Driven to a desert of meaningless activity

January 22, 2016 3:03 PM

Execution isn’t about what you do, it’s about what you delete.

When I first started my business, it’s almost embarrassing the number of tasks and routines and endeavors I engaged in that were stupid, unnecessary, expensive or simply made no sense at all.

Consider the amount of money I spent on four color printing for pointless collateral materials that customers didn’t even notice. That alone cost me and arm and a leg. Not to mention countless hours of time, frustration and energy.

But when you’re green and keen, you don’t know any better. You’re too underdeveloped in the discernment department. And so, you have zero sense of proportion. Everything is a priority. Every shiny object becomes equally urgent and important. Because there’s nobody around to tell you otherwise.

The best question I learned to ask myself was:

Is what I’m doing right now consistent with my number one goal?

If it wasn’t, I just stopped.

Another helpful productivity filter was:

Does doing this activity take up a disproportionate amount of time compared to the result?

If it did, I just stopped. This deletion process was liberating. Instead of exquisitely executing convenient tasks that deluded me into thinking I was actually accomplishing something, I learned how to do the real work that made real money.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What are you still doing that doesn’t need to be done by anyone?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “50 Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Ask,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

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Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com