Do you control your day, or does your day control you? If you're unsure, one way to tell is by looking at how your days unfold and how you react to what happens. Do you start each morning with the best intentions, knowing precisely what you want to accomplish, only to reach the end of the day wondering where the time went—and realizing you didn’t achieve your goals? If so, chances are, other people are controlling your time.
Many advisors and agents run a reactive business by setting goals, but letting interruptions take them off course. As a result, they spend their days putting out fires—jumping from one distraction to the next—without making meaningful progress on their priorities.
Ernest Hemingway said it best, "Never mistake motion for action."
Let’s look at stepwise approach around how to develop your daily action plan so you can make each day more productive and intentional!
Step #1: Start With the End in Mind
Picture this, there are two financial advisors: the first financial advisor has written daily goals and one of those goals is to prospect in order to set one appointment a day; thus, he starts his day with the end in mind by knowing what he wants to accomplish. The second financial advisor doesn’t have any goals. Rather, he’s reactive and will only prospect when he feels like it.
Of these two advisors, which one is more likely to have a successful year? That’s right, the first advisor! The reason is because he has written down his goals, is taking daily action and he knows what he wants to accomplish by day’s end.
Step #2: Map Out Your Day
In the previous example, the first advisor knew what he needed to do, but prospecting is just one important thing to do each day. You see, if he prospects for an hour or even 45 minutes first thing in the morning it’s a good start but a bad ending! That’s because he doesn’t have the rest of his day mapped out. Instead, he needs a tool to help him do that. The Bottom-Line List maps out five time blocks in your day in which you focus only 45 minutes on each block.
What do you think would happen if you focused on five “Bottom-Line Activities” for 45 minutes a day and you did this for a week, month, quarter or a year? Most likely, you would be more successful than you ever have been before because you are consistently focusing on several areas of your business that could cumulatively get you the best results over time!
Step #3: Turn the Day Into a Game
What if you viewed the Bottom-Line List as a game and you played that game every day? Well, you can and here is how you play it. You start each activity at the top of the hour. So, if you start your day at 9:00 am, you begin your day by prospecting. You prospect for 45 minutes, then take a 15-minute break. Since you’ve completed that Bottom-Line Activity you check if off as done.
Now, your daily action plan is coming together! You not only know what you are going to do in the first 45 minutes of the day but you’ve got 5 of those Bottom-Line Activities mapped out.
Step #4: Create a Reward and Punishment System
Adding a reward or punishment system to the game will help you stay motivated, but you have to have a way to keep score and know what the consequences are: If you accomplish at least 4 out of 5 of your Bottom-Line Activities, you win the game! Anything less is a loss.
Put a dollar (or $5 or $10) into an “Accountability Jar” for each day that you don’t accomplish at least 4 out of 5 Bottom-Line Activity blocks.
Step #5: Expect the Unexpected
Interruptions are inevitable and if you expect the unexpected you have a tool to organize and prioritize each interruption or problem, and keep control of your day. That’s why I created The Time Matrix To-Do List, to do just that!
It’s an Excel spreadsheet that assists you in prioritizing every task and interruption into one of four categories. These categories are the following: Now, Today, This Week and Whenever. This is a big part of making your Daily Action Plan a success, maintaining control of your tasks and interruptions!
Why Developing Your Daily Action Plan Works
The reason why developing your Daily Action Plan works is because it gives you a stepwise approach to providing structure for your day AND a way to handle tasks and interruptions. When you apply these systems, you will get more done in less time.
In Advisor Solutions Podcast Episode #135, Developing Your Daily Action Plan, you will find a much more detailed description of each of these steps as well as real world examples.