Advice In Business - Are You Using Your Brain Effectively?
What process do you have in place that makes sure you prioritise, communicate, and check to make sure that the work is completed successfully?
Is there just you making those decisions?
If you're reliant on other people creating the priorities every day, who is checking that their processes work and are successfully achieved each day?
A business plan, an action plan , a daily diary, or whatever process you use in your business is no more than a "reminder" or a "checklist".
I'm sure there are some pretty remarkable people out there that can do everything from memory, but you have to remember there's not just you to think about. Even if you only employ 2 or 3 people, can you really remember everything that they must do on a daily basis, plus all the phone calls, letters , marketing, customer service calls and so on? Multiply your employees by 10 or twenty and you really do have to start using checklists and processes that drive the required actions.
Here's a little bit of theory for you:
As an individual your brain operates very much like the internet! Just imagine typing a word or a phrase into google...The result will bring up a series of information related to that topic. Your brain works in exactly the same way, except the information bought up in your mind relates to your experience, knowledge and your unique "slant" on what that might mean to you.
Now when you realise that according to Hungarian biologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book "Flow", your brain is constantly bombarded by around 2,000,000 bits of information every second, you will start to get a better understanding of why you might need some kind of reminder list each day. In fact your brain can't cope with this mass of information and it removes tha vast majority of "stuff" it receives - this means you're usually left with around 134 bits or just 7 chunks +/- 2 to deal with.
In other words you only ever process 0.000067% of the information your brain receives. In simple terms your nervous system would never cope unless it sorted the detail in this way.
Of course the crucial part of all this is the 7 chunks +/- 2 that you're left with...
Because they are determined by your own personal focus, you're own interpretation, which has been built up over the years from your past experience, your education, your family and friends, where you lived, your religious understanding and so on.
So what does this all mean?
It really suggests that because you can only deal with such a limited amount of information at any one time, it's crucial that your FOCUS is on the right ACTIONS.
Like the internet and like your mind, your day will be littered with masses of information that cause distraction and take you away from your original thoughts, ideas and plans. Now remember, this is not only happening to you, it's also happening to everyone else you work with, and there really is only one choice remaining...
Process...
Make sure that you have a "Routine" that works like clockwork and is checked by whoever has that role in your business. And yes, they will need checking too!
It's not to say that you can't change direction or improve the process from time to time, but ask yourself that well known question - Why fix something if it's not broken? To make adjustments along the way is a requirement - In other words, the process can be affected by a number of things each day:
Maybe someone has called in sick
Your suppliers have let you down
There has been a breakdown with machinery or equipment
You know the story...
So adjustments always need to be made along the way.
Now is the time to stop and think about your daily checklists - knowing that the opportunities you have each day are already limited because your nervous system can't cope with the onslaught, what are you going to do differently?
Make sure that your team has a better understanding of what's needed, take into account that their "slant"on the world is going to be different to yours and remember this has major positives and is why "Teamwork" is critical to your success.
So there you are, these are some of the real reasons that you need to PRIORITISE and FOCUS on the right ACTIONS everday...
To find out how you can use this information in your business use the link below:
You can receive a FREE download of my Extraordinary Report - The 7 Killer Mistakes -
Take a look Right Now:
www.adviceinbusiness.com
Is there just you making those decisions?
If you're reliant on other people creating the priorities every day, who is checking that their processes work and are successfully achieved each day?
A business plan, an action plan , a daily diary, or whatever process you use in your business is no more than a "reminder" or a "checklist".
I'm sure there are some pretty remarkable people out there that can do everything from memory, but you have to remember there's not just you to think about. Even if you only employ 2 or 3 people, can you really remember everything that they must do on a daily basis, plus all the phone calls, letters , marketing, customer service calls and so on? Multiply your employees by 10 or twenty and you really do have to start using checklists and processes that drive the required actions.
Here's a little bit of theory for you:
As an individual your brain operates very much like the internet! Just imagine typing a word or a phrase into google...The result will bring up a series of information related to that topic. Your brain works in exactly the same way, except the information bought up in your mind relates to your experience, knowledge and your unique "slant" on what that might mean to you.
Now when you realise that according to Hungarian biologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book "Flow", your brain is constantly bombarded by around 2,000,000 bits of information every second, you will start to get a better understanding of why you might need some kind of reminder list each day. In fact your brain can't cope with this mass of information and it removes tha vast majority of "stuff" it receives - this means you're usually left with around 134 bits or just 7 chunks +/- 2 to deal with.
In other words you only ever process 0.000067% of the information your brain receives. In simple terms your nervous system would never cope unless it sorted the detail in this way.
Of course the crucial