I love the Elvis song, but picking up chicks isn’t quite what I’ve got in mind today. Or any other day for that matter. I’m happily married.
How do you feel about these topics?
• Work flow
• Systems
• Processes
• Schedules
• Calendars
• Deadlines
• Standard Operating Procedures
I confess. Some days I embrace and love all these things. Other days, they plum evade me!
For me, it comes and goes in spurts. Some spurts last a long time. Others, not so much.
This week I had some big technology challenges – most notably Internet issues thanks to my ISP (Internet service provider). Since my wife and I both work from home offices and our work relies heavily on the Internet, it wasn’t a terribly productive week. Even when the Internet issues were repaired, I found myself completely discombobulated due to the disruption.
Does that ever happen to you? I imagine it happens to everybody.
It’s not a good sign when you start out a week having to cancel some online appointments. Things went downhill from there.
Oh, I was busy. But I wasn’t productive. So yesterday I Tweeted a message to help myself try to get back on track and salvage what’s left of the week.
I’m not busy but I’m productive.
No, it wasn’t a statement (Tweet) of fact. It was a statement (Tweet) of what I needed to do. I needed to stop being busy and start being productive.
That’s when Elvis entered my head singing, “A little less talk, a little action please!”
But, too much talk isn’t the cause of my current failures. It’s a confluence of factors that have converged on me in recent days. It happens.
Unexpected things. Expected things. Things just come up and knock our wheels off, making it hard to keep going down the track.
I admit it. Those are just excuses. Good ones, but still excuses!
I need to be more disciplined. That’s what the Elvis song means to me today. I need to get my butt in gear and start making meaningful progress. I need to stop talking, stalling and putting things off. It’s time to dive in and get after it.
You can chase getting things done, or you can let your work chase you! I’d rather chase than be chased.
Here are some things I’ve going to resolve to do:
– Release the podcast on a specific day of the week at a precise time. No, I’ve not settled on exactly when yet – but I’m working on it.
– Create an editorial schedule, too. I write a lot. Every day. I just don’t post a lot. I’d like to publish one post a week.
– Get back to my block scheduling – something I’ve almost always done, but I’ll allowed it to slip this year. And I can’t explain why. It just happened. Proof that if you don’t pay attention, things don’t improve.
– I’m almost always creating work flow, schedules, processes and systems for clients. It time for the cobbler to build himself some shoes.
– I’m getting back into chase mode. I’m always in chase mode when it comes to business, but I’ve allowed the work to chase me lately. I don’t enjoy being chased by work. I’d much rather do the chasing and hunt it down, tackle it and get it in a choke hold. So WORK, you’d better start running ’cause I’m coming. And I’m armed and dangerous.
