I’m not actually a very big fan of the phrase “time management.” We all have the same amount of time. Some of us choose to write, others spend time with their kids, others watch movies, others go for jogs...
There are an infinite amount of things to do with our time.
We actively choose what is most important to us in each moment. Sometimes we make mistakes.
I constantly doubt my choices.
Should I read a blog post about career happiness, or should I write my own blog post about career happiness. Those two choices are linked. I might write a lousy blog post about career happiness if I don’t take the time to research other people’s ideas.
Choices
You choose to do whatever you choose to do in a given moment because that’s the best choice of what to do based on the information you have.
I’m telling you this because I’m learning more about this as my life unfolds.
I used to think that businesses would clamor to make their employees happier at work, and therefore that my Work Happy Now concept would be a hit. I was wrong. happy employees make a company more money, but the relationship between happy employees and a more profitable company is not measurable enough to make it sellable (at least not for my average selling abilities). 🙂
Employee happiness does improves the customer experience, which encourages word of mouth marketing, but selling happiness and selling marketing are really two different things to the customer. So, although I was pitching happiness, it has circled back to marketing.
You might have heard of the old adage. The boomerang skill. It’s when you have a certain skill that the world expects from you, but you aren’t ready to accept it. You throw it away, and all it does is hit you in the butt as you try to run away.
Superskills
Marketing is this superskill for me because I love helping people connect. It’s part of my core DNA.
So what may appear to be a digression brings me back to time management. Trying to sell people happiness is taking more of my time than it’s worth to my business. I've realized I should be selling marketing infused with my superskill of incorporating happiness, which I’m actually starting to do more of over at Domino Connection. You'll like this post about uncovering a company's core values because an employee's happiness is closely tied to how much they believe in their company's mission.
Ok, so to me, “time management” is a crock!
I say this because instead of managing my time to fit everything in, I should focus on my priorities and superskills. Instead of wasting my time attempting to sell something to companies they don’t want to buy, I should be focusing on selling them something that they actually believe they need, and because of my belief that happy employees are important to a business' success. I can help them create a happier culture for their employees and customers in the process .
As I look back on my mistakes it in hindsight, I didn’t align my priorities with my customers'.
I need to be fix the disconnect, I needed to understand what my priorities should have been all along.
But before we talk about MY unfocused priorities, let’s look at your focus and why focus is so important.
What You Focus On Matters
Look at what you are truly focused on each day and what you are avoiding. One of the three core foundations of a superpower is focus. In other words, the only way you will do great work is to focus on your work and eliminate or avoid distractions.
There are a lot of time management tools that track what you do on your computer, but I’m pretty sure most of you don’t need this. Most of us need to appreciate what we do accomplish and stop worrying about what you don’t accomplish.
Putting Focus on the Top of Your Priority List
It may seem redundant to put focus on the top of your priority list, wouldn't you think? The thing is most of us don’t put the most important stuff first. We check our email to see what needs immediate attention, then we get lost in email and start checking everything else that might need our attention even when it's not a major priority
My challenge to you is to create a priority list of three things each morning, and do those first each day.
Make your “top 3” list right now.
And what are your top three priorities for tomorrow?
1.______________________________________
2.______________________________________
3.______________________________________
Focus on these three things, and after you accomplish something substantial from each one then you can move on to the other stuff that is important, but just not quite as important.
This is where you need to become smarter and smarter as you do this each day.
Look at where you are succeeding and where you aren’t and why.
The only way to accomplish great work every single day is to understand what you are making a priority and what you aren’t.
In short, ask yourself, “Am I choosing the right things to focus on?”
My Focus
I created my company Domino Connection (DC), which specializes in website optimization and product launches, because I suspected that selling happiness wouldn’t be so easy. Work Happy Now (WHN) is a much longer-term project. I was right. DC has taken off and WHN is slowly becoming a passion project instead of a business. Which is fine. Hard to swallow, but fine.
I love infusing happiness into business and I want to do more of this over at DC.
Everything I learned building up WHN is a part of DC. The only way to build a great company is to convince people that what you are selling is worth their time and money. The best way to sell your product is from creating a deeper connection with the customer. They tell their friends because you’ve created such an amazing experience. Everyone wins.
Creating deeper connections in business is a big part of happiness and success.
Constant Growth
So as I grow Domino Connection, I’m going to focus more on happiness marketing. Showing people the delight they can receive when they connect with their “ideal” customers from their core values.
I'm writing this so you can understand what is happening behind the scenes in my business a little bit more, and why I haven’t been posting very much to WHN.
I’ve been working hard on creating something that people need and at the same time doing work that I love. It’s finally starting to become clearer that I need to focus on helping companies create a connection with their customers through core values and happiness.
If you wouldn’t mind giving me a little help, I would appreciate it. I have a two question survey that will help guide what direction I take WHN and DC. I believe that the more people I can help infuse core values and happiness into their marketing, the more people I can help grow their business at the same time.
If you have any questions about what is happening behind the scenes, please contact me or leave a comment and I’ll try to clarify any confusion. This is all new to me too, so I hope you understand and come along for the ride as we figure this all out together.
Click here to fill out my quick survey so I can learn how to be of better help to you and the companies you work for. Thank you! Let's create a happy journey together!
