If you are a strong natural achiever, you tend to be motivated by accomplishments and completing tasks. This strength causes you to innately want to “keep score,” which helps not only motivate you but drive your continued production and achievement. A great way to do this is to create a scorecard of sorts. Simple tracking of things like number of tasks completed, customers served, calls made, or other milestones achieved will serve as a scorecard for success because you know that actions create results.
Here’s how to do it:
Create a List of Your Most Important Tasks
These are the tasks that drive your desired results. This list is about your life, not just your work. Too often we only include professional goals when setting our priorities then we’re filled with regret when we miss our child’s soccer game, our friend’s birthday, or our treasured date night. Priorities are a result of choices and sometimes they are difficult to make; however, when something is a true priority, it makes the trade-off a no-brainer. For example, I know that taking Sundays to spend with my family may result in lost revenue or missed opportunities but I also know that the potential gain I’ll get from quality time with my family is a trade-off I’m willing to make.
Rank Your List By Importance
When you write your list, you’ll do so as a brain dump of sorts. Simply listing your priorities in no particular order. Next, you’ll rank them by order of need to accomplish, or importance. I often refer to this as the ABCs of Productivity.
A = Your top priorities/the things you must accomplish first.
B = Your very important, but not essential tasks. The general rule of thumb is that you will not ever complete a “B” task until you have completed all of your “A” tasks.
C = Desirable, non-essential tasks. These are things that you may really want to accomplish but are not essential to any of your big goals. These tasks aren’t ignored, but would/should fall as low priority tasks and maybe pushed aside during a time of heavy “A” or “B” tasks.
D = Delegated tasks. These are things that are on your list of important tasks, but likely shouldn’t be. Maybe they’re there because they always have been. Or, maybe they’re there because you struggle to let go. Either way, they are taking valuable productive time away from more important tasks that only you can complete. Remember, delegation is a process, with the final outcome of the task no longer needing to be on your list but someone else’s. At first, you will continue to be involved but this should wain over time.
E = Exclusionary tasks. These are your tasks that probably shouldn’t be on your list, to begin with. You probably aren’t good at them and/or you don’t enjoy doing them. And they certainly do not help move you toward your goal.
Develop A Scoring System
If you’re motivated by achievement, you love a good win. Scoring your achievements is a huge way to motivate yourself to keep the momentum going. Whether it is a points system, a win/loss ratio, or simply checked boxes - developing a system to track your achievements will inspire you to achieve more and push you to grow further.
Measure What You Achieve
Measuring what you achieve is perhaps the most important part of this process. It is distinctly different than the scoring system because it is how you will assure that you are prioritizing properly. Measuring what you achieve is about the full picture - the entirety of your life. Are you going to bed each night satisfied with what you accomplished? Do you believe the things you’re doing are making a difference? Would you view your life as a life well lived? It is okay if any of these answers are no, but it would require that you shift, pivot, and readjust. Without a continued metric of not only your achievements, but your progress toward your big life goals - you’re just playing small.