🏼
How do you know if you’re winning the day or the week?
What tasks do you even put on the list to win the day or the week?
A good number of clients come to me when things are chaotic. They know they have things to accomplish, but they’re so overwhelmed that they sit down and literally don’t know what to do. Sometimes that causes them to work on random stuff. Sometimes it causes them to numb out and scroll.
This causes frustration and definitely doesn’t help them feel like they’ve won the day.
Do you ever feel this?
So, what do you do?
For these clients, we listed out all the tasks that they touch for their business. We label how often they’re completed. We label how long it takes them to complete. We then pull up a super fancy Google Sheet with a calendar template. We add in when they start their day. We add in when they end their day. We add in what recurring meetings/events/etc. are already scheduled.
We then look for space.
I’ll pause here because there are a couple of different feelings that come from looking at this. They’ve overcommitted. They may see they have more time than they felt. They may feel they’re fully ready to hire someone because they want more spaces 🎉
We then look at the tasks we had laid out and start adding them into their calendar.
You run payroll every other Wednesday? Boom. that’s an every-other Wednesday task
You have a team meeting every 3rd Monday? Boom. That’s an every 3rd Monday task (and then add in prep time to be ready for said meeting).
You run to Sam’s once a week for supplies? What day makes the most sense? Friday? Perfect, that’s an every Friday task.
Wait, how do you know what to get at Sam’s? You or your staff take inventory on Wednesday and send it to you for review. Now you have an every Wednesday task.
I hope you can see how doing this really starts to create your schedule for you.
I feel that now you can actually determine if you’ve won the day, the week, or shoot, the month!
Imagine sitting down on Friday to plan out your next week and a lot of it is already done for you…no need for your brain to go into freeze mode. We don’t even give it time to overthink because we already know what to do.
So, which one feels good - winning the days or winning the weeks?