7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People
July 2, 2008
With a twist to the common list of habits that are useful to establish, here are 7 habits that you do best to avoid.
Just like finding habits that can be useful for you it’s important to find habits that are holding you back. Most of these 7 habits can easily become such a normal, everyday part of life that you hardly notice it (or how it’s affecting you). I’ve dabbled with all of them quite a bit. Not surprisingly I didn’t get much of the important stuff done. I´d also like to add that these are just 7 broad habits you can establish to become highly ineffective in most parts of your life. I pretty sure there are several more.
1. Not showing up.
Maybe you’ve heard this quote by Woody Allen:
“Eighty percent of success is showing up”
One of the biggest and simplest thing you can do to ensure more success in your life – whether it be in your social life, your career or with your health – is simply to show up more. If you want to improve your health then one of the most important and effective things you can do is just to show up at the gym every time you should be there.
The weather might be bad, you might not feel like going and you find yourself having all these other things you just must do. If you still go, if you show up at the gym when motivation is low you will improve a whole lot faster than if you just stayed at home relaxing on the sofa.
I think this applies to most areas of life. If you write or paint more, each day perhaps, you will improve quickly. If you get out more you can meet more new friends. If you go on more dates you chances of meeting someone special increases. Just showing up more can really make a big difference. Not showing up will not get you anywhere.
2. Procrastinating half the day. To keep it short, my 3 favourite ways to get out of a procrastinating state are:
- Swallow that frog. What´s this means is simply to do the hardest and most important task of the day first thing in the morning. A good start in the morning lifts your spirits and creates a positive momentum for the rest of the day. That often creates a pretty productive day.
- How do you eat an elephant? Don´t try to take it all in one big bite. It becomes overwhelming which leads to procrastination. Split a task into small actionable steps. Then just focus on the first step and nothing else. Just do that one until it’s done. Then move on to the next step.
- The Get around to It Paraliminal. I find this guided mediation to be very useful. After 20 minutes of mostly just lying on my bed and listening I’m far more productive for a few days. I don´t feel the urge to sink into that procrastinating state or the need to find out what’s new over at one or five of my favourite websites.
3. When actually doing something, doing something that isn’t the most important thing right now.
One of the easiest habits to get stuck in, besides procrastinating, is to keep yourself busy with unimportant tasks.
To be effective you probably need some kind of time management-system. It might be something really simple, like using the 80/20-rule at the beginning of each day. The 80/20 rule, or the Pareto Principle as it´s also known, says that you´ll get 80 percent of your results from only 20 percent of your tasks and activities. So you need to focus most of your energy on those few important tasks to be effective.
When you have prioritized using this rule just write down the top 3 most important things you need to do that day. Then, from the top, start doing them. Even if you just get one of the things done, you have still done the most important thing you could do today. You may perhaps prefer some other system, such as GTD. But however you organise your work it’s still of highest priority to find the most important tasks so you don’t spend days, weeks or months doing busywork that isn’t that essential anyway. Just getting things done faster isn’t that useful if the things you get done are unimportant to you. Read more
How To Turn Your Ideas Into Reality
June 30, 2008
Are you brimming with exciting new ideas for your business, but short on implementation? Are you frustrated by projects you’d like to get off the ground but they still seem stuck? Ideas that stay in your head won’t ever generate income - it’s IMPLEMENTATION that counts. So how do you make sure that you follow through and act on your ideas? Here are my top 6 tips for getting things done.
Keep a list.
Henriette Anne Klauser author of ‘Write it down, make it happen‘ says that by articulating your desires, you set in motion the wheels that will take you to your goals. I’m regularly amazed at how things on my ‘to do’ list get handled - even before I’ve had a chance to get started on them. (Doesn’t happen as often as I would like, but it DOES happen!)
Determine the Next Action.
There’s a good chance that your list is a mixture of specific actions e.g. ‘reconcile bank statement’ and projects that are actually dependent upon a series of actions e.g. ’sort out the website’. Until you determine the next action for each project, they will stay on your list as a guilt-inducing immovable block. You’ll get a yucky feeling every time you think of it and 4 weeks from now you’ll be no further forward. Determine what the next action is for each project, then do it!
Don’t try to do it all at once.
