8 Tips on How to Proactively Manage the “Little Things”
Post written by Greg Dabbs, Business Development Manager
If you want to accomplish something big in your life or career, it’s important to remember all of the little things that need to happen along the way. Nobody achieves their goals by going directly from A to Z.
When it comes to your work, staying on task and being consistent with the little things gets you where you want to be every day. There’s so much to do…
Whether it’s the emails you need to send, the customer calls you need to make, the reports you need to complete, the fires you need to put out, the praise you give a coworker, the prompt follow-up you gave to the ten clients you interacted with that day, returning messages promptly, the positive attitude you filled the office with, the hands you shook, the meaningful conversations you had with clients getting to know and understand them, the office lunch you bought for everyone, the positive feedback you handed out, the problems you ran toward and fixed, or the thank you cards you sent to clients.
WHEW! That’s a lot, right?
It sure is, but all of these things you do consistently day in and day out help your business and help you achieve your daily goals.
Here are eight tips that will help you make sure you’re proactively taking care of all of the “little things”:
- Prepare your daily task/goal list the night before.
- Get to work early to review your list and make adjustments.
- Attack the most important things on your list that will move you and/or your business forward.
- Stay FOCUSED. Stay away from social media, too much office chatter and any other things that easily distract you.
- Be a good quarterback. We all have unexpected things that come up throughout the day that need to be addressed. It’s important we give ourselves permission to call audibles, adjust quickly, and enable ourselves to still get to our daily goal line.
- Manage your emails. Some people like to respond to emails that come through right away. Others take ten minutes every hour to deal with email. And others manage emails three times a day. Whatever approach you take, make sure you’re managing your emails…and not the other way around.
- Show gratitude. Write down three or four things at the end of the day that happened that went well. That simple step will help give you a sense of accomplishment and motivation.
- Finally, don’t forget to find laughter every day!
What other things do you do each day that help you stay on task and reach your goals? We’d love to hear your ideas!
