Here we are at the end of the year. Is it just me or has this year just flown by? I wanted to take a few moments and share with you some key strategies which have helped me in my business over the years. And since many of us will be making New Year’s Resolutions tomorrow, you might as well have something that can actually work for you.

Business Journal
It may not seem like it at first, but a Business Journal is one of the most important parts of your business. Many think that writing things down is a waste of their precious time. I used to think that way too, until I started keeping a Business Journal and quickly found my stress level plummeting and my productivity shooting skyward.

Don’t blow this off. Try it out for a week and see where you stand. If it doesn’t work for you, toss it. I’m guessing you’ll come to swear by it just as I do.

Get a Business Journal that is both portable and durable. You want to take it everywhere. My Business Journal is about 6 x 9 inches and is hardbound front and back. It isn’t an expensive journal; I pick mine up at Target for about $4.00 each. You can get a fancy journal if you want, but there’s really no use investing too much money as it’s going to get pretty beat up. Here’s what you’ll be using your Business Journal for:

• Recording your Ideas. Ever had a “light bulb moment”? If an idea hits and you don’t have a piece of paper handy, chances are key elements of your idea are going to fade or be completely lost by the time you make it back to your office. With a Business Journal, you have a handy place to write your brilliant ideas no matter where you are. If you are on the freeway, pull over where it is safe and write down your idea. There have been dozens of times when I have sat down on a snow-covered mountain with a snowboard strapped to my feet and written down an idea in my Business Journal that later turned out to be a great success.

We have all been there. Great ideas are rare. Often, they need to sit and ferment before they are ready, but if you don’t write them down, you will forget them. What are the boldest, most exciting Internet marketing plans that have ever crossed your mind? Write them down. Flesh them out. Start figuring out how they might be carried out. In your planning, never allow the word “can’t” to be an obstacle to what you want to achieve.

If you have been keeping a Business Journal, dig one up that you kept two to three years ago. Reread the ideas you either didn’t implement or that failed. With your newly added experience, you should be able to find at least one old idea you can repackage as a winner.

• Record Daily Events. Track what you do each day. Record how and why you do certain things. This will help you find “time stealer” areas. 

This is also important when considering that Business Journals have been entered in as evidence in court. One of my members won a court case because his Business Journal was admitted as evidence and changed the case from a “my word against your word” case into one that had written evidence. He won and he credited his Business Journal.

• Problem Solving. Find a solution to a problem? Write down what you did to solve it. Chances are you will run into the same or similar problem weeks, months or even years down the line. When you do, you will have step-by-step plan of action to solve it.

• Goal Setting. What do you want to accomplish? What is your long-term vision? Where do you want to go? A goal that isn’t written down is just a hope, but a goal written down has the chance of becoming reality. It is said that the difference between a goal and a dream is a date. Write down the date you want to accomplish your goal, and get it done.

• Fight your Stress. Every Monday morning when I wake up, the first thing I do is find a quiet place and reflect on my stresses and problems. What is keeping me up at night? What is my biggest worry? I write it down in my Business Journal. Whether it is business related or not, I write it down. Why? Stress affects my business in a negative way, even if it is personal. 

Once I have written down my stresses, I think of what I can do personally to make that stress go away. I then plan what I’m going to do each day to make the problem disappear by the coming Friday afternoon. Why Friday afternoon? Because everyone deserves a relaxing weekend. Think about it. If you could get rid of the biggest stress in your life right now, what would your life be like? 

The management of the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain allows their employees to spend up to $2,000.00 without approval to resolve customer problems. It is no wonder they have the highest customer loyalty in the industry. 

You are your best client, are you not? By working hard each week on your biggest stress, and you will sleep better at night. You will concentrate harder, communicate better, get more accomplished, etc. 

Did you know that, on average, people spend 90% of their time complaining about problems, but only 10% of their time doing something to solve them? You can change that. With your Business Journal, you have a tool to reverse that trend and spend only 10% of your time complaining (we are human), and 90% of your time doing something to make the problem go away. Just imagine how quickly your stress level will drop.

While we are on the topic of lowering stress and improving your business, let’s discuss how to improve productivity.

