Your Daily Agenda
David Freund, Chief Leadership Officer

One of the great things about starting a new year is that we often take the opportunity to adjust our habits and practices so we can achieve greater results. It’s not that we can’t do it anytime in the year, but it’s a natural time for a new beginning. A great place to start is with our daily agenda. Let’s take a quick look at a few tips that have helped me.

The Ugliest Frog – In April 2018, Marisa and I released episode 48 of The Next Page podcast, where we went in-depth on this topic. This key concept is to do the task you dread the most first thing in the day. You will build incredible momentum, and your day will be a greater success. Click here to read more about this life-changing concept.

Dump the To-Do List – These lists sound good, but they are fraught with pitfalls. For instance, the main reason the number one task on your list doesn’t get done is that the number two task is easier. To-do lists can be overwhelming, and we can easily become discouraged. The solution is to schedule the key tasks in your calendar. Once it is scheduled, you don’t need to look at it until you review your agenda the night before. That’s another tip—review your agenda before the week starts and then again each evening to get ahead for the next day.

Priority is a singular word – Isn’t it funny how we make lists of priorities? When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. In full transparency, this is something I will be working on in 2023. Take the time to determine what truly is the priority. Everything else that day is a good thing to do, but only after the priority is completed. Determining the true priority isn’t easy because it will usually be items in quadrant two of Steve Covey’s Four Quadrants: tasks that are important, but not urgent. This means we need to be very intentional when setting our daily priority. Look for tasks that have the greatest impact on your success.

Give these tips a try and see how you do. If they help, great. If not, you can always try something else. What’s important is that we are always growing and improving.