Stop Trying Harder, Build These Five Systems Instead

(Transcript edited for clarity.)

Hi, I'm Wes with Your Life Systems. Welcome to Stop Trying Harder, Build These Five Systems Instead.

I've come up with five systems that I feel are imperative for every successful person to have, and most successful people have a variation of these five systems, whether they purposely or intentionally put them into place or not.

They gravitate toward these five systems to help them achieve and maintain success.

So these are the five types of systems you should consider creating and putting into your life.

Number one: a priorities ranking system.

It's very important that you work on the correct things.

With any type of success you hope to achieve, it's important that you're working on the right things, and that's what I mean when I call it a priorities ranking system.

For example, we're going to talk about some of these other systems.

One of them is a goal system, and another is a time management system.

With those types of things, you have to work on the right things in order to reach whatever goals you want or manage your time to the best of your ability.

So this all starts with a priorities ranking system.

Now, what do I mean when I say a priorities ranking system?

We all have the same amount of time in a day, and we all have the same opportunities with what we do with our time.

Depending on what you're trying to achieve, you get to choose what's most important.

Sometimes outside forces have some control over our lives and our priorities in the moment.

But the more you work on creating systems like these and putting them into your life, the more control you have over what you work on, how much, and how often you can work on your priorities.

The fact is, if you're not working on the right things, then you won't get closer to your goals, success, or whatever success means for you.

So you have to make sure you have the right priorities and get them in the right order.

The simple way I do this is when I have a goal, I break it into sections.

For example, this needs to happen first, then this, then this, and that takes me to the goal.

Then I take whatever the first thing is and break it down into the smallest parts possible.

Then I start working on the number one thing, the first smallest part.

That's pretty much a goal system, which is one of these five systems I'll talk about later.

But when we're talking about a priority system, or priorities ranking system, most people - in fact, almost everyone I know - are working on several different things at once, whether they think about it consciously or not.

In fact, most things could be called goals of some sort.

So what if you have seven different things you're working on in your life?

Not necessarily seven different success things or seven different business things.

Let's say you have seven different things.

You only have so much time you can dedicate to them.

How do you choose which thing you do first?

What's your first priority?

I'm going to talk about this a little more in the next system, a time management system.

But you'll notice as we go through these that they all work together.

They all fit together to create a better whole, or more than just the five systems.

They're synergistic.

They work together.

For example, what I do in my time management system is list everything I want to get done today.

Then I split it into three different sections.

I've got my high-priority section, my medium-priority section, and then a section of things that aren't super important whether they get done today.

Then I take the high-priority section and rank those things from first to last.

Then I know what my priority is for that day.

It doesn't matter how you set your priorities, but you need to have some kind of system to rank your priorities, both in life and maybe by the year or month, but definitely by the day.

Without a way to rank your priorities every day, you might not work on the most important things that day.

You can use my system if you want.

I'm getting ready to tell you a little more about the time management system.

I've kind of combined my priority system with my time management system and also with my goal system, which I'll talk about last.

But you can use mine or use yours - something you designed, developed, implemented, whatever it is.

As long as you use it and it helps you rank your priorities, that's the kind of system you need if you want to reach any kind of success.

That way, you're always working on the most important thing that day.

That's the first one: a priorities ranking system.

The next is a time management system.

If you don't manage your time, someone or something else will manage your time.

You need to take complete control over your time.

I already introduced you a little bit to my time management system.

I've done another episode on my time management system that you can look up to get a more in-depth explanation.

I list everything I need to do for the day.

I take the things that are most important and put them at the top, things I'd like to get done but aren't as important in a second section, and everything else that's not super important at the bottom.

In the top-priority section, I pick the number one priority for that day and schedule that time first.

It goes into my time management system, or my time-block system, first.

Then the second most important thing in the priority section gets listed, and I work on it second.

That's how I manage my time.

Now, we all have lives and other things going on.

The way I use my time management system is that my family is a very big priority to me.

So I actually block my family time for the week first.

Then I block my number one priority each day so I make sure I don't miss important family things or things that are important to me, but I also make sure I block time every day for my number one priority and then my number two priority.

So those are the first two: a priorities ranking system and a time management system.

The third one I recommend everyone have is a financial or budget system.

There are all kinds of financial and budget systems you can use.

It doesn't matter which one you use.

Just use one.

Here's what I do when I consult with businesses.

The first thing I do is a very in-depth cash-flow report.

I track every penny that comes into the business and every penny that goes out over time.

For the businesses I consult with long term, I have these reports month after month and year after year so I can compare this month to last month, this month to the same month a year ago, and so on.

I can track trends.

But the most important thing is that I use the same system in my personal life and in my personal business so I know where the money is.

You've got to know where the money is.

Every penny coming in, every penny going out.

How do you know that?

You start tracking it.

It can be a very simple system, but as long as you have one and you're tracking, then you know what's going on financially.

The fourth one I recommend everyone have is a system for health.

That might include your diet, what you eat, your exercise, how you stay healthy, and also doctors and medical things.

You need to have a system to make sure you take care of your health.

All the money in the world isn't worth a lot if you're dying and can't do anything, so you have to take care of your health.

This is not a health episode.

I probably will never do very many health episodes.

I might do a few because I do have some experience with my personal health.

But what I'm telling you is that you need a system for your health.

What are you planning to eat so you can get feedback and adjust, just like all your other systems?

You can evaluate and adjust a system for your exercise, whatever exercises you do, and one for your medical doctors, etc.

Now the fifth system everyone should have is a goal system.

The goal system I use is a 10-step goal system that I've used for years.

I've used this exact system for every big goal I've ever accomplished in my entire life.

It's a very in-depth system of 10 steps.

That's not what this episode is about.

I'll do a complete episode soon with all 10 steps.

But if you've seen any of my episodes that have the success system or talk about a success system, it's basically that, except it's expanded a little bit.

The point I'm making is that you need to have a goal system of some sort.

You don't have to use mine, but you can.

You can create your own or use someone else's.

But you need a goal system to make sure you're always working toward something you intentionally want to achieve.

That's what I mean when I say you need to have a goal system.

You need to pick good goals, break them down, and have a plan or system in place that helps you reach those goals step by step by consistently working toward them.

So those are the five.

The title is Stop Trying Harder, Build These Five Systems Instead.

If you put these five systems in your life, you're not going to have to work as hard as people who don't have these types of systems in their lives.

Again: a priorities ranking system, a time management system, a financial or budget system, a health system including diet, exercise, and medical doctors, and a goal system.

This is Wes with Your Life Systems.

Thanks for watching.

Best of luck.

Please like and subscribe.

I'll see you next time.

What's Next?

·        Write down the major areas you're actively trying to improve.

·        Create a simple way to rank your priorities so the most important work is clear.

·        Block time for the highest priorities before lower-value work fills the calendar.

·        Start tracking money consistently enough to know what's coming in and going out.

·        Create a simple health system for food, exercise, and medical follow-through.

·        Choose or build a goal system that breaks important goals into repeatable steps.

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