Happy & Healthy
9 THINGS RIDICULOUSLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE DO
Here’s another list that I relish. A list that makes your life easier and opens the gates to big money and success. American journalist Kevin Kruse has interviewed 200 hysterically successful people (billionaires, Olympic champions, you name it, he spoke to them) and came up with a number of rules they all adhere to. And thankfully, nowhere does it say that you have to get up ridiculously early. Hooray.
1. Think in minutes, not hours
We often divide our workday into hours. An hour meeting (I'll get back to that), half an hour for a candidate, etc. Don't do it. You only have 24 hours in a day, but you have 1440 minutes. Work with that, it gives you a lot of extra time.
2. Avoid meetings
Perfect for me, because while I think it’s important to sit together occasionally, meetings take way too long (proof!). Usually, you first wait a quarter of an hour until the group is complete and everyone is eager to talk. Before you know it, you’re 120 minutes in (from now on, I’ll only speak in minutes, you understand) further. Did you know that John de Mol only joins a meeting when everyone is ready? I think that’s so smart and understandable. Otherwise, that man loses 240 minutes a day to waiting and small talk.
3. Delegate
Great minds don’t think ‘How can I do this?’ but ‘Who can do this?’. If you try to do everything yourself, it won’t work. There are only 1440 minutes in a day, after all. Great thinkers think and let others do it (she said while typing this piece at 6:25 am…).
4. The one touch theory
Are you always marking your emails? And do you have forty flags in different colors that you’re all staring at? You need to stop that. You’ve already read it and now you have to read it a second time and think about what you’re going to do with it. A waste of your time. Great thinkers apply the one touch theory. If a task takes no more than five minutes, you handle it immediately. Then it doesn’t keep singing in your head, which leads to stress.
5. Avoid to-do lists
Things you need to do, schedule them in your calendar. And thanks to the one touch theory, you’ve already handled most things. To-do lists are almost never completed, making you feel guilty again. And remember, making such a to-do list also takes time.
”Barack Obama eats at home at least two evenings a week”
6. Choose free time
Extremely successful types literally divide their day meticulously. But they also know what keeps them focused and inspired. Barack Obama eats at home at least two evenings a week (otherwise Michelle comes after him with the rolling pin), others book enough vacations and ensure time with their family. They know what is important to them and what gives them energy so that they, indeed, perform even better afterwards.
7. Don’t become a slave to your email
I read every nice email that comes in. Wrong. You then become a slave to your inbox. You schedule a number of minutes each day in which you, structured and efficiently, check and respond to your emails. I’m going to do that right away.
8. Say ‘no’
Ridiculously successful people only do things they find extremely enjoyable. If something isn’t a ‘hell yeah’, it’s a no. A waste of your time. Before you know it, you’re being lived by others. A great example of mine always said: ‘Make yourself scarce’ and when you do show up, everyone goes wild.
9. Morning ritual
There’s nothing about getting up early (here I actually wrote that high achievers get up early), but they all have a fixed morning ritual where they have breakfast, meditate (also particularly good for humans), exercise, and read. I fear that the alarm clock rings early then.
Maybe we won’t become a second Steve Jobs or Barack, but a little more success and a few precious minutes more in a day can’t hurt us, right? I’m going to start.
