Category Archives: #Finisher

What is a “finisher?”

What is a “finisher?”
(hint: I am one!)

Do you find yourself starting a lot of things, but rarely finishing? Join the crowd!

Lots of good people, who know what they are doing, often end the day with important things left undone.

How often do you fail to get things done? Important things? Do you miss commitments? Fail to do the things you told someone you would do? It hurts, doesn’t it?

You are not alone. Many people, including very successful people (and businesses) leave money on the table by failing to follow-through. You probably know exactly what you want to do. You probably even know how to do it. But at the end of the day, far too often, it didn’t happen.

You need a Finisher. An Action Item Tracker. A system to keep you on track to finish the most important things and to push distractions out of the way. A Finisher keeps you on track and pulls you back on track when distractions and interruptions happen.

Think of project management without all the Project Management jargon! A finisher is a lot like having a project manager except a lot easier.

“Get the right things finished. Every day!”

The good and bad of knowing exactly what you want to do: It is frustratingly easy and infuriatingly hard! Especially if you are trying to do it all by yourself.

Not Enough Time in the Day?

Image: TimeAndChoice

This applies to so many things, including getting your work done each day. I often hear it in Discipleship and similar where people tell me they don’t have enough time to read a book or read the bible.

And yet, they manage to post dozens of things on Facebook. They may watch hours of TV. They may play hours of video games well into the night. They may spend hours at a nice restaurant or bar. People who “don’t have enough time” often have lots of time for other things.

So what’s that about? I’m not trying to shame anyone. The point is, most of us in this society have a LOT of available time. We choose to use it for entertainment. Is that wrong? Not necessarily! But isn’t it just a little hypocritical to say “I don’t have time?” It really is just a matter of choices.

I haven’t researched this, but have heard enough stories to believe it. When people lose power at their home for days in a row, they read more. Not sure if that’s great news or awful! Maybe it hints that we are lousy at controlling our own use of time and we need an outside influence.

Trouble Getting Enough Done Each Day?

To Do NOT Done!

Do you get to the end of the day and think that you didn’t get enough done? Or, maybe, you got a lot done, but it wasn’t the most important stuff.

Countless books have been written, speeches given, etc., on how to manage your time or otherwise get the right things done.

And plenty of talk about urgent vs. important. And the Truman Box. And planners and schedulers and reminders. How has that worked for you? (If you have a system that’s working well, please tell me. I’ll gladly cheer you on!)

Two big suggestions, which together will consume only a few minutes each morning and lead to a much more satisfied ending on the day:

  1. Morning reflection. Just a minute or two: what matters today? If you can only get one thing done today, what would that be?
  2. List your top TWO (and only two) priorities for the day and make sure you look at that short list all day long

Then, through the day, hold yourself accountable, or get someone else to help, to not do anything else until you get the priorities done. After that, do as much else as your heart desires. You know you’ve done the right things first, so that already makes for a great day.

Sounds so simple, doesn’t it?