How To Do Exactly What You Said you’d do

How To Do Exactly What You Said you’d do and more importantly when you said you would do it!

Peoples expectations is a funny one, it is often that people expect you to NOT do what you said you would do and then they enjoy the strange raking over of your lack of outcome and your lack of achievement. There is something very satisfying about the shock to your external world of doing what you said you would do … the look on their faces! Doing what you said you would do consistently will build your belief in yourself and your self confidence

Achieving success outcomes, in other words “doing what you said you would do” can easily be broken down into three steps. These are three things that you can do to “plan your work and work your plan” towards that end:

1/Make it specific and measurable. When you have had a business activity that requires a result or for that matter before going into any meeting or business building activity, you should define the goal you want to achieve. What will you get from this meeting and what will the person or group you are meeting get from it? Make sure you commit to something that is clear and concise. Rather than say “lets see where we end up after our discussion” go NO!! Better to say “the purpose of our meeting is to formulate the steps to progress our business relationship further” 

2/Assign a deadline to it that is memorable. Goals without deadlines are just dreams and a TO DO list without expiry dates is just another piece of paper cluttering up your desk. At the end of your meetings, you should commit to deadlines and commit them to your diary. “We will meet again to follow up on our action plans on” and set a date and at that date “we will produce steps a, b and c” If you have to contact this person again by telephone, set a time for the call and ring it at that time, 

3) Write it down in a place where you always see it. Whether it be on your computer screen, your laptop, your tablet or your notebook, even the back of an envelope, you must keep this note in front of you at all times. A notebook works for most people and it is simple to keep referring to it. Maybe you want to set up a dedicated notebook or journal to keep the daily activity of to do’s going. No matter where the commitment or to-do item began, it always finishes there in notes in front of you.

There have never been at any time more ways to distract yourself or lose track of where and how you ended up being over committed, both personally and professionally. Create the framework in which you can see all that you have ahead of you and you know exactly what completing each tasks looks like, you will find yourself getting  more done than everyone else, you will also earn the reputation of being someone that can consistently be relied on.