What Do You Do?

When I go out and talk to Business people, I hear them talking about all the things they do from day to day. They talk about the problems they have and their frustrations with a whole variety of things they do. Invariably I find myself thinking: why do they do these things in the first place. As an extreme example, if you had your hand in a flame and it was burning, you would move it wouldn't you? So why not do something about the things that cause you stress and frustrate you?

What do you actually do for a living? How do you or your organization actually make money? What are you core skills? These are questions all of us should be asking ourselves all the time. I'd like to make a friendly bet with you. I'd like you to stop right now and make a quick list of your core skills. Now make a second list of the ways you actually make money or gain benefit. Please just take a quick 5 minutes and do this. When you are done, take a few more minutes and make a list of the things you actually do during your working day. Now comes the bet. I bet if you compare the lists you will easily find several things you do regularly that have nothing to do with your core skills.

Did I win the bet?

The point to this exercise is to make you aware that you do a lot of things every day that you are not well suited to and that don't actually earn you money. Just about now you are probably saying "yes but these things need to be done". That is probably true. I say probably because I'm pretty sure you will find something on your list that really isn't all that important. Something you keep doing out of habit that you have just stopped thinking about it.

There are so many things we spend time on that are neither enjoyable, necessary or revenue generating! You will be amazed when you stop and analyze your activities, at how much of your time and energy is spent on these tasks. Now is probably a good time to break these tasks down into categories. Look back at your list and sort them into things that don't need to be done, things that are questionable and finally, jobs that need to be done but are not your core skills. Interesting exercise isn't it?

Half the battle is just being aware of the things you do. When you are aware of them you have a fighting chance of eliminating or reorganizing the real time wasters. The other half is figuring out the best way to get the other tasks done. The ones that you are not suited to, the jobs that frustrate you, the jobs you dislike and that depress you and cause stress.

Let me ask you to do another little exercise. How much money do you want to earn? Now, how much is that by the hour? Finally, let's have a look at our lists and think about whether someone would pay you your hourly rate to do these jobs for them. Sort out the list again into jobs that are worth your hourly rate and ones that are not. You should be starting to see which things are at least financially sensible for you to do yourself and which ones are obviously not.

life is not all about money. Now that you have a reasonable idea about which of your frustrating little jobs are worth your hourly rate, let's look at it from another perspective. There are some things that cause us so much stress that they are generally counter productive. You hate doing those jobs and they foul up your day. They ruin your mood and frustrate you. Does this sound like a good space to be in? Do you think you are operating at your best when you feel like this? Unless you have a lot more discipline than the average person, the answer is pretty likely to be no.

A friend of mine that I talk things through with occasionally frequently straightens me out with one simple approach. When he catches me complaining about something I hate doing, he asks me if I feel good. Of course I say no. Then he says to me that it's okay to carry on if I like feeling bad but if I don't like feeling bad I might consider stopping. At this point I usually laugh and stop complaining or I feel pretty stupid. I mean, he's right isn't he? All I have to do to improve my mood and perhaps even my life is stop doing the things that upset me.

It's amazing how simple it is. We just have to be aware of what we do and make some conscious decisions about whether it makes us happy or is sensible for us to do. I think most of us are such creatures of habit that we forget that we actually have the ability to change the things that bother and frustrate us.

Here is a specific example I'm going to use because it is such an important issue. One of the big things people take on that tends to b