March 2010

I like this little saying — I use it as my job description in my personal profile on Facebook.

Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made as an entrepreneur was getting bogged down in all the little details that go into creating a business. Rather than focus on my core values, I allowed the minutia of business ownership to drag down my productivity. To keep my productivity flowing, I took on the mantra — Do It, Delegate It, or Delete It.

Do It

The best way to handle tasks that must be done by you is to take care of it right away and check it off of your ‘to do’ list. As silly as it may sound, I turn it into a game and feel rewarded when I’m able to cross something off of my list. I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment.

The goal is to spend the majority of your time focused on aligning your purpose with your core values. For example, a few of my values include flexibility, education, connection, contribution, and making a difference — hence my desire to have this site.

Ask yourself: What are your core values? What are your strengths? This is where you’ll experience fulfillment and increased motivation.

Delegate It

What are some of your daily tasks that you can afford to delegate? There are so many clever ways to delegate tasks and it can range from bartering services to hiring a virtual assistant. I worked with a client, a music promoter, who had a knack for hiring interns to do clerical work in exchange for ‘learning the ropes.’ Imagine the mutual benefit of outsourcing certain tasks that you dislike to someone who would be happy to learn from your experience and knowledge.

Delete It

I’m sure you’ve seen or heard a snippet of an Oprah episode where she highlights someone who lives as a pack rat. It’s no secret that your environment is a reflection of what is going on inside. A chaotic environment equals chaos within – likewise, a serene environment reflects inner peace. While this can apply to your physical work-space, I’d like to look at the idea of de-cluttering your mind.

An area of damaging impact on productivity comes from unresolved events, relationships, and attitudes. We hold onto them; we adapt to them; and we ignore the need to take care of them. Unresolved issues clutter our minds distorting truth and impairing communication.

How many times have you sat down to do a task only to be distracted by thoughts of an unresolved event? Perhaps you didn’t follow up with a client as promised…or you missed an important opportunity…or you didn’t follow up on a lead that could have brought greater success.

It could be any number of things, but that nagging ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ in the back of your mind does nothing to help you or your business now. Those events are in the past and should be left in the past. While it is important to learn from our mistakes, we shouldn’t dwell on them…

• Mentally, unresolved issues add confusion, reduce clarity and flow.
• Emotionally, unresolved issues elevate frustration, worry, and anxiety.
• Physiologically, unresolved issues upset hormonal and nervous system balance.

In a nutshell: Unresolved issues drain our energy and our ability to perform optimally.

How to Eliminate Emotional Drag

So you know you need to delete those negative thoughts and unresolved issues before your productivity can be set into motion. How exactly do you do that?

Entire books have been written on the subject, but it all boils down to one simple idea…

You Need to Resolve the Unresolved.

Decide to gain closure and resolution. The reason these negative thoughts linger for so long is because they have never been properly addressed. Once you take action on them, your mind can let it go and you can delete mental baggage.

Take Action:

Ask, what is an unresolved issue in my life?

Choose a simple issue and take steps to resolve it this week – move it out of your system and don’t hang on to it any longer.

Image via KaiChan Vong on Flickr

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