Justin Woolf’s 4 Steps To Having A Productive Day
July 10, 2012 | Posted by Jay Kubassek | Tags: Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Personal Development | 10 Comments
Justin Woolf had a message on today’s WAKE UP call: you’re either working towards your success, or you’re not. There’s nothing in between.
How do you approach your plan to success? If you ask Justin, he’ll tell you that success is not an epiphany. It’s not a quantum leap. It’s not that one system or capture page. It’s the notion of owning your income producing activities every single day. Focus on the numbers, the strategy, and the sales. Get clear on what type of activities really make the difference.
When Justin started out, he was working on code and other technical endeavors. He wasn’t getting the results he wanted at first. So he had to ask himself: am I going to play the blame game? Or am I going to focus on activities that help bring customers to my page and help me understand what they want?
Justin’s advice: when you start your day, always have a plan. If you don’t, you’ll start out by doing something that puts you in reactive mode and waste time that you could have been in productive mode. He loves calendars and task lists to help him get organized with his plan. It’s not that it always works perfectly for him, but it help him visualize how the day will go.
When you get good at organizing your day, you get obsessed with your productivity. And that keeps you away from a reactive mindset.
Justin’s personal development plan for any given day exists in 4 stages:
1. First, start with yourself – take a walk, go to the gym, stretch. You’ll feel good about who you are. You’ll start the day ahead of your game. Start this with the most physical activity and end with something calming and relaxing, like reading or meditating.
2. Next, start your workday with your most creative activity first. That’s when you’ll have the most energy to get it done and the most mental power to do it. If you try doing this activity at the end of the day, after all the curveballs have come your way, you’ll be wiped.
3. Then, go with the activities that are redundant that you’ve done many times before. Check out your metrics, broadcast your ads, and call your prospects.
4. Finally, end your day with training. Look at your day, see what you got done, and measure yourself. Have an honest conversation and see what you did and didn’t do. Always be aware how you’re showing up in your process. That way, you’ll be aware of how you can be better and give you the opportunity to make those subtle changes that will help you succeed at the highest level.
Entrepreneurs around the world use this system to work better. Myself, I work best when I’m inspired, but I have days when I don’t feel that way. These are much fewer and farther in between, because I’ve been able to change my environment. If you’re new to PRO and feeling a little overwhelmed, that’s normal. But it’s what you do in reaction to that that’s going to set you apart from those who just fall back into the same patterns from their earlier life.
It’s impossible to be on top of your game every day, but there’s an easy fix for that. Remove yourself from whatever environment you’re in and go somewhere else. For me, I go ride my bike to Starbucks or somewhere else and take a book or newspaper. Changing the environment will change your mojo. Give yourself an hour break and give yourself time away from having to perform. When I do this, I am busting at the seams in an hour to get back to it!
You can really only create wealth when you’re in your groove – you can’t grind it out. It’s not the result of a reaction. It’s something that’s created. Those moments of inspiration are what makes our dreams come true over time. Do a check in, figure out where you want to go, and map out the steps to get you there. Just showing up and reacting won’t get you inspired, and it won’t make you successful.
If you’re not feeling inspired, change your environment. Take a minute away from it all. It will give you back that feeling of gratitude and inspiration. And that’s where your dreams will come from.
Jay Kubassek’s WAKE UP call is every Tuesday at 10:30 am ET. Catch this week’s call here.
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Justin’s call this morning was spot on. It provided direct enlightenment as to how a truly successful entrepreneur and leader goes about his day.
For those “stuck in overwhelm”, Justin shared a daily insightful map for how to get the most important actions done… how to take care of yourself, keep your energy up, take advantage of the most empowering times of day for being creative, performing rote tasks, and getting in the important aspects of leadership and business training at the end of the day (a great frame of mind to wind down each truly productive, inspirational and progressive day).
Jay, your summary for changing environments when you’re “not in the mood” energetically or otherwise was perfect and so in line with the amazing takeaway from Jim Bunch at MME 9 in Dallas regarding the impact and inspirational influence of our environment.
These are the type of calls from which I personally derive the most benefit… and I would think this holds true for the entire PRO Community.
With Gratitude To You Both,
Peter STL!
Awesome information.
Dr Seuss said it best “because then you are in a slump, and unslumping your self is not something that is easily undone.”. Struggling to come up with a creative way to become creative never creates creativity.
Justin is exactly right. There is a reason why you seldom find highly creative people in cubicle jungle, because they see the same view every day. Fresh air, fresh people and fresh ideas all happen together.
And just today a new study says that if peopl sit less than 3 hours a day you will live 2 years longer.
Justin you Rock.
Thanks for the great input!!!
Awesome post! It is so great to know that others are feeling uninspired or not in their groove during the day. I like the steps and the change of environment. They are both something that I will put into practice in my own day. Thanks for the inspiration!!
Well said Justin!
I’ve heard that from Jay on mastermind training and started the practice. It’s provided for a less stressful overall business day.
As I sat listening to this mornings call and to Justin’s answer, I realized that before MME9and before I started working with Justin that I was living in a reactive state. Justin in the time that I started working with him as My Mentor, has helped me understand that and along with decisions I made prior to MME9 and after attending MME9 and the Base event, My focus must be sharper. I had already started a portion of this bu working on changing my environment and mindset. Today’s call has now clarified what he has been attempting to help me understand. I get it now. I understand the order it must be in and the logic behind it. Today I have applied these simple steps and gotten more done in 4 hours than I had done in a month. Thank You Jay and Thank you Justin for this Priceless Nugget, and another number to the combination lock. – Mark Ames
Jay, Everyone loves listening to you and Justin. So glad I was on that wake up call with the two of you guys. I usually find myself in a reactive mode, so the stuff about planning your day really hit home. In the past I would put off doing the work until I felt like it. Then distractions would happen and I found that when the day was about over, I did not feel like working anymore.
Now I am working on prioritizing my work, so the most important tasks get done first. BOOM!
Thanks Justin for sharing your 4 stages for personal development. You are right Jay, about trying to work when you are not in the groove as they say. That’s been the best part about my recent move to the beach. Being able to get out take a walk or just work in the yard for a awhile. I am truly grateful for being able to move to my new home and also thankful for the new environment and support that you and the PRO U community have given me over the past few months.
I was on the call this morning, but I did not get all of what Justin said. Thanks for the summary/guidance Jay!.
Go Pro!!!
Phil Freeland
Peak Member
I have listened, read, reviewed, and applied! You are an awesome teacher, Justin, and this is a summary that is wonderful for its simplicity and ease of application.