EE030 - put some finito in your day

How are you?

Are you off to a roaring start in 2014? Or are you limping along with some same-old-same-old habits dragging you down?

In this episode I am teaching you three powerful strategies to get more finito (completion) in your day. When I am in a latin American country, like Ecuador, or Chile I love saying ‘finito!’ It’s more definite than, say completo, or terminado. Finito sounds like what it means: I’m done, wrapped up, put a bow on it, because I don’t want to see it again. Finito dude! (go ahead and say it!)

As a speaker I have to be definite. No one will pay me to mouse around and suggest some ideas that I half-heartedly promote. Being definite pays more.

And as a blogger and podcaster (after 30 episodes I can say I’m a ‘podcaster’) I have to also be definite. So here goes: I’m going to be definite and tell you what I think about getting more finito in your day.

If you are not getting the results you want in life, work, relationships, or angry birds then you are not practicing finito. It’s that simple. The better you get at completing, the better you will get at creating great results.

In this episode you will learn the three main strategies I teach my clients from the stage AND I use in my life.

Here’s what you will learn:

1) nothing happens until you have a big enough WHY. You need to really, really, really want to get finito, or you won’t put in the time or energy. So, first realize what’s not working (and that cost) and then decide how badly you want/need results.

2) give your brain instructions. See my latest blog Want to avoid procrastination? Give your brain instructions. I explained how you need to use active verbs so your brain knows what it needs to do. Allow slippage and it will head down that path like a 5-year old on a toboggan.

3) build rewards. It’s simple: we don’t do anything without a reward. Sure, it’s not always obvious, but even eating Doritos instead of walking the dog gets you a reward. The trick is to premeditate the reward you need to take action. If I want to get a solid piece of heavy lifting down at work, I block time on my calendar, plan to work outside the office so I can concentrate on single-tasking, and reward myself with a nice chai latte. That’s how I get more finito.

4) finally: you need to remove distractions. You simply can’t be successful if you: underestimate the amount of time needed for a task, over book your day, allow clutter into your life, or pick the wrong time of day, or day of the week to do the work. Reduce the barriers to success and you start to enjoy more finito.

There you have it. Listen to this episode, write a comment below, and start to enjoy more finito in your day! ¡buena suerte!

Big announcement on this episode!

I am announcing the launch of TFF – Time Freedom Formula. I am super excited (did I mention I’m excited?) about this launch.

Time Freedom Formula is for anyone with a To Do list. And it is build from the models in Give Me a Break, my best-selling book. The TFF video training program will be delivered to all TFF students on March 24th. It’s a seven day program (you can start TFF anytime that’s convenient for you and it’s yours for ever).

Is TFF for you?

Start by asking yourself these questions:

do I often complain that I don’t have enough time?
do I have more lists than I have time?
do I sometimes create goals, but then don’t act on them (like N.Y.’s resolutions)?
am I distracted more than I want to be?
do I struggle to change old habits that don’t serve me?

If you answered “Hell, yes!” to any of these questions, then at least watch my video (https://hughculver.leadpages.net/tff/)

Registration for TFF is now open (until March 14th, 2014)

Links mentioned in this podcast episode:

Want to avoid procrastination? Give your brain instructions. (blog post)

Skitch – great tool for capturing and annotating images. Super easy (and free.)

This is an amazingly simple (and free) tool that is owned by the good people at Evernote. With Skitch you can quickly take a snapshot of whatever you are looking at, annotate, drag it to your desktop and then use it for, well, for anything.

I use Skitch to grab screen grabs of book covers, blogs that I want to share, even high resolution images of me (that I don’t want to share in hi res).

Play around with it. I think you’ll find that, just like Evernote, Skitch is not burdened with tons of features (don’t expect to have lots of font options, for example).

Infusionsoft – how we run our business. Nothing else compares.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (Stephen King) A sublime read by the master of words. The first half is autobiographic, the second is a equivalent to a Master’s degree in creative writing.