I had a meeting earlier this week with a potential client.  When I walked into his office for Work, our conversation went like this:

I asked him, “How’s it going?”

He said, “Busy.”

I said, “That’s great, better than being slow.”

He replied, “Yes, that is very true.”

I responded, “Other than you need some time to get caught up.”

He looked at me and smirked. He said, “You don’t get paid to catch up.”

You Don’t Get Paid To Catch Up

I said that was so true and I asked him if I could steal his phrase.  “You don’t get paid to catch up”.  If you think about that, he is 100% right.  What are you doing today to be as productive as you possibly can?  There are 168 hours of Work in a week.  What are you doing with that time?  Yes, you have to sleep, so we can subtract 58 hours for sleeping, and you are left with 112 hours.

How are you going to make those 112 hours the most productive time that you possibly can, again, just as my prospect – who will hopefully become a client – said, “you don’t get paid to catch up”.

Your Competition Is Passing You By

If you want to get caught up, get through your inbox, and try to go to “inbox zero”.  Try to get caught up with all the work that you have to do, on your to-do list (Check out this article on the new to-do list- A New Take on the To-Do List) – are you working at night?  Are you working on Saturday?  Are you working on Sunday?  If not, you are getting passed.  Whoever your competition is, they are passing you by.

So, what are you doing in those 112 hours to be the most productive that you possibly can?

I Don’t Have Enough Time vs. That’s Not A Priority For Me

I just read an article that was very insightful. The author wrote, “I hear the phrase all the time: I don’t have enough time.”  Instead of saying, “I don’t have enough time,” the author suggests that you say instead, “That’s not a priority for me”.

Wow just take a minute and think about that, I was almost offended when I heard that.

Then I thought, that is awesome!  Here are a couple of examples that he sites:

Instead of saying, “I don’t have time to exercise 30 minutes a day”, you should switch that to, “my health is not a priority for me.”

I don’t have thirty minutes to learn something new today; to dive into how to flip houses, to dive into how to make a podcast, to dive into how to do better in my job.  You should re-phrase that and say, “learning something new is not a priority for me.”  “Getting better at my job is not a priority for me.”  “Creating a podcast is not a priority for me.”  And that’s okay if it’s not – that is totally fine.  Then just don’t say you don’t have time.

As a takeaway; focus on the items that are a priority by switching your brain and stating “that is not a priority to me”, that will help your brain stop and think and say, wait that is a priority to me”.

Make the most of the 112 hours you have, and get fired up!