The 7 Ways I Get Momentum In My Day

Nothing describes momentum better than a child pushing a playground roundabout from barely being able to budge it to getting all heady from the speed and then being unable to stop it!

As a mother, recruitment business owner and someone who is just generally “up to lots of stuff” I need to maximise my time. When I get momentum, my mind fires up, I get excited, and a positive rhythm takes hold that carries me forward.

So here is what I do to get momentum…

Each day I start off with the things I least want to do.

This stops me procrastinating, as I know I can then look forward to the things I enjoy. It stops the thought of the activities I least like doing buzzing around my head making me dread the rest of the day (OK it’s never that bad, but it makes my point).

I stay true to MY Agenda and nobody else’s

How often do you get into your day with a certain plan of action and a quick look at your emails totally railroads your plans?  My rule on this is either delete, delegate or schedule it for later. Often it’s not important but there it is in front of you screaming for your attention. Ignore the temptation to “just deal with it” and stay focussed on YOUR priorities.

I Schedule blocks of time – no Flitting

With so much vying for my attention, it is very easy to flit here and there and have too many balls in the air. Multi tasking wastes time. I stick to one thing and complete it – unless its an emergency; then I run for cover!

Being Stuck Sucks

This is a momentum killer! If I get into a rut and nothing is working I will pack it in and do something entirely different. While I’m doing that my subconscious gets to work on the problem at hand. When I go back to tackle it later it will often look totally different and I can then deal with it powerfully.

I Look for scalability and leverage

If you do something more than once build a process for it. A basic example – you find yourself writing the same email repeatedly, save it as a template. A more complex example – you are looking for new business, instead of making countless ineffective cold calls, create an event with a guest speaker and invite your target clients and your guest speaker’s clients. It will take as much time but give you far more. Once you have done this once, refine it and repeat it.

I Give Myself Tight deadlines

This is particularly helpful if you are a procrastinator. The tighter your deadline the faster you will work. I find this gets my adrenaline going which gets me fired up and best placed for a great result. Go with the 80% rule. Studies show the final 20% of time you spend makes very little difference to the overall quality.  No need to read and re-read. Read it once and submit it. I could spend hours on this blog to finesse it, but you will probably not even notice the changes. In fact, it will probably make it contrived and stiff as opposed to a piece that is meant to just share a few casual ideas that you may find valuable. So, here is my 80% and then on to my next important thing

My parting thought

To get momentum and keep it, you must be passionate; there is no compromise for passion.

I’d love to hear your tips and ideas too; always looking for an easier life!

Thanks for reading.

Belinda Kerr
The Recruitment Garage