Tips for Accomplishing More

Well, if you're anythiing like me, you wish your days were 30 or more hours long, rather than 24! Wouldn't that be great? To have more time in your day to accomplish more? Yet, I feel that if that were the case, it would still not be enough for some of us. We would find a way to use up that time and still want more. Why is that? Why can some people accomplish so much in a day, and others just can't seem to even knock off 2 items on their list?

Could it be that the very thing that brought us to want our independence and become entrepreneurs, is the very thing that can be our downfall in accomplishing that goal? Don't we want our "freedom?"... to be free from all the restrictions of our 9-5 jobs and not be bound to our work and our computers? We don't want our creativity stifled...we don't want thee mundane, boring schedule we were in. Yet, there's sense to why the office world has become so regimented, and why most jobs involve doing the same tasks over and over...

I currently work full-time during the days in a large hospital testing patients for neurological disorders. I'm good at it, I now get awards for my work with my patients, and intuitively know what my patients need. But when I first started, I was overwhelmed by all I needed to learn and the types of disorders I was expected to face without flinching. From toddlers with epilepsy to people in their 90's with dementias, Parkinson's disease, brain tumors and more. I remember feeling overwhelmed and I'm typically the real creative, emotional type, so I wondered if I'd ever master the work like the woman who was attempting to train me...

Then one of my first patients was a teenager who had just been diagnosed with a large brain tumor and told she likely wouldn't live long and needed surgery immediately... There she sat in front of me in tears, and I realized that anything I was feeling had to be put aside for her sake. I faced having to work her through literally hours of grueling tests that would tell us how she was doing and how affective the surgery would be, and it wouldn't help her to see how badly I felt for her!

From that day, I realized I had a choice about my feelings. I didn't have to wear them on my sleeve. I didn't have to let them control me - I could control them. It was for the good of my patients after all...

Isn't that the same for us in our work here? Those of us getting into our businesses online are all learning. Each of us has something we can share with others to help someone. Each of us can contribute to someone's life in some way, if we put aside our feelings of inadequacy and fear of failure and just get it out there - write it down, capture it on short videos, post to Twitter and Facebook... but get it out any way we can. And in doing so, ouila!... We're beginning to get something accomplished.

And what about that mundane repetive work that bores us?... We want our freedom, don't we? We started this work on our own, so we could go our own way in our own time. But if we want to accomplish a lot, it's a proven fact that sticking to a routine and doing the same thing over and over will make us quicker and more efficient, and doesn't that equal more income and more quality free time for us and more flexibility down the road?

When I first started my work at the hospital, I was slow in the beginning, relying heavily on manuals and notes and feeling very inadequate. But with reading and learning and practicing my work, doing the mundane parts of my work over and over every day until I had it down pat, I learned it well and now can perform very quickly and accurately with it all, accomplishing a lot in very short time.

So...what are some steps to help you stay positive and put aside your doubts and accomplish more?

1. Get yourself in the right mindset. What you do does not need to be perfect - aim for giving your best, but it's more important to do it! Stay positive, knowing what you do is benefitting someone else. Fill your mind with only positive material...what goes in, must come out. Make sure what you're listening to, reading, and watching is building you up in some way. And be steadfast. Be determined that you will persist regardless of setbacks. You can't lose if you don't give up!

2. If you have large tasks to accomplish, break them out into smaller steps. Define each step, decide how long it should take you and give it a time limit for you to accomplish it. And reward yourself in some small way after you accomplish each step.

3. Stay focused. Have a separate area for your work, if possible. And even if it shares your living room or kitchen or bedroom area, try to keep your work confined to the desk area and separate from what you normally do in the rest of the room, so you begin to feel that you are there in that area to work and accomplish your goals. Don't take calls or get sidetracked with personal emails, etc. Set your mind to accomplish the tasks you have before you move on to something else.

4. Establish a routine. I know this sounds boring, right? But like I mentioned above, this is necessary. Get a routine down that works for you. This is where your flexibility and creativity can be put to use - in what kind of routine you establish. But by sticking to a routine, you will get in a groove and automatically atune your brain to be creative and effective whenever you sit down to your computer. You will become quicker, better and more effecient with time and practice (working in your routine).

5. Make lists. Have a master list of all you'd like to accomplish, say over the whole week or even a month. Then have lists within this list. Have a list for goals, and the steps needed to reach those goals...a list with details to accomplish the steps that reach your goals. A list of major tasks. Daily lists of tasks. Check off items from your lists as you accomplish the items, so you can see your progress. I suggest keeping these all together in a notebook just for your lists, where it becomes a daily habit for you to go through them and write in your tasks for the next day in the evening.

6. Take care of yourself! I can't tell you how important this is! Get the sleep you need, eat healthy, have a regular work-out routine. Do you know that there are studies showing that regular exercise keeps your brain healthy and working properly? Eating the right foods and taking supplements will help you feel energized and will actually help your mood so you're able to accomplish more.

These are just a few of the items I've found to help. Do you have any tips to share with me? Love to hear from you!

To your success,

Thea