Six Steps to Guaranteeing Your Biggest Win of the Day
Luke is a highly productive professional. He’s a planner and knows where his day is heading before it even begins.
One attribute of Luke is he can guarantee his biggest win of the day. He knows he will put points on the board and doesn’t leave his “most important priority” to chance.
A majority of people go in “with an idea” of what they would like to accomplish for the day. Then at the end of the day they wonder not only why they didn’t accomplish the big win, they didn’t even know where it went or possibly where their day for that matter.
This is avoidable, productivity fans.
There are six steps to guaranteeing your biggest win of the day:
1. Clarify the Win
If you don’t know what the win will look like, you don’t know if and when you accomplish it.
Clarifying asks this question: WHAT EXACTLY does your biggest win look like at the end of the day?
The clearer you can define the win, the easier it will be for you to accomplish it.
It may be something you could knock out today with determination and boundaries.
Often, clarifying the win doesn’t happen “the morning of” the day. It may be a minor step in a major project.
Or it simply may be something that is due today.
No matter when it’s accomplished, if it’s your biggest win, you must clarify exactly what the win is for you at the end of the day.
2. Prioritize the Win
So many times a professional will clarify the win (which is a minor win in and of itself) but they stop there.
They miss the VERY important next step which is to Prioritize the Win.
Prioritizing asks this question: “WHEN within the day and how often will I need to work on my biggest win?”
Prioritizing should implement the strategy of Time Blocks. You need to be strategic in choosing when you can lock in dedicated time to move your Biggest Win forward.
This one move alone will help you accomplish your biggest win far more than you even realize until you try it.
You’ll also need to determine how long the Win will take to accomplish. If it takes 2 or 3 hours and cannot be completed at one time, when throughout the day can you move the Win forward? Do you need a break? Time to process and think through it? Schedule it within your day with a Time Block.
It’s not uncommon to have regularly scheduled events (meetings, conference calls, etc.) that you’ll need to work around so it’s critical to know when you’ll circle back to your Win.
I’m a firm believer that you’re first Time Block should be starting your Biggest Win of the Day. It’s amazing what one solid hour on the Biggest Win can do for momentum in accomplishing this goal.
3. Breakdown the Win
Clarifying the win means you know both the outcome and the steps to accomplish it.
Often we really don’t know what all is involved to complete the Win and as a result, it takes far longer than we had planned.
Breakdown asks this question:What are all the necessary elements needed to accomplish my biggest win?
And this especially true when it comes to the biggest win of the day.
Breakdown the Win asks this question: “What are the needed STEPS to accomplish my biggest win?”
Using Think Space (a dedicated period of time to think and process) will allow you to work through the needed steps to accomplish the win. The more detail, the easier to work though your own process and see results.
4. Focus to Win
You could clarify, breakdown, and even prioritize the win but if you lack focus, you may only put some of the necessary points on the board.
Focus asks this question: “HOW can I maximize my time and work on ONLY the win?”
Be Prepared – what will you need and only need to work on your project? Don’t lose precious time getting organized. Do that ahead of time so you have everything you need to truly focus.
Avoid distractions – Shut the door / put the phone on do not disturb / tell others that could potentially interrupt you that you’re not available. I call this “going dark” and necessary to truly focus.
Change locations – sometimes going into another location allows you to focus more on the task at hand. Think if this could help the process.
More than anything, maximize your time when you’re working on your biggest win. You’ll be amazed at just how much you can crank out when you focus.
5. Checkpoint the Win
It’s so easy to get off course within any given day.
The reason may be your own fault (oh look, a bird!) or the interruption may be warranted by your boss or co-worker.
Checkpoint asks this question: How am I doing along the way to accomplish my biggest win?
If the Biggest Win is not accomplished by lunch, use the time right before your lunch break to do a status check to evaluate your progress (and hopefully not the lack thereof).
Often a checkpoint or fresh look will allow you to see what needs to be changed and how much is actually left to do to complete.
It may feel like wasted time but it may just be the perspective you need to knocking out the win.
6. Celebrate the Win
I absolutely love something to look forward to especially at the end of the day. And what better way than to celebrate accomplishing your biggest win!
Celebrating asks the question: How can I reward myself for accomplishing my biggest win?
It may be something small like a break, a snack, or doing something you like to do for a few minutes.
Or if it’s a big win then a big reward is in order like a purchase or an event.
The point here is creating something you can look forward to after you complete your biggest win or at the end of the day for this accomplishment. Be creative.
Closing Challenge…
Motivated professionals who want to reach their potential MUST be productive. They must also know what is the biggest win of the day and how they can accomplish it by following the six steps:
- Clarify the Win
- Prioritize the Win
- Breakdown the Win
- Focus to Win
- Checkpoint the Win
- Celebrate the Win
I challenge you to implement these six steps to guaranteeing your biggest win of the day.
Closing Question…
What difference will it make if you accomplish your biggest win of the day every single day?
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