Six Steps to Doubling Your Income and Doubling Your Time Off
by Brian Tracy
The key to doubling your income and doubling your time off is simple.
Identify Your Key Tasks
First, identify those few tasks that contribute the greatest value to your work. Think your work through carefully, in advance. Discuss it with your boss and your co-workers. Identify your key tasks with absolute clarity so that you know without the shadow of a doubt what it is that you can do that makes the greatest contribution.
Stop Doing Low-Value Tasks
Identify all those routine tasks and activities that consume so much time but which contribute little or nothing to your long-term goals at work. Begin today to delegate those tasks to others, one at a time. Eliminate them altogether wherever possible. Outsource anything that can be done by any other person or company. Reduce the amount of time that you spend in low-value, time consuming activities. Be adamant about discontinuing tasks and activities that are of little importance.
Take Time Off
Decide today to take at least one full day each week off work during which you spend time exclusively with your family and on your personal pursuits. During this time off, you absolutely refuse to do anything associated with work. You do not read, make telephone calls, catch up on your correspondence, work on your computer, or anything else. You let your brain completely recharge and rejuvenate by turning your attention to something totally separate and apart from the work you do during the week.
Once you are comfortable taking one day off each week, expand your time off to two days, a full weekend, every week. Begin to schedule a three-day vacation away with your spouse every three months, and eventually, every two months. Begin to schedule two to four weeks of vacation with your family every year. Reorganize your life so that time off and time with your family becomes a major priority.
The more you get your time and your life under control, the more you will get done and the more enjoyable your work will be. The more you get done, the more free time you will have. The more free time you have, the better rested you will be. The better rested you are, the more alert and productive you will be when you are working, thereby getting even more done.
Think Through Your Activities
Start today to pay closer attention to the things you do. Be more conscious and aware of yourself and your actions. Think about your tasks carefully before you begin. Identify your most important tasks and concentrate on them single-mindedly. The very act of continually thinking through your activities before you begin will develop within you new habits of thought and action that will lead to ever greater levels of productivity and performance. You will be amazed at the improvements that take place in every part of your life, and they will take place far faster than you can imagine.
As published in Ron Whites Ezine.
