A Ramble About Stopping and Thinking

Stop and Think

Returning to the theme from the other day about the importance of stepping back and stepping away from a project before carrying on. This morning I wasted an hour. And in this case I really did waste it by doing a few things that I like to call “checking up” when really it should just be called nosing around. I am castigating myself as a result by writing this article in a 15 minute window before I take a client out to see a rental flat in Valencia.

Nevertheless, yesterday was a totally different story so I get credit for spending a whole day yesterday that was really productive. I put the finishing touches to the flight of imagination known as a first draft business plan and then spent a few hours in the evening finessing the final parts of the outsourcing manual I have produced for my team in India for doing what I have asked them to do for me. This manual takes time of course but in the truest sense of any Entrepreneur Solo it is very important because it leverages the time in the World in my favour. My people in India will be doing my spade work for me at an hourly rate which is much less than my own perceived value, (yes my ego is huge). This frees me up to do greater revenue generating things in the short term. However the stuff my team do needs to be revenue generating too long term.

Now my hour of “work” this morning, and those inverted commas are extremely heavy, may have cost me in terms of time but it didn’t cost me in terms of long term productivity because every now and again you just have to stop and that was my own personal stop this morning. Exactly how I will benefit from my hour of messing about with Twitter, Facebook, Apple Tablet gossip and more I will never know, but the real reason I was sidetracked was because of two long phone calls in which I was shooting the breeze with people here in Spain about business in general. Both of those calls I would expect to show huge benefits both for me and the other parties in the next few months. Therefore was the time wasted?

When you take time to stop and think or maybe even plan rather than plunging headfirst into the next opportunity take a moment to pause and look at the long term goal. Mine are always in the back of my mind and when I stop to think they are brought to the forefront. The question that needs to be asked at that moment is “How is this serving me in moving towards my long term goals?” If it isn’t then stop again. The big kicker here though is when you are ploughing through the endless to do list you should always be thinking whether you are moving towards your goals and if you are not then get off that particular path pretty darn quick. Why waste your time doing it?

By the way if anybody wants to use my excellent outsourcing team just get in touch with me and I will put you in contact with them. For a really good rate you can get so much more done, [email protected]

(You see how I am not really alone in this and neither should you be?)

Related Posts.

1) The iPad Hype. This is What It Was About

2) Business Plans – The Hilarity of Imagination

3) What Does An Entrepreneur Do When At A Loose End?

Originally posted 2010-01-27 22:27:29. Republished by Blog Post Promoter