Productivity Buster: mistaking activity for accomplishment

A former client recently contacted me about working together again. In asking a few questions about what she’s been up to, etc., I realized that for all the work she’s been doing (and she works a lot), she hasn’t been “done-ing” anything.

Now while “done-ing” certainly isn’t a word (yet), it does speak to the difference between working on a project so that you’re forever “doing” it and actually getting it “done.”

As small business owners and entrepreneurs dedicated to making our businesses a success, we need to be focused a lot more on the “done-ing” than the doing.

I was discussing this concept with a team member the other day and described it as the difference between “activity” and “accomplishment”.

Activity is where you’re busily doing things all day, doing, doing, doing, busy as a bee, flitting from one project to another.

Accomplishment, however, is where you’re laser-focused on a task or project either until it’s done or until you’ve spent your allotted time on it for that day (as in writing a book where it’s not your intent to finish it in one day).

You see “activity” everywhere in the corporate world: meetings, for example, are a hive of activity.

“Accomplishment” is a little rarer — those who accomplish stand head and shoulders above the crowd.  In the world of small businesses, to put it frankly, those who accomplish succeed.

Those who work a lot in their businesses and yet never seem to finish anything are destined for failure or, at best, mediocrity.

Even worse, what truly makes my heart break, are those who are trying and actually accomplishing things, but are done-ing the wrong things at the wrong time and so see no forward momentum, no increase in profits in their business.

Make It Real: My Request to You

While “done-ing” sounds as simple as “doing”, it actually takes several support mechanisms to keep it happening again and again.

Here are a few things I do to ensure more “done-ing” (and of the right things) and less continuous doing (which is essentially a version of procrastination):

1. Create a strategic marketing plan designed to take me to my goal.  Do this in the timeframe which makes sense for you — for me, it’s an annual goal, broken into quarterly mini-goals, broken into monthly objectives, broken into weekly targets, broken into daily success actions.

2. Select a few items (actual number depends on size of the project/task) and put them on my “Success Action List” for the day, then schedule a time to do them on my calendar.  This allows for coaching calls and other appointments and ensures I don’t over schedule myself.

3. At the end of each day, prepare for the next day and review what actually got done versus what was planned to be completed.  I run around 85% of plan depending on the day.

4. Each month, compare the number of “Done” items with the previous month and then compare the profit for both months.  An increase in the “Dones” usually results in an increase in the profit.

For those who think, “I don’t have time to do this” . . . the truth is you don’t have time to NOT do it. The success of your business is at stake. What’s it worth to you?

Have you ever written a list of goals, felt great about them and then wondered “How will I ever get this all done?” and felt overwhelmed or started on a project and then felt your mind wander to something else time and time again, only to find that things just aren’t getting done as quickly as they should, if ever?

These are symptoms of the Entrepreneurial Dilemma and Sandra Martini has made it her life’s work to solve them.

By meeting clients where they’re at, Sandy has an amazing ability to look at a situation and see the quickest path to where they want to go, and then get them there as shown by the fact that 91% of Sandy’s clients stay with her for at least a year.

Her background with start-up organizations such as AmeriCorps and national satellite television combined with her years in Peace Corps, managing White House Presidential events and voracious appetite for learning have created a skill set unlike any other – the perfect balance between marketing savvy, intuition and results-driven systemic implementation.

Through a combination of coaching, mentoring and “Done 4 You” programs, Sandy has been making entrepreneurs’ dreams real since 2003.

You can learn more about Sandy and get her “5 Simple & Easy Steps to Putting Your Marketing on Autopilot” at www.SandraMartini.com