Knowing your strengths
Knowing your strengths is critical because this is what you need to draw on. These are the skills and character traits that you can depend on throughout the day. Identifying your weaknesses is just as crucial so that you can create a plan to overcome them.
However, it is vital always to remember that you cannot do everything, and that is why teams should always be made up of members with skills and character traits that complement each other.
Planning your day
Planning your day as much as possible is key to a successful day. Through planning, you begin your day on the right footing. You know what to expect and how you are going to start. Yes, you need to be flexible as things are bound to turn up that you hadn’t expected, but you limit the chaos.
Brian Tracy has a great productivity tip, and he calls it Eat That Frog. It is the one thing that you don’t want to do, that needs to be done, and that you have probably been putting off. Start your day off by eating that frog, and you set yourself up for success for the rest of the day.
Setting small tasks that can be completed throughout the day is a great way to keep up the momentum. Success breeds success.
Asking for help
No superhero does it on his or her own - there is always someone they can call on. Everyone goes through those moments of feeling overwhelmed or has that dreaded loser moment or imposter syndrome, and that's when we need to take a moment and breathe and ask for help.
It can be as simple as asking a colleague, “Do you mind having a look at this? I am feeling stuck.” to asking your manager for assistance to enquiring if there are courses you can go on. Asking for help is not a weakness; not doing the job correctly and letting the team down because of your ego is.
Put your day up for review
And lastly, as important as planning your day can be, it is equally as important to take a few minutes and go through your day and congratulate yourself on a job well done. And then, have a look at the areas you may have found challenging and come up with an action plan to address them going forward. Each day is about progress and ending the day better than when you started it!
