Young and Invested

This post does not have anything to do with chunks of chocolate or any other food; nor does it have anything to do with throwing chunks of snow at others. Rather, this post is about managing your life instead of your time.

As a questioning listener of Tony Robbins (sceptical towards all motivational speakers), I strive to keep my mind open to at least one or two ideas that would make the experience worthwhile. Today, I heard a simple and effective idea from his program called Personal Power that I am going to employ in my weekly and daily goal lists.

What chunking pertains to, as a matter of fact, is grouping ideas into subsets. The ideal example that he gives in his audiotape is learning to drive a manual shift car. In the beginning, you have to focus on the three pedals, and your left leg, and the tachometer, and the gear position, and shifting gears, and balancing the clutch, and looking forward… when would you ever have time to talk on the phone while driving?! Eventually, these all meld into a fluid motion, leaving you time to talk on the phone and sip on your favourite coffee. However, at the beginning, trying to focus these actions as a whole is surely overwhelming!

So if focusing on the mass of individual motions is overwhelming… and focusing on driving manual as a 1 step is overwhelming… the solution that Tony Robbins recommends is to chunk them into manageable pieces. And, more importantly, the ideal number of chunks for human beings (thanks to research) is about 3. It’s a simple skill we are taught in elementary school – grouping.

Think about it.

Try this.

Tomorrow, instead of making a to-do list (which creates stress by focusing on what we are demanded to do and often have no purpose and causes no drive), create 3-5 groups with a DESIRED RESULT in each. Here is a typical list for me during the workweek:

INSTEAD OF:

Need to go for a run, make a healthy shake, grab morning coffee, drive to work, audit cash, audit receivables, talk to client, have team meeting, fix review notes from manager, respond to e-mails, avoid eating junk food, avoid second coffee, do 30 minutes of reading, complete 1 segment of audiotape, call friend to have a conversation, have family dinner, brush teeth…. PHEW. I’m sure you can think of a few things my typical day missed.

TRY THIS:

1. My body – desired long-term result is for abs to show and to be healthy and enjoy the process:
   1. Run in the morning, healthy shake etc…
   2. My career – to successfully complete my current audit engagement and receive high ratings for this year:
      1. Audit cash, have team meeting etc…
      2. My development – to learn how to successfully influence people this year and become goal-oriented
         1. <plug in action items>
         2. My circle – to maintain positive relationships with all friends and family
            1. <plug in action items>

You can only FEEL the result after you actually try doing this for a few days. The overwhelming daily to-do list has been chunked. And required actions are the same, and the result is psychologically prepping you to have purpose and have a manageable palate of action items. Good luck!

Last 3 posts by Daniel Eskin

• Google Boasts its Backbone - March 22nd, 2010
• Short-term Versus Long-term Investments - March 16th, 2010
• Expert Interview - Puru Saxena - March 9th, 2010