Organize Tomorrow Today

1. Organize Tomorrow Today: Prioritize Your Most Important Tasks

If you prepare successfully, you're preparing yourself to succeed.

Prioritize for success. The "3 Most Important / 1 Must" system is a powerful tool for organizing your day. Each evening, identify the three most crucial tasks for the next day and select one absolute must-do item. This process engages your subconscious mind to problem-solve while you sleep, priming you for success.

Write it down. Physically writing your priorities stimulates the reticular activating system (RAS) in your brain, signaling the importance of these tasks. This simple act increases the likelihood of completion and helps filter out distractions.

Focus on productivity, not busyness. Many people mistake being busy for being productive. By prioritizing your most important tasks, you ensure that you're making progress on what truly matters, rather than just filling time with less critical activities.

2. Choose Wisely: Focus on One Thing at a Time

Greatness is predicated on consistently doing things others can't or won't do. Simply put, success is not about being brilliant. It is about being consistent.

Respect channel capacity. The human brain has limited cognitive resources. Attempting to focus on multiple tasks simultaneously leads to decreased performance across all areas. Instead, choose one important task or skill to master at a time.

Master the power of one. By dedicating your energy to a single goal or improvement, you create momentum and build confidence. This focused approach allows for deeper learning and more significant progress than trying to juggle multiple objectives.

• Start small: Choose one habit or skill to improve
• Commit fully: Dedicate consistent time and effort
• Build momentum: Use success in one area to fuel progress in others

3. Maximize Your Time: Create More Hours in Your Day

The more successful you become, the smaller the unit of time you must think in.

Attack the open space. Identify small pockets of unscheduled time throughout your day and use them productively. Set a minimum time threshold (e.g., 3 minutes) and tackle quick tasks or make progress on larger projects whenever you have that amount of free time.

Prioritize the priorities. When filling these open spaces, focus on the most important tasks rather than the easiest or quickest. This ensures that you're always moving forward on your most critical objectives.

Trim the fat. Regularly evaluate your commitments and activities to eliminate or reduce time spent on less important tasks. Set a "game clock" for meetings and other activities to keep them focused and efficient.

• Identify your "open space" time threshold (e.g., 3, 5, or 10 minutes)
• Keep a list of important tasks that can be completed in short time frames
• Regularly audit your schedule to eliminate non-essential activities

4. Win Your Fight-Thrus: Overcome Obstacles to Form Lasting Habits

Every time you win a fight-thru, it makes it easier to win the next one.

Understand the habit formation process. Recognize the three phases of habit formation: the honeymoon phase, the fight-thru phase, and the second nature phase. The fight-thru phase is the most critical and challenging.

Develop strategies to overcome resistance. Use these four techniques to win your fight-thrus:

1. Ritualize: Schedule your new habit at the same time each day
2. Recognize: Acknowledge when you're in a fight-thru moment
3. Ask two questions: How will I feel if I win/lose this fight-thru?
4. Life projection: Visualize your life in 5 years if you consistently win/lose fight-thrus

Beware of common traps. After reaching the second nature phase, be vigilant against the discouragement monster, disruptions to your routine, and the seduction of success. Maintain your commitment to the habit, even when it feels easy or unnecessary.

5. Evaluate Correctly: Focus on Effort and Process, Not Just Results

Evaluation is the genesis of improvement, however if the evaluation isn't done correctly it will be counterproductive. Unfortunately most people learn to evaluate with the perfectionist mentality.

Shift from perfectionism to performance. Instead of fixating on flaws and shortcomings, adopt a performance mentality that emphasizes effort, improvement, and the process of achieving goals.

Use the Success Log. Implement a daily ritual of answering three questions:

1. What did I do well in the past 24 hours?
2. What is one thing I want to improve in the next 24 hours?
3. What is one thing I can do differently to help make the above-mentioned improvement?

Focus on effort, not just outcomes. Rate your daily effort on a scale of 1-10 for your most important tasks. This practice trains your mind to prioritize what truly matters and builds confidence through consistent effort.

6. Learn How to Talk to Yourself: Harness the Power of Self-Talk

What you think—or how you talk to yourself—dictates how you feel and behave, which in turn dictates if you will succeed or fail.

Recognize the impact of self-talk. Your internal dialogue shapes your self-image and, consequently, your performance. Negative self-talk can create self-fulfilling prophecies of failure, while positive self-talk can boost confidence and drive success.

Implement the Mental Workout. Practice this 100-second routine daily to build mental toughness and control your self-talk:

1. Centering breath (15 seconds)
2. Identity statement (5 seconds)
3. Personal highlight reel (60 seconds)
4. Identity statement (5 seconds)
5. Centering breath (15 seconds)

Visualize success. Use the personal highlight reel to recall past successes and mentally rehearse future achievements. This practice primes your mind and body for peak performance.

7. Learn How to Talk with Others: Master the Art of Communication

Unfortunately, the more you say, the less believable you often become.

Prepare meticulously. Follow these three steps to improve your communication:

1. Write it: Script your key points and ruthlessly edit for clarity
2. Slow it: Use strategic pauses to control pace and emphasis
3. Triangle it: Practice your presentation using the "success triangle" technique

Focus on quality, not quantity. Limit your message to one main point and a maximum of three subpoints. This approach ensures clarity and increases the likelihood that your audience will retain the most important information.

Master one-on-one interactions. Apply the same principles to individual conversations:

• Stay calm: Use centering breaths to control nerves
• Listen actively: Focus on understanding, not just responding
• Control your voice: Maintain positive energy and appropriate pacing

8. Become Abnormal: Avoid Common Performance Traps

Highly successful people have learned that even when obstacles present themselves, they still have an obligation to find a way to get it done.

Recognize and avoid performance viruses. Be vigilant against these three common traps:

1. The Trap of the Viable Excuse: Reject even reasonable-sounding excuses
2. Focusing on What You Can't Control: Direct energy toward factors within your influence
3. Giving In to Problem-Centric Thought: Cultivate a Relentless Solution Focus (RSF)

Develop a "no excuse" mentality. Accept full accountability for your actions and outcomes. This approach builds mental toughness and resilience in the face of adversity.

Practice Relentless Solution Focus (RSF). When confronted with a problem:

• Identify one step within 60 seconds that will improve the situation
• Focus on incremental progress rather than perfect solutions
• Train your mind to default to solution-oriented thinking

By implementing these strategies and avoiding common pitfalls, you can cultivate the mindset and habits of highly successful individuals, leading to improved performance in all areas of life.

Last updated: August 11, 2024