Hello to you all today!

Here we are at the end of another month and summer is already in full swing. Sometimes it amazes me just how fast time shoots through my day or my week and then poof another month is gone.

Anyone else relate?

Thought so. I can almost hear your groans. I know ‘cause I get to work with so many of you now and have worked with hundreds in the past in this thing called MLM, network marketing or direct sales.

Bottom line, anyone working from home has to be particularly careful with their time or it’s gone before you know it and you don’t have much productive “money making” activity to show for it.

So how do you get the “taking action” thing under control?

My first suggestion is to “handle it once.”

Handle what once?....everything!

Here’s the deal. When the mail comes. Do you open it, look at it, read it and then put it somewhere to open it again later, look at it read it and possibly put it up to handle yet again later?

Why do it twice or thrice or…? When the mail comes in, put it in a mail “in box.” Leave it there until you’re ready to deal with it.

Then open it, do the action (pay it, make the call etc) throw away the envelope and file the pieces you want to keep.

You have just shaved 50% off of your time.

That may not seem like such a big deal 50% of your time on one envelop, but how many times do you thumb through the mail looking at the same things ‘cause they are left on a kitchen counter (rather than in their own resting place until it’s their turn)? And you still haven’t dealt with the darn thing?

Here is another time stealer and action killer. The “I’ll do it later” syndrome. You know, “Oh I need to do that, but I’ll do it later.”

This is what happens next. By the time you get to whatever project it was you put off, you now have to spend extra time “getting back up to speed.” You need to spend extra time just to get where you were when you put it down instead of doing it now.

Then there’s the great idea you get in your in box. (Why it might even be my ezine!) It’s so great that right after you read it, you file it so you’ll have it for later….. Why not take all those great ideas (those from other people plus your own) and put them into action. Now. Keep this in mind. We all have great ideas. Those who make their dreams come true, live the life they want to live… simply take action on their ideas and the great ideas that come along. They don’t file them away.

What do you need to do to change your time stealers? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

All I want you to do is this. Place a white board or a black board or something like it somewhere central to where you work. Every time you realize you’ve handled something twice or put something off, go to that board and make a hash mark. Nothing fancy just a hash mark. When you have four standing along side each other the fifth one goes diagonally across the other four.

At the end of the day with just a glance you can count how many times you put something off or how many times you handled something twice.

Let me know what happens to your “taking action” habits. :)

By the way I got this email the other day from a woman who seems to be on her way to taking action. Check this out.

What did Lisa do? She took full advantage of her time and the tools she bought. She didn’t file them, she didn’t do them later. She is in fact the ideal coaching client, the ideal program participant.

She went to work now, with the tools. She didn’t get ready, to get ready, so she could get ready, to get ready before she started. She went out there trusting her ability to learn on the job and be great later. In my book Lisa is grand now, simply because she started.

If you’d like details on the program that Lisa began in May Click here.

In the meantime, remember to note those hash marks when you find yourself putting off something or handling something twice.

Let me know.

Warmly


Jillian