Morning Routine And General Diary
I managed to start My morning routine this morning, I got as far as the affirmations. Today was a take our son to hospital day, so most of the day is a write-off. It turned out to be a complete waste of a day too, as they kept us there for four or five hours today only to tell us that no treatment was required and that we should go home. Why they couldn’t have told us that earlier I don’t know, I guess that’s hospitals for you.
Prior to going to the hospital, I kicked off 3 different horse gambling bot strategies. 26 races today, so gambling 26 x £1 X 3 = £78, quite a lot when you put it like that! Even that didn’t go to plan today, as when I arrived at the hospital I realized I left 4 bots running. Being at the hospital I wasn’t able to cancel them either. Next one of my laptops put itself in sleep mode, which put me back to only one bot running.
Also, prior to the hospital, I had a call with my electrical vehicle charging point customer, he’s also getting into Solar, and therefore he wants me to update his website to show that. I’ve added it to my to-do list.
Hospital, so going to have to be a none keto day today, the hospital cafeteria’s chili and chips are just too good to miss!
My business partner sent me a rough quote for how much an EPOS system would cost to build for my main booking system customer, it would be a great system for them, however, I think it will be beyond their budget. Going to discuss it with him tomorrow.
Food Diary
12:00 pm hospital chili and chips Mmmmmm.
Chicken and noodles for dinner tonight, so more carbs! Back to low carbs again tomorrow, honest!
In the SAVERS acronym R is for Reading
My goal today is to read just 30 minutes of the Miracle Morning book.
My starting point for today is location 2114 of 3144 67% complete
My ending point was location 2323 of 3144 or 74% complete.
In the SAVERS acronym, S is for Scribing
My learning from reading today…
Today I learned about the importance of creating a vivid vision which is a trademark by Hal the author of Miracle Morning. I’ve added a heading in my core journal just for this purpose although haven’t actually written one yet. You basically have to picture what your business will look like after 3 years. Important for everyone in the company to be clear on the vision so they can see how they are part of the big plan. The book says that this is not simply a vision statement at the end you should have a 3 to 4 page document describing your vision for your company in detail.
It recommends to imagine filming your future business and all its different aspects, such as employees, customers, suppliers, etc. It also recommends to do this process somewhere away from your desk where your mind can be clear and free of distractions and to not use a computer where you can be distracted by emails, social media, etc. Just use a blank piece of paper.
This process is about where you are going not how you are going to get there.
Mind Mapping Your Vision
The book recommends using mind mapping, I’m a big fan of mind mapping, and I used the technique when revising for my Computing degree and later for my MBA. In fact, I started the outline for a mind map only the other day, as I was starting to map out content for my madaboutsquash website – which I want to use to drive traffic to my PlanIt-BookIt squash booking product.
Here’s the start of my mind map – obviously still needs a lot of work…
I’m not going to describe the process of mind mapping in detail as there are a multitude of web pages explaining to them if you search for them in Google. For now, just think of it as a means of brainstorming ideas with yourself. Hopefully, you get most of the idea anyway from my example above. I use a great computer program for my Mind Maps, called Simple Mind Pro.
The book says to try and get creative with your vision, including the bizarre and unlikely.
You need to picture yourself in your future business and not what you see, hear, say, picture your marketing, financials, funding, employees, stakeholders, etc. In all areas of your business – sales, finance, IT, marketing, employee engagement, etc.
When the vision is complete the book suggests that you share it and read it regularly. Set goals to complete your vision by working back from year three to two, to one, etc. Identify 5 core annual goals in order to bring them to reality. Make the goals measurable. The goals must include revenue, profit, customer engagement, employee engagement, and strategy.
Net Promoter Score
For the customer engagement goal the book suggests using NPS or Net Promoter Score, I’m quite familiar with this as GE who I used to work with was quite big into it and one of the first companies to adopt it soon after it was mentioned (I think) originally in the Harvard Business Review.
It basically requires you to ask customers how satisfied they are with you as a business. They rate you on a scale of 0 to 10. 9 and 10 are promoters, 7 and 8 are passives and then all the rest are distractors. You then subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters to get a Net Promoter Score. The score will range from -100, very poor for all detractors, to +100, very good for all promoters. The aim is usually to get somewhere in-between 50 and 80. It can be used on employees as well as customers. So can be used to track your employee engagement too.
Projects
Look for easy-to-execute projects that drive your business forward, the low-hanging fruit. Also, limit projects to no more than 10 per year. This should prevent you from becoming overwhelmed or distracted. Break your projects into tiny, manageable tasks.
A yearly goal becomes 4 quarterly goals
A quarterly goal becomes three monthly goals
A monthly goal becomes 4 weekly goals
Weekly goals become daily goals and then commit to doing them
I like the above too, so I’m going to copy that into my core journal too
My Core Journal
What would make today great?
Focus on 2 to 3 Important tasks per day
Work in bite-size chunks or do thin slicing to recall some book I read ages back.
Follow pomodoro (25-minute tasks) – 1) Decide on task 2) Set timer for 25 mins 3) Work until the timer rings (any distractions write down and then immediately return to the task) 4) When the timer rings place a checkmark on paper 5) Take a 5 min break 6) 4 checkmarks take a 15 to 30 min break
Almost no progress on anything today, the hospital completely got in the way.
