Illumin Blog

We think too much.

As business owners we’re always trying to be ahead of the game, always want to know the answers before calling, launching, pitching or doing. Mentality this just puts us behind the game because we spend so much time thinking instead of doing.  It’s a big waste of emotional energy, time, competitive advantage and often revenue.

Look, I get caught up in these challenges too so I’ve created an approach to get out of my own way and stop over-thinking. It’s called Think. Do. Done. Here’s what I do:

1. I THINK of everything that I need to get done this week and write it down in my notebook in no particular order. This clears my head and frees up brain space.
2. I DO take a highlighter and mark, at the beginning of each day, the top three things on my list that will generate visibility, credibility, or revenue. If there are several of these items on my list (and there should be), I pick just three to do today.  If I picked them, I commit to not thinking about them, but doing them.
3. I DO write those three things on a separate piece of paper so I see only them, not anything else on that long list.
4. I DO clear my entire desk area of anything unrelated to those three items so I’m not distracted.  (I now have all my books, files, papers, etc. in a completely separate room on a completely separate floor because I am very easily distracted. I also log out of email and any social media sites. They can wait. On my desk are only those three tasks I need to do now.)
5. I DO give myself a time limit to do each of those tasks. For instance, for today’s blog post I gave myself an hour and a half.
6. I DO step away from my project for a bit of time, 15 min., ½ hr., 1-2 days (only for really big projects) to allow for any additional creative juices to flow. I’m strict with this time limit. For instance, if I write a blog, I’ll step away for about 15 min., come back, reread, make changes, and then send it to my VA to post it.
7. Now I’m DONE and ready to move on to the next item. 
8. Repeat daily.

By assigning three important tasks a day and giving yourself time limits to get them done, you realize how focused you become and how much more substantive your work is. If you accomplished the three tasks on your Action List for that day and have the time and the desire to do more, great, go for it. But, if you’ve completed them and want to have fun for the rest of the day, you can feel good about taking action versus “wasting” action on non-transformative, insignificant tasks (internet gazing, doing laundry, cleaning your desk again, etc.).

If I find myself over thinking a project, I just take action. Usually the action in and of itself resolves the problem. Basically, I borrow from Nike and “Just Do It.”

The great news about having a Think. Do. Done. way of working is that you will quickly get hooked on the habit of working quickly through your Action List.  You’ll be more comfortable with getting things done verses making them perfect. Let’s face it: nothing is ever perfect in business anyway. It’s all a journey and part of the journey involves feedback, and to get feedback you have to put it out there, and to put it out there it needs to get done. Not done perfectly.

Well, my hour and a half is done and this needs to get posted! Have a brilliant day!