How To Effectively Stay Consistent

How To Effectively Stay Consistent
Copyright © Scott Bradley

The other day, someone left a comment on my "Growing or Dying" post about how she has a hard time staying consistent. I myself have been in that position before and know how discouraging it can feel. One minute you are doing one thing, and the next minute you are on to something else with no intended plan on where you are going and why you want to get there.

Because of this...I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you what I am doing to help me stay consistent with my self- growth activites as well as my business building activities. I will then provide a solution for you to help you be more consistent in your lives with any activities you want to do on a weekly and monthly basis.

In the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" Stephen Covey talks about the importance of managing your time in one of the chapters. He even gives you an entire time managment sheet to use to help you be more consistent with all of your daily, weekly and monthly events.

After reading this book I created the same exact spreadsheet on an excell document and would be willing to share it with you if you asked. Just e-mail me...My e-mail is in my profile on the right.

Anyway...When I first created this spreadsheet I thought it was awesome because I could break down my life into daily, weekly and monthly chunks. I could put things in there during the week I could set in stone and carry around the schedule with me wherever I went, reminding me when things were, and giving me the flexibility to schedule appointments at whim for meetings and what not.

So going forward...like one of the women who commented about being consistent...I ran into a problem...I was getting overwhelmed, and unintended things would come up etc etc...

So this year, before my school year started, I took about 30 minutes one day and asked myself. What consistent things do I want to do during the week, and how many times do I want to do them?

I wrote down all of the intended activities I wanted to do for myself to not only grow my business, but also myself in the process.

After that I then took my organizer...I call it the "Covey Organizer" and did 2 things.

I first put in the things that were set in stone and would never change...For me it was my class schedule and other Resident Assistant Meetings that were mandatory...for you it may be your work schedule, the required times you have to bring your children somewhere, or something else that I am not addressing right now.

After that I then put the activities that I wanted to do around the things that were set in stone and made sure I had enough "breathing room" so I was still able to be flexible. Since I initially told myself how many times I wanted to do it a week...I just worked it into the weekly schedule.

For instance...Say that I wanted to make sure I read 3 times a week. What I did was I looked at the schedule I had, analyzed the other "Set in Stone" priorities I had...and put throughout the week, 3 blocks of time where I was going to stay committed and get my 30 minutes to 1 hour of reading in. When you see the sheet you will understand the bigger picture.

Here are the steps broken down for you.

1) Figure out what you want to do during the month on a consistent basis to help you reach your yearly goals and objections...just make a list

2) Then look at each one of those activities and decide how many times a week you would like to do that particular activity

3) Take the "Covey Organizer" that you requested from me by e-mailing me with the subject like "Covey Organizer"...and put in the "Things that are set in stone"

4) Take the activities that you want to do on a weekly basis and plug them into the schedule...giving you enough flexibility for some "breathing room" between the activities and your "Set in Stone" priorities

5) Print out this document from your computer either once...or every single week and carry it around with you...keeping you right on track with everything you would like to accomplish during that week, and the particular day

6) Stay consistent with it and continually take focused action, and if you like…track your progress with your daily, weekly and monthly activities...so you can see how many times you did things throughout the year

This is one of the easiest things to put together, and the best part is that it keeps you focused. It is almost like this sheet is your "Plan" for the week...and more so your life…By doing the small things each and every day, it can build into something you never thought possible, which will in the end help you reach your goals.

I hope you find this post useful in managing your time and please don't hesitate to contact me by sending me an e-mail requesting the "Covey Organizer."

Have an awesome day!
Best,
Scott Bradley

******************************************************************************
I Have Moved My Blog To Wordpress.
I will no longer be posting to this blog.
Click http://www.NetworkingEffectively.com to visit the new blog
******************************************************************************