Do the ONE THING - lesson from the garden

 This is a lesson from the garden. It is not really a garden, but more of a discontented lawn. This spring I decided instead of going to Home Depot four times for mulch and supplies I would have them delivered. I would sand the deck. I would clean out the herb garden. I would get more plants. I would clean junk that had accumulated over the years. I would plant grass. I would relocate the moles. I would. I would. I would.

Today, I said to myself, I am going to move the pile of delivered mulch from the driveway to the planting areas. I loaded the wheelbarrow and started to the first planting area. Then, I saw ants moving near the house. I went into the garage and got ant spray. I sprayed the ants. Then, I saw that a drain cover had popped up. So, I repaired the drain cover.

Bottom line - I worked outside all day and got 20 things done. However, only two loads of mulch were moved to the planning areas. Why did this happen? There were too many distractions and lack of prioritization.

I thought about this as I drove past the mulch pile the next day. What was the ONE THING that I needed to do? Get a three foot high pile of mulch out of the driveway of course.  So, I made a deal with myself. I would not do any other yard work until the mulch job was done. I would move at least one load every day until the much pile was not in the driveway, but in the planting areas. After a week, I had the job done.

What's the point of all this?  The point is that the distractions of what's going on around you can prevent the most important thing from getting completed. The distractions themselves may be important too, which makes it that much harder to focus on that ONE THING that makes a difference.

Charles Schwab learned this too - http://haziqali.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/charles-scwhab-learns-easiest-time-management-trick-ever/ 

As has Verne Harnish - http://www.gazelles.com/stop_doing_email_first.html#.VCtpn_ldXdk

I hope this helps!