To-Do List

The following ideas were given to a leading U.S. company back in the late ‘80s by a consultant. The company later paid the consultant $50,000.00 because of the drastic increase in productivity that occurred after they instituted these concepts. It works as follows:

• Before you begin work each day, write down the items you need to accomplish in your Business Journal. Writing tasks down allows you to visualize them. With a computer or hand-held device, your tasks automatically carry over from one day to the next. With your Business Journal, you need to continue writing tasks down each day until you complete them. This allows you to connect with each task daily.

• Next, you need to prioritize the tasks. Use an alphabetical system, “A” through “D”. A’s are high priority and MUST be accomplished that day. If you prioritize correctly, you should have no more than five A’s. B’s are also highly important but, if necessary, can wait until tomorrow. C’s are average priority, and D’s are low priority.

• Next, assign an estimated time limit to complete each “A”. The total time spent on all of the A’s together should be four hours or less. If you find you need more than four hours to complete all of your “A” tasks, you need to break the tasks down into sub-sets.

• After you have made all of your time estimations, begin working on the “A” item with the least time estimation. This way, you can complete an important task quickly. Completing an important task right off will give you a boost in motivation.

• After the first “A” task is complete, get up and walk around the office. This will get your blood circulating and will clear your head. Be careful though, you should not be gone from your desk for more than four minutes. If someone stops you, immediately excuse yourself by telling him or her you are on a tight deadline and will get back to him or her once you complete your task. Don’t be rude, but be firm. If you allow yourself to get distracted, you will always fall short of your expectations. Just make sure you write in your Business Journal to follow up with that person.

• After your break, starting working on your next “A” and continue taking a brief break between each “A” until all of them are completed. 


• With your entire list of A’s completed, you should take a 45-minute break that is not your lunch or regular coffee break. This break will be used to renew your mind and reward yourself for completing every important task you had scheduled that day.

• With a new sense of accomplishment, you should now begin to tackle your B’s in the same manner. If you complete your B’s, continue moving down the list until you reach the end of your workday.

• The next morning, you will start again. Begin by transferring all of the tasks you did not complete yesterday to your new to-do list and re-prioritize them. What was a “B” yesterday could be an “A” today, and what was a “C” yesterday could be a “B” today. Also remember that your to-do list can change throughout the day. You may get an “A” assigned to you mid-day. Plug this into your to-do list and make adjustments as needed.
By implementing this tasking method, your most important tasks will be completed each day. This efficiency will significantly reduce your stress.

These are supposedly actual quotes taken from National government employee performance evaluations. If you’ve had bad employees as I have – you’ll laugh out loud.

1. “Since my last report, this employee has reached rock-bottom and has started to dig.”

2. “I would not allow this employee to breed.”

3. “This employee is really not so much of a has-been, but more of a definite won’t be.”

4. “Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap.”

5. “When he opens his mouth, it seems that it is only to change feet.”

6. “This young lady has delusions of adequacy.”

7. “He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them.”

8. “This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.”

9. “This employee should go far, and the sooner he starts the better.”

10. “Got a full 6-pack, but lacks the plastic thingy to hold it all together.”

11. “A gross ignoramus – 144 times worse than an ordinary ignoramus.”

12. “He doesn’t have ulcers, but he’s a carrier.”

13. “I would like to go hunting with him sometime.”

14. “He’s been working with glue too much.”

15. “He would argue with a signpost.”

16. “He brings a lot of joy whenever he leaves the room.”

17. “When his IQ reaches 50, he should sell.”

18. “If you see two people talking and one looks bored, he’s the other one.”

19. “A photographic memory but with the lens cover glued on.”

20. “A prime candidate for natural de-selection.”

21. “Donated his brain to science before he was done using it.”

22. “Gates are down, the lights are flashing, but the train isn’t coming.”

23. “He’s got two brains cells, one is lost and the other is out looking for it.”

24. “If he were any more stupid, he’d have to be watered twice a week.”

25. “If you give him a penny for his thoughts, you’d get change.”

26. “If you stand close enough to him, you can hear the ocean.”

27. “It’s hard to believe he beat out 1,000,000 other sperm.”

28. “One neuron short of a synapse.”

29. “Some drink from the fountain of knowledge; he only gargled.”

30. “Takes him 2 hours to watch 60-minutes.”

31. “The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.