Want To Make Your Work Easier To Complete? Do These 5 Things Immediately
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All things are difficult before they are easy.
Thomas Fuller
Are you busy all the time but never seem to produce results?
Creating success doesn’t need to be an uphill battle.
Most people fail because they’re working harder, not smarter.
They look at emails, chat with colleagues, then check notifications when they should be doing high-$$$ work.
You can make your work easier to complete by asking:
If this was easy, what would it look like?
Not going to lie; this is one of my favourite questions to ask myself.
There was a time not so long ago I would get frustrated quickly.
While I still get frustrated. It doesn’t happen as often.
But it was a struggle to overcome.
Small things would piss me off.
From technology not working to having a bad day playing sports.
Something would not go my way; I would get worked up, and then more things would again not go my way.
You’ve been there.
You hit a spiral and slide down it fast.
One day I was listening to Tim Ferriss, and he talked about using a simple 9-word question to frame how he would approach things:
If this was easy, what would it look like?
For some reason, I was in the right mind frame.
That question hit right in the brain box.
The old cogs started to turn, and I thought.
“Could this work”
“Could this pull me out of frustration?”
Later that week, I played a reasonably competitive football (soccer) game.
A few things went wrong early on. My touch was off, and I felt tired and slow.
I took a second and asked myself:
“What if this was easy?”
I instantly thought:
I would be playing with a smile on my face.
I would be light on my feet.
I would control and release the ball quickly.
I would know what space to be in.
It worked.
It pulled me out of the frustration spiral.
Over the coming days and weeks, it became a mantra.
As frustration started to boil up, I would ask myself the question.
It became a framing for meetings, writing content, sales calls, or doing chores.
Can I make this easier?
It eventually developed into a personal belief that there is always an easier way.
It’s not always easy to find, but there is an easier way.
Thinking like this has helped me improve my results in many areas of my life.
It’s a question that could help you do less and increase your results.
When I took this question
If this was easy, what would it look like?
And thought about how it could make me much more productive.
I found 5 simple strategies that worked too well; it was like magic.
If you want to be a highly productive business owner, I would 100% recommend you use these 5 strategies to make your days easier.
Know your best hours:
It’s not that we have little time, but more that we waste a good deal of it.
Seneca
You do your best work when you feel most energized.
It could be early in the morning or late at night.
Your best hour for one type of work may not be the best hour for another kind.
E.g. I do focus work in the morning and creative work at night, matching my circadian rhythm.
But like many people, it took me years to discover that doing certain types of work at certain times of day makes it easier to get that work done.
Allocate your energy:
Energy is our most valuable resource, not time.
Matthew Kelly
You have limited energy daily.
Don’t waste your high energy on low-value work:
• Emails
• Chores
• Worrying
• Notifications
Do your most important work first to get the most important results.
Put important in front of urgent.
A lot of the personal development and productivity advice out in the world will tell you to manage your time.
But energy management always has been and always will be far more important.
To make your life easier, find ways to keep your energy higher.
Avoid choice overload:
In a world where we have too many choices and too little time, the obvious thing to do is just ignore stuff.
Seth Godin
Too many options lead to procrastination.
Indecisiveness is a serious time and energy killer.
Make each day easier and have:
• 3 key priorities
• Plenty of slack
• Time built-in for rest and reflection
You do more by doing less.
You can fall into complexity bias if you don’t keep things simple.
Complexity bias is our tendency to look at something that is easy to understand or look at it when we are confused and view it as having many parts that are difficult to understand.
You will often find it easier to face a complex problem than a simple one.
It always amuses me how often we get in our own way.
Remove distractions:
You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.
Winston S. Churchill
You have to drop the dumb stuff you do that derails your days.
They say it takes 15 minutes to get back into the zone after a disruption.
When was the last day you went undisrupted for 15 minutes, never mind a few hours?
If you can’t remember, you have work to do.
You will make your life 100% easier when you remove most of your distractions.
They say that 80% of what you do each day mentally, emotionally, and physically is what is keeping you back from levelling up.
Like most people, a lot of that 80% will be distractions and bad habits.
Drop that dumb stuff today.
Create a runway to flow:
Over-prepare, then go with the flow.
Anonymous
Flow is essential if you want to produce high-quality work.
You need to develop a process that allows flow to happen daily.
You can use:
• Music
• Meditation
• Journaling
• Breathing techniques
For me, it’s a short journal session to frame what I am doing, then I play the same music playlist and work magically starts happening.
It will take you time to find your flow runway.
To make life easier, you often have to work hard first to find the easiest way to live a high-performing life.
But remember: Simple shifts; have a big impact.
You can make life easier for yourself.
Go make it happen.
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