Some people just know how to get more done. They have the same amount of time in a day as we do. They just know how to better use those 24 hours, those 1,440 minutes, each day. Well we can learn that. We can get more out of life by working smarter. Of course, to work smarter we have to be smarter. Well that’s just swell. So how can we do that?
Well in his book “Your Best Just Got Better“, Jason Womack give us an idea…I mean an I.D.E.A. (which I think is a great idea).
His model of personal improvement has 4 elements.
- Identify a very simple area you want to improve. Focus your energy and attention on one area of your life and get clear on what success looks like in that area.
- Develop strategies to encourage specific actions and techniques to direct your personal improvement. Remember start small, make small changes. Those small changes over time will make a big difference. And the key to getting started is to…start.
- Experiment by planning for and taking actions that generate bursts of momentum. ‘Experimenting’ frees us from trying to plan out everything in great detail before we get started. It also helps us to not evaluate ourselves as being successful or not, because we’re ‘just experimenting’ to learn what works for us. And building momentum is very important. That’s what sustains our effort.
- Assess the value the effort has created. “Is what you’re doing worth the effort?”
I would also add, assess each day, what you did (not what you’re planning to do, but what you actually did) and what you can learn from it. I’ve learned that it’s much more powerful to assess our activity rather than our plan. It’s far too easy to keep pushing to-dos from one day to the next. So the plan isn’t as important as the action take.
Any finally, the key to learning from our activity is intentional evaluation of our results. It helps us learn from experience. Otherwise, it’s just experience and no learning actually takes place. And we need to be intentional and consistent about it.
Question: Can you apply the I.D.E.A. approach to an area you want to improve in your life? Than take time to intentionally assess your results and your learnings?
