Numbers Are Life

Do your days rush past in a flurry of activity, only to leave you feeling disheveled at the end and with no sense of accomplishment?

Instead, imagine working through your day more productively and achieving your goals.

I love systems, and continually implement them for clients and myself. I see systems in process all the time – some are great, some not so great.

Implementing systems is fabulous, but some just stop there. There is so much more that can be done for continuous improvement. Let’s see where your systems could work better together:

Could you tell me right now exactly what you will be doing for the remainder of the week? Some of you will give me a resounding yes. Others will say no, I don’t work like that Alycia; I’m too creative or I go with the flow.

How’s that working for you? Have you achieved all your goals up until now? Have you made progress on those fab ideas you’ve had? Your business is growing purposefully? No? I thought so. Being fluid and in the moment is just not going to push you – or your business – forward purposefully, regardless of how spiritual and connected to source you are.

Have you lost your loops?

I’m a fan of the GTD (Getting Things Done) system; not a fanatic, but someone who sees the benefits of incorporating such a system into my life. Although, I will add if I was fanatical I probably wouldn’t get overwhelmed like I do occasionally.

If you’ve not heard of GTD, what rock have you been under? Seriously David Allen and his Getting Things Done system has been around for some time, and has an almost cult-like following. Try Googling GTD and you’ll see what I mean.

So last week I took a break from my business appointments. And I really mean a break – I made sure nothing was scheduled and I concentrated solely on the systems in my business.

Yes there were still calls to answer, but I took myself away from my desk and set up either on my kitchen table or my local cafe, whichever took my fancy. My goals for my “systems break” were to get a better handle on our new project management system and revisit some processes in the business.

So it’s the middle of February. How’s your year progressing so far? 12% of 2011 has passed already. Yes, 12%! Time literally flies by without taking any notice of what we are doing – it does not pause for us, it consistently ticks by minute after minute. So what have you been doing with those minutes? If you’ve wasted 12% of the year already, what can you do to make sure the remaining 88% is concentrated on business growth?

Have you noticed that the momentum you have when start your week, your year or even your day has a big impact on the results you achieve?

It’s momentum – the impelling force or strength – that gets things happening. The fabulous thing about momentum is that once it starts rolling, its takes a lot to stop it. But the trick is to get that momentum started in the first place.

Are you a morning or evening person? We tend to be one or the other and in fact I’ve found that it can change during different stages of life. Some of us start out being night owls and then as we get older we find ourselves naturally getting up earlier.

The word “delegation” rolls off the tongue so easily but can be so difficult for many of us to do. However, one thing remains true, highly successful business people did not get there alone. We humans are limited in our capabilities and only have so much time available to us. We need sleep, food and rest to function properly. Outsourcing is the answer, but outsourcing will only work if you can delegate effectively.

When I first started my business, things started out well. I was happy to keep the business relatively small when my children were younger. Later on, I decided to grow my business so I put my foot on the gas pedal.  That’s when my problems started!