Do It Tomorrow

For almost any initiative, the route to success is regular, focused action.

Exercise
Take a sheet of paper and make a list of all the things you intend to get around to some day. Include your work and your private life. Don’t include anything that you have to get done by a certain date. Ideally they should be the sort of things that won’t get done at all unless you make a conscious resolve to do them.

How To Make Your Dreams Come True

I write out a will-do list for each day.

I aim to complete my will-do list every day.

I write down every additional thing I do which isn’t on my list.

If I do not succeed in completing my will-do list more than three days in a row, I carry out an audit of my work to see whether I have too much work, am working inefficiently or am not leaving enough time.

I save up emails and deal with them in one batch the following day.

I save up paper and deal with it in one batch the following day.

I save up voicemails and deal with them in one batch the following day.

I save up tasks and deal with them in one batch the following day.

I have a task diary in which I collect tasks for action the following day or later.

The first item on my will-do list every day is my current initiative.

I have a list of current initiatives arranged in the order in which I am going to deal with them

I write out a will-do list for each day.

I aim to complete my will-do list every day.

I write down every additional thing I do which isn’t on my list.

If I do not succeed in completing my will-do list more than three days in a row, I carry out an audit of my work to see whether I have too much work, am working inefficiently or am not leaving enough time.

I save up emails and deal with them in one batch the following day.

I save up paper and deal with it in one batch the following day.

I save up voicemails and deal with them in one batch the following day.

I save up tasks and deal with them in one batch the following day.

Few things are so urgent that they wouldn’t be better put off till tomorrow.

Get the system for making new entries right first, and only then worry about bringing the old information up to date.

Good contacts are essential for the small business, and too many home businesses don’t keep their address books and contact details in good shape. The rule is that every time you contact someone you make sure that the person’s entry is correct.

You cannot exercise any sort of financial control if you are relying on quarterly or (even worse) annual accounts produced weeks or months after the period ends.

As a person running one’s own business from home it’s easiest to do jobs like making entries in the accounts on a daily basis