Did you hit your sales and income targets for 2016? Have you set goals or planned for your successes in 2017? Are you good at taking inventory of your successes and failures and converting them into a new focused plan moving into 2017?
There’s a myth that organizing and prioritizing involves spending a lot of time creating a laundry list of goals and a well-defined plan. I am going to dispel that myth for you in this article.
There are many things in our lives that we do that aren’t of significant value and there are things we do that are significant, yet we don’t do them consistently and with priority. In fact, there are things that we should “procrastinate on purpose” and I’ll share more about that below.
“Productivity Mountain”
I have a model that I call Productivity Mountain that works for your personal as well as your business priorities.
The first section at the base of the mountain is no-value activities and the second section from the base includes low-value activities; these are low-income potential activities. The third section from the bottom includes high-value activities or high-income potential activities and the peak or the pinnacle of the mountain is for high lifetime value activities.
Recently I climbed a small range called Blue Mountain, which is 1,476 feet tall, with my young son. When we started at the bottom it seemed very doable and straightforward. The first quarter was consistent as we marched up the mountain with little or no change to the incline.
As we started on the second half, the terrain started to turn upwards a little more and the incline steepened. By now, sweat was pouring off my head and my legs were burning a little bit. At times, the slope was so steep that ground was slippery under our feet. As we approached the top part, the mountain levelled off just a little bit and then got steep once again, right to the top.
I share this story with you so that you can grasp the different levels of a mountain and how your priorities and actions matter, because if this were Mount Everest, the stakes would have been a lot higher, the challenges a lot more significant and the risks tremendously higher.
When we go through a quick exercise below, see yourself on the various levels of the mountain and recognize that it takes being organized and prioritized to reach the pinnacle. The higher you go up the mountain, the more you’ll need to be proactive and design your action and activities, like adding new rituals and habits.
On the lower sections of the productivity mountain, the low-value activities will be pulling at your attention and fighting you. At the top of the mountain, you must seek out and take actions to create high-value results.
Let’s focus on the first section at the base of the mountain, which is the no-value activities part. These are actions like dropping off the dry cleaning, washing the car, organizing files and booking flights. They aren’t significant in terms of the value you see in your life and your business, but they are essential to the operation of your business. But they don’t need to be done immediately, or by you.
Then there is the low-value section where, again, the activities may be essential but better done by someone else so that it frees up your time to do the high-value and the high-lifetime-value activities that pay dividends over and over again.
The high-value activities are actions like marketing and selling one-on-one, where you see the results relatively soon when done consistently.
The last section is reserved for the high-lifetime-value activities and this is where you focus your attention on actions that provide you with long-term satisfaction and success. These are activities like setting goals, visualizing your highest and best goals being achieved, assessing your progress and fine-tuning your thoughts, feelings and actions to re-align with what matters to you most.
In Rory Vaden’s book Procrastinate on Purpose, he explains that there are things that aren’t significant yet we’re doing them daily and sometimes at a time when it’s not even a priority.
The better way is to procrastinate on things that can wait instead of getting them out of the way. Instead of doing them immediately, like a professional multi-tasker, put them in your calendar for a later date and time. What we’re doing here is putting the most significant actions at the peak of your mountain first and giving everything else a lesser priority, even though it would seem simple to do the low-priority task because it’s quick and easy.
All right, so let’s do a quick exercise and pause for five to 10 minutes to take note of no more than five items per section where you have no- and low-value activities that can be procrastinated, delegated or outsourced. Do the same for your high-value and high-lifetime-value activities.
Do a brain dump of the things that you do in each section, from lowest to highest value that provide you with low-dollar results to high-dollar results. The things you call high-lifetime-value activities could be related to your health and fitness, money and success, relationships and family. These are the things that, at the end of the day, you will value the most in your life.
Act now and put your productivity mountain to work for 2017.
Dan LeFave is the “Prepare for Success” coach, No. 1 best-selling author, speaker, habit-changer and the creator of the online program Live Without Limitations – Five Easy Steps to Release Old Limitations and Balance Your Life. He has been profiled on radio shows, in magazines, articles and podcasts, from Manhattan to Vancouver. Dan’s motto is, “Thoughts become untangled as they pass through your lips and over fingertips.” Visit his website.
