I have had a lot of work on my plate of late, but I have noticed that clients who pay the least give the most hassles.

Clients who value good service are also the ones who keep their commitments.  It is 80/20 rule.  20% of your clients provide 80% of your returns.  You get maximum leverage from these 20% clients.

Focusing on the important clients and things that you value results in better outcome for you.  Less becomes more.

Once you get in the habit of execution, you create the tempo and are able to do far more than when you sit back and dilly dally.

When you remain indecisive things get much longer to complete.  From my experience, I have found great leaders that I have worked with are decisive.  They do make mistakes but they don't hesitate to make a decision.

Look at an email once and act on it - delete, reply, file. Look at a mail only once - ditch, delegate or reply.  Act as if today was the last day before your holiday.  Things will move very fast!

Anticipating and preparing for your important work is a great habit.  It gives you lots of time to think through things and delegate effectively.

If you leave things to the very end, you will find you will spend more time, energy and frustration in completing your tasks.  It is difficult to delegate at the very last moment.

In planning and anticipating, you want to schedule adequate time for important activities.  There is a tendency in many to focus energy on the urgent and immediate, irrespective of how important the activity is.

Email has become second nature to most of us.  This can be a great tool or a real time killer!  I have found the following system to help me manage my email time.

I strive to open my Email account three times a day as follows:

First Time

Before I open the email, I have decided three to five emails I need to send out and one or two email replies I am expecting.  I make sure that I complete these tasks before I look at anything else!  How do I do that?

This morning I decided to go for a walk for about half an hour.  I caught up with my prayers and went through few concepts in my head while I was walking.

After the walk I felt rejuvenated and my concepts became crystal clear.  With the momentum generated from the walk, I was in a giving mood.  I helped with some household chores and went with my wife to run some errands.  In between the errands I caught up with my planning and blogging.

I had a big project I needed to get out this week.  Each time I went to the project, I put it way, as it was an overwhelming exercise.

However, each time I opened the file for this project, I jotted down points or things I needed to do to complete the project.

This morning I started in a similar fashion.  However, I had made up my mind to complete it, no matter what.  Amazingly, two hours into it I had cracked the code and was well on my way to getting it done.

Being early is a trait I have noticed in many successful people.

I was doing a presentation at a breakfast event where a very successful entrepreneur/executive was my guest.

I went to the event very early to set up and get ready. When I reached the site my guest was already there! He was on the phone speaking to his client.

Upon reflection I gathered the beauty of being early:

Why do we procrastinate?  Some of the reasons why we procrastinate are:

Checking emails is a tricky business.  It can engross you completely.  This morning, I went into the computer at 8.45 am to quickly catch up on my emails.  My goal was to be out of the computer by 9 am.  It was not until 10.15 am, when my wife Farzana needed the computer, that I quit.

What is the learning?

When you rush through things, you actually slow down.

Rushing creates low energy and frustration.

It leads you to make inappropriate decisions and also leads to duplication of effort.

People around you also feel your negative energy, which can have an adverse effect on them.

On the other hand, when you are calm and confident things seem to fall into place.  You make appropriate choices and become influential.

How about you?

Are you rushing your way through life or are you calm and influential?