It can be hard to answer the question, “How was your day?” You can spend the whole time being busy and stressed out, yet wind up with very little sense of professional accomplishment or personal satisfaction.
If that’s the case, your problem could lie in your idea of what productivity is. Like many people, you may think being productive means getting more done in less time. Whether you had a good day or not depends on whether you acquired a new client, or on how much revenue you brought in. Unfortunately, if that’s the only way you measure what you’ve accomplished, you’re sure to have more stress—and more bad days than good ones. Judging the quality of your workday only by these external factors makes it difficult to have a sense of accomplishment in slow, challenging times.
Expand Your Perspective
Instead, think of productivity as the measure of how accomplished and productive you feel at the end of the day. Look to optimizing your time, attention, and resources, in order to feel a sense of accomplishment. This will not only make you feel good about the day you’ve just spent. It will motivate you to get things done tomorrow. Here’s how to do it.
As you proceed through the day, keep in mind your new business and revenue goals. But also put into place some internal measures of success.
In the area of professional accomplishment, ask yourself:
- Did I take steps toward reaching a short-term goal today?
- Did I take steps toward reaching a long-term goal today?
- Did I contact someone new today?
- Did I learn something new today?
- Did I try something new today?
- Did I reach out today to social media followers, customers, and prospects, or my sphere of influence?
In the personal realm, ask yourself:
- Did I help someone today?
- Did I teach someone something today?
- Did I show kindness to someone today?
- Did I spend quality time with a loved one today?
- Did I do something good for myself today?
Of course, you won’t be able to answer “yes” to all these questions on any given day. But if you can say “yes” to two or three, you should feel the day was well-spent — and with a lot less stress!
Are any of your contacts buying or selling a home? Happy to help in any way! Please feel free to refer us.
