You have heard it before and you will likely hear it on repeat during your entrepreneurial career: If you want to achieve success, then you have to make a plan and stick to it. You have to make a plan for your goals, your dreams, and you have to prioritize like no other.
However, there is one tip that tends to go under the radar when it comes to building that all-star schedule, the tip that is going to lead you to a massive amount of success.
That one tip is this: Make a schedule that is tailored for you, a schedule that fits all of your needs. Here’s the deal, you are the person who is going to have to live out that schedule, so why would you let anyone influence it?
Yes, some people have to stick to a very strict schedule as a result of working for an employer, but if you are an entrepreneur, then you likely work for yourself.
When browsing the internet to see successful people’s daily schedules, we try to adopt those rituals/routines — it’s only natural. That is all well and good, and adopting traits/habits/characteristics of successful people is typically a smart move, but it’s important to always keep this in mind: What works for one person might not work for the next.
Just because one person wakes up at 4 a.m., hits the gym by 5 a.m., and then has his/her top priorities knocked out by 10 a.m., that does not mean you should follow that routine. Yes, it’s okay to adopt some steps from a successful person’s routine, but to completely make it your own? You are setting yourself up for failure if you do that. Reminder: What works for one person might not work for the next.
The key is to come up with a routine, a schedule, that you can follow day in and day out. Just like with the gym, you might not see success in the entrepreneurial world overnight, but if you stay the course and stick to your plan, you will see results soon enough.
The biggest thing is to do your most important tasks, or the tasks that take the most brain power, when you are most alert, focused and on top of your game. For some people, that is in the morning. It changes from person to person. You might do your best work at night, after all. With that in mind, some people don’t have the luxury of doing their most important tasks at night for a couple of reasons. (1) Some people have families and/or other priorities that take precedence at night. (2) Some tasks might need to be completed during the day.
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living.” — Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
The point in all of this? You, personally, need to make a schedule that fits your needs, not someone else’s. If you can work for six hours straight and like to get done with your most important tasks in the morning, then do so. However, if you like to work in smaller chunks of time, then break up your day more appropriately to fit that lifestyle.
The sooner you build a schedule that fits your needs, the sooner you will achieve more success. The journey to the top of success mountain does not take a day to travel. It takes months, years. It is never-ending. The key is consistency, but it’s hard to be consistent when you are living out someone else’s schedule just because you think their schedule works for everyone — it doesn’t, it likely only works for them.
This is your life, and you should live it exactly how you want to. Live out your ideal/dream schedule, not someone else’s.
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