It can be really annoying and frustrating. You get up early, you roll up your sleeves, you are working really hard all day long, day after day… yet, it is not working out for you.

It seems like, no matter what you do, you are not moving forward and you are not enjoying the success you deserve.

But why? What’s wrong here?

Maybe you are just spinning your wheels

There are thousands of hard-working people who never succeed. Why? Because it is not so much the amount of work you are doing that counts most, but the quality of your work.

You could carry a big stone from A to B and then back to A and again to B… This could go on for hours, days and weeks. But, do you think, this would get you anywhere? Of course not.

But that’s more or less what so many people do in their personal careers. They focus on minor tasks that don’t really matter and no matter how many hours they put in, no significant results will show up.

I know, sometimes it’s tough to focus on those crucial, all important tasks

We do what we are used to doing. We prefer to remain in our comfort zone. When we have the choice between 2 different tasks, we tend to pick the easier one.

But, unfortunately , that’s also the recipe for failure.

Make it a habit to focus on your most important tasks first

You know what those all important tasks are. I’m talking about those things that help you to really move forward, to take your business to the next level… and to make success inevitable.

But, those secondary tasks are usually much easier, oftentimes they are also more fun and at the end of the day they provide you with the illusion that you got a a hell lot of work done and that you should be proud of yourself.

The truth is, you will NEVER get everything done and that’s absolutely normal. However, instead of focusing on secondary and even less important tasks you should make it a habit to focus 100% on your most important tasks and tackle those other tasks only once you are finished with your primary tasks.

It is not at all as difficult as you may think

Yes, breaking old habits and establishing new ones is always a bit of a challenge – but only at the very beginning.

You can get used to pretty much anything in life and it doesn’t take much longer than 3-4 weeks to adopt a new habit. And I promise, the habit of focusing on your primary tasks first will change your entire life and it will almost guarantee your success.

Here are 9 simple steps that will help you to establish the habit of “completing your most important tasks first before doing anything else” fun and easy:

1: Identify your most important tasks

I’m sure, you already know what those most important tasks are in your case. Oftentimes, those are the tasks you like the least. The tasks that require you to step outside your comfort zone. The tasks you may be a bit afraid to tackle…

2: Make a list of your most important tasks

Make a list of your priority tasks for the next 3 months, for the following month and for the following week.

Also, at the end of each day make a list of your primary tasks and action steps for the following day.

3: Make the decision to tackle your most important task first

Before going to bed, promise to yourself to focus 100% on your most important task first thing in the morning. Make the commitment that no matter how you feel in the morning, whether you are motivated or not, whether there are tons of emails in your inbox… that you will jump on this top priority task as soon as your work day starts.

4: Visualize yourself performing this task easily and successfully.

Imagine, feel and visualize how much fun you have and how good it feels once your task is completed. This is an excellent way to prepare your subconscious mind to already get going while you are asleep. When you wake up in the morning, a part of you has already been working on your #1 task and it will be much easier for you to complete it.

5: Don’t think too much, just do it

The mind can be very tricky when it comes to performing those sorts of tasks that lie outside our comfort zone. If you spend too much time weighing your options, you may find all kinds of excuses why it would be better to do something different. Don’t think too much, just get going. Take action and get started.

6: Don’t worry about doing a perfect job

When you need to do something you are not used to, your performance will probably be mediocre. And that’s perfectly ok.

So, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. It is still better to do a mediocre job than doing nothing at all.

7: Push through those critical first 10-15 minutes

It could very well be that you don’t feel the slightest drive and motivation to get started with your priority task. That’s normal and that’s the reason why people procrastinate.

But, there is a simple trick to get around this lack of motivation. Commit to get started and to push through those first 10-15 minutes. 10-15 minutes is nothing and you can do it even if you have zero motivation.

Don’t think too much, don’t dwell on your lack of motivation. Just jump into your tasks and do at least something.

After those 10-15 minutes, your creativity suddenly starts flowing, ideas are coming, you feel the drive and motivation… and you are simply enjoying the process.

8: Enjoy your achievement

Once you are finished with your priority task, realize how good it feels. Enjoy your achievement and be proud of yourself. This will fuel you with even more energy and motivation for your remaining tasks.

9: Make it a habit

You have done a great job so far, but you didn’t create a new habit yet. So, I’m pretty sure, over the next few days you will encounter once again a situation where the temptation is huge to focus on one of those easier, less important tasks.

That’s normal, establishing a new habit takes some time – typically 3-4 weeks. Just keep on going and know that it is getting easier with every day and that after only 3-4 weeks you will have created a habit that will completely change your life and make success almost inevitable.

The pressures on the workplace and the pace of life in the modern world has meant that time has become a vitally important commodity in all of our lives.

One of the best things about the wonders of modern communication is that we are all able to do much more with our time than ever before. Instant information is now available at the touch of a button and we can communicate with one another at any time and in any place. The amount of data available to us means information has become much easier to source.

But the internet has also meant that it has become even harder to focus on the task in hand because there are so many distractions in the workplace.

I always attempt to extract as much value as possible from each and every working day. But it’s still important for all of us to sit down and work out exactly how many hours we waste during the day on the kind of distractions and tasks that are not key to the performance of the company.

It’s a great idea to take a step back and work out just how much wasted time there is. I guarantee most of us would be amazed and more than a little shocked how many hours actually go to waste when you start to add it all up.

Of course, we all need to have downtime and it would be wrong and ultimately counter-productive to expect people to spend all of their time working without any kind of break. If you put people under relentless pressure then sooner or later their work and their productivity will suffer.

A happy workforce rather than one that is stressed and constantly working under relentless pressure will not only be more productive, but will also be more reliable and stable. Once you get into situations where employees are not happy in work then you are bound to encounter problems with stress, ill health and high levels of staff turnover.

The key to good time management is discipline. An inventory of the working day should look at how much time is spent on meetings and tasks that don’t actually add to the company’s performance or are productive.

Try to be as honest as possible and take a logical look at each meeting. Ask yourself what the aim of the meeting is and what targets have been reached. It is far too easy to fall into the trap of holding meetings out of habit; when you go down that route they can quickly become nothing more than talking shops with no discernible aim.

Personal discipline and planning is vital and one of the best tools at your disposal is the office diary. By being organised and planning ahead on daily and a weekly basis you can save yourself plenty of time and effort.

Good time management is really not that difficult to achieve and is one of the easiest things you can do to improve your own personal performance. Even with all of the many distractions in the modern office there really should be no excuses for any kind of time wasting.