Different actions on your list may require different levels of energy or mental concentration. You’ll get more done if you plan activities around YOUR best hours. For example, I like to schedule calls with my team early in the day when my concentration is higher. In the late afternoon my creativity dips, so I try to schedule routine tasks and activities that require little creative energy for that time of the day.
Experiment to discover your best hours and plan accordingly.
Delegate.
You DON’T have to do it all yourself. Somewhere in the world there is someone who loves the jobs you hate! Thanks to the power of the internet and sites like Elance.com and Guru.com, there’s never been a better time to hook up with the perfect help - at great prices.
Determine which tasks you can’t do or don’t want to do, then find someone to do them.
Hire a coach or mentor.
There’s nothing like reporting to a third party for keeping you accountable. The first time I worked with a coach I was amazed at how my productivity soared. Can’t afford a coach? Why not ‘buddy up’ with a friend for weekly accountability meetings?
Read more
Control Your Mental Attitude!
June 20, 2008
Mental attitude is a two-way gate across the path of life which can be swung one way into the path that leads to success and the other way into the road that leads to failure. What a profound thought it is to recognize that the one thing which can bring us success or failure, bless us with peace of mind or curse us with misery all the days of our lives, is simply the privilege of taking possession of our own minds and guiding them to whatever ends we choose, through our mental attitude!
Your mental attitude is the major factor which attracts people to you in a friendly spirit of cooperation, or repels them, according to whether your attitude is positive or negative; and you are the only person who can determine which it shall be.
Your mental attitude is an important factor in the maintenance of sound health. All doctors know that a patient’s mental attitude is vitally important in the cure of physical ailments.
Mental attitude is the warp and the woof of all salesmanship, regardless of what one is selling - merchandise, personal services, sermons, or any other idea or commodity. A person with a negative mind can sell nothing. He may take an order from someone who buys something from him, but no selling was done. Perhaps you have seen this truth demonstrated in many retail stores where the minds of the “sales people” clearly were not directed toward pleasing the customers.
Read more
The Forever Moment of NOW.
June 8, 2008
image: Oasis album cover, “Be Here Now”
We are always here. In this moment. Now. Each moment is the birth and death of a brief encounter of time. But perhaps it is time that is the myth?
Where ever we are, is actually a whenever we are. All we have is this moment, always. It’s always… RIGHT NOW.
This seems like an obvious statement, however, how often do we really enjoy the moment?
What do you do with Your Right Now’s?
It is an amazing thing to think that we are always in the forever moment of now. Unfortunately, many of us spend most of our time thinking about the past, or worrying about the future… instead of living the now. Being the Now. Right Here, Right Now.
What can we do in to ensure that the moment is spent in the best possible way. How can we maximize the moment?
Past is but a memory. It is the remembrance of moments in time. Nothing more. Only etheric synapses of the brain recalling remembered circumstances. There is nothing for us in yesterday.
“Yesterday’s got nothing for me.” - Axel Rose
I believe that is the first time that Gun’s and Rose’s have been quoted here on Cultivate Greatness. hah. But I feel compelled.
“Yesterdays” - GnR
Yesterday, there was so many things
I was never told
Now that I startin’ to learn
I feel I’m growin’ old’cause yesterday’s got nothin’ for me
Old pictures that I’ll always see
Time just fades the pages
In my book of memories
Prayers in my pocket
And no hand in destiny
I’ll keep on movin’ along
With no time to planr my feet’cause yesterday’s got nothing for me
Old pictures that I’ll always see
Some things could be better
If we’d all just let them beYesterday’s got nothin’ for me
Yesterday’s got nothin’ for me
Got nothin’ for meYesterday there were so many things
I was never shown
Suddenly this time I found
I’m on the streets and I’m all aloneYesterdays got nothin’ for me
Old pictures that I’ll always see
I ain’t got time to reminisce old noveltiesYesterday’s got nothin’ for me
Yesterday’s got nothin’ for me
Yesterday’s got nothin’ for me
Yesterday
And here as a bonus and to balance out the Guns and Roses reference… here is Noel Gallagher of Oasis playing with Coldplay. Singing “Live Forever”.
Now that you are finished reading this. Enjoy this moment… and leave a comment. 
And always remember this…
NOW is the Moment of Power
Successfully,
Travis Wright
