My friend and colleague Jason Womack, who wrote the best-selling Your Best Just Got Better, often talks about “MITs” – Most Important Things. Jason works primarily with corporations, so those of us who work from home, either as solopreneurs or full-time parents, tend to dismiss his expertise.
The simple fact is that anybody who wants to accomplish anything productive needs to establish priority and focus in order to be successful.
On The Declutter Lady Facebook page we often ask what three things you plan to accomplish that day. (Jason was our influence for choosing three, as outlined in his article Put attention on the MIT’s – the Most Important Things.) That doesn’t mean we only have three things that must get done! It’s really more like three HUNDRED in any given day…
So how do you decide your MITs?
Jason also wrote Here’s how to prioritize for success, which has some great suggestions. But in the end it is not so significant WHAT you do as THAT you do SOMETHING. Those of us who tend toward disorganization are also perfectionists. We want to be sure that we are doing the right thing at any given moment. However, we are unsure what that is and usually end up spinning our wheels, getting no traction, wasting time and energy fretting instead of taking some kind of action.
We only progress if we start to move. And rest assured! If you are not engaged in a priority activity, a little voice will start to nag you. Pay attention to that voice. Is it a distraction because you don’t want to be working on your current task or is that voice directing you to a “must do?”
My three MITs today are: Laundry, publish a blog post, and complete today’s Problogger lesson. Interestingly enough, this blog started out as a Facebook post. I had scheduled my blogging for later, but I listened to that little voice and now one of my MITs has just been checked off for today!
What are your three Most Important Things for today? Let us know in the comments below, along with how you cope with distractions.
Brenda, I love this post. I am working with a client right now and this is similar to what we are working on together. The fastest way to get ourselves out of that overwhelmed, spinning mode is to to focus on the MITs. Love that name for them and will check out the book you mentioned, sounds like a great one. I am working from my Mom’s house in Estes Park, Colorado this week and 3 is a great number – it allows me to keep making progress on my business and still enjoy down time with my family. My 3 today are: call with coaching client, finish Gratitude Journal and call with Kelly about being on her show.
I can’t recommend Jason’s book highly enough! (BTW, Colorado is one of his favorite places — he was just there for a biking event.)
I have so many things I want to be doing that it is easy to get overwhelmed. I used to just throw up my hands and go watch TV or read a book. Now I know what to do to be productive!
Thanks for your comments!
making a list of the important tasks to be performed always helps.
We have to assign various tasks some priority and after that, it becomes very easy to accomplish them.
-Yogesh
I agree that having a written list helps. The other part is to schedule when the tasks will be done!
Thanks for your input!
Nearly bedtime for me but my top three tasks were; write first blog post for the challenge, produce first video for another challenge, slot in my exercise routine – oh and do the housework! onward and upward LOL
The important thing is to know where you stand instead of just having the nagging feeling that you have a lot to do, but not exactly sure what!
“Those of us who tend toward disorganization are also perfectionists.” Oh that is so true! My husband doesn’t understand how I can be such a perfectionist and so all over the place at the same time! I love these suggestions! Most of my day is over, but my top three were 1)The kids’ therapy 2)Blog post and 3)Securing a dog sitter for our vacation Two of them are done! The last one I’m going to do right after this! 🙂
Yeah, people who are born organized don’t get it. Good for you for getting your top three done!
Excellent post Brenda, thanks for reminding me to focus. I am not familiar with Jason’s work but I’ve been trying to pick three most important things on my Daily To Do List for awhile. When I do that, it is amazing how much more smoothly my day goes!
I’m always amazed to find out that the experts know what they are talking about! ☺
Don’t know if you already do this, but you might also put those top three in your planning calendar at specific times. That’s another way I stay focused!