Are You a Passenger or a Driver? Your Success Depends Upon Which One You Are

Having and driving your personal agenda signifies that you are the driver, not the passenger. This means you have put your self in the position to achieve what you want to achieve and not be at the mercy and whims of those around you. This is a critical position to be in. Not putting yourself in the driver's seat, not having an agenda and then not using it allows everyone and everything else around you to dictate to you what will and will not be done. It's the difference between you going to work and wanting to get 3 specific tasks done, going in and getting them done compared to going to work with no set agenda, and just going with the flow. As bizarre as that example is, about 95% of the people out there, do just that. No plan, no agenda, they are permanent passengers.

There are two parts to this equation. First part is having an agenda. There are several categories of agenda's; we will deal with just the daily version here. Each and every day, whether it's a workday or a personal day, you should have a detailed outline of what you want to accomplish that day. A simple rule of thumb: the more detailed the agenda, the better chance you have of achieving it. The details come with whatever system you are using to manage your time. Your agenda will be a detailed outline of your use of your time each day. The time you invest in properly setting up your Time Management each day, setting up your agenda, will pay huge dividends at the end of each day. There is a direct and indisputable connection between positive results and the time you spend on establishing an agenda. Let's not confuse the time you spend on executing your agenda, with the time you spend on setting it up. Three is a crucial difference.

This is where the successful people differ from the not successful people. They can make time work for them. They can maximize their efforts and wring more results out of the same timeframe then the people who have not learned that lesson. The lesson is that they have learned that properly investing a small amount of time at the right spot, in the right activities, will bring substantial benefits to them down the road. In this case, down the road is at the end of each day. The investment of time I'm referring to is the small amount required to properly set up their agenda prior to each day. Simple concept, not necessarily easy to implement.

How much time are we talking about here, 30 minutes? 2 hours? How long does it take to set up a person's agenda on a daily basis? It's a process that does not have a start and stop button it. It evolves and changes constantly, as does your Life List, Activity Funnel, Priority List, To Do List, and Time Management Conduit, all the tools you use to get organized and become more productive. I realize that was not helpful because you wanted a specific time amount but that is not an answer I can give you. What I can tell you is this; every second you spend in this process will come back to you ten fold in increased benefits to you. Time invested in setting, establishing and having an agenda is one of the greatest maximizers you can create for yourself.

You have an agenda, now what do you do with it? You drive the heck out of it, that's what you do. You do not waste that precious time you spent creating this masterpiece, you take it out of the garage and you put your foot to the metal and go flat out. This is the time where you know you are doing the right activities at the right time, no hesitation, no second guessing, that was all done in the preparation phase, this is the action phase. This is the production stage; this is where the To Do List becomes the Done List. You can go hard at this stage because you have the confidence knowing that what you are doing is going to give you the maximum bang for your buck. Do not ever underestimate that confidence factor; it plays a big part in the quantity as well as the quality of your output in the agenda driving stage. Ever wonder how an airplane pilot can be 35,000 thousand feet in the air, driving 500 miles an hour into total darkness, can do so without being afraid he will drive into something, another plane for example? He has confidence in his instruments that is the only way he could do that. When you have confidence in your instruments, in your agenda, you will be able to do more, be better at it, and get better results.