I had a co-worker at a previous job, he was amazing at what
he did. He was a great salesman, great
team member, and an inspiration to the entire sales team. I can’t think of anything he did, from a work
perspective, which was not productive and intentional to his day. The one thing he did, that will always stand
out to me is so simple. It was a
fundamental of basic organization, for any career path, for any challenge or
any task, it’s what every one of us should do.
He always had an ongoing “to do” list.
There are those reading this and thinking to themselves, who
doesn’t do this and why would Derek waste time discussing this? If you thought that, just back out and move
along. You are clearly better prepared
than myself, and most of the people I come into contact with. The idea of a list is so simple, yet many of
us just forget to apply it. Especially
in my beloved auto industry, everyone is busy.
Being busy is a terribly good thing, however, being organized and busy
is a more terribly good-er thing.
I find myself always having a load of things to do. Living most of the week on the road, I have
reports to file, PowerPoints to build, Web site audits, Webinars, basic email
communication, Social Media promotion of my brand, my companies brand, my
contracted companies brand, staying abreast of basic industry knowledge,
speculating about future industry knowledge, following up on my dealers
understanding of how I’ve expelled my industry knowledge from my face. It’s a lot.
I love all of it, maybe not the reports, but they are without a doubt a
necessary evil, that brings me back to this topic of ”to do” list.
For the most part, we all know what we need to do. Yet, we lose sight of what writing things
down can mean to your daily plan.
Writing things down gives you a quantifiable and objective view of how
much you need to accomplish. To Do Lists serves as a perspective provider to
your day/week/month/year . If your list
is a page and half long, maybe that desire to click on that cat fighting an
alligator video can be staved off. If
not, here you go, see you in 2:11.
OK, I’m sure you watched it, the video proves two things, Cats
are dumb, as are the people that would let their kid and cats play around
Alligators in that manner. They are
killing machines, and I love them for that, but this is illustrated stupidity.
Where were we?
Their second great function, is putting things in
order. When you can see what has to be
done as a whole, you can figure out what order you can best accomplish each
task. I know this isn't rocket science, but it's also easily overlooked.
The third and most important thing for me is that list allow
a brief celebration of accomplishment. I’ve
not met one person who doesn’t enjoy crossing an accomplished task off a list.
If you don’t get a little joy out of that, go to the doctor and have them check
you for a pulse.
I believe all managers should be asking their employees to
see their to do list, especially in my business. Not to check it over, but just to instill the
idea that they should have one and be using it.
All consultants should be asking the people they are training to make a
to do list during the training. In my
industry, I’m finding it’s a good idea to provide them with the task I expect
them to accomplish. Even if ignored,
it’s a good training tool for my next consultation. “If you aren’t making the small incremental
changes we are talking about, why would you expect your employees to make any
changes they need to make?”
Even reading this back, it’s such a simple idea, but that’s
why it gets overlooked so easily. If you
had the self-control to avoid the Cat vs Alligator video before, add watching
it to you to do list now. No animals or
people get hurt, and again, cats are stupid.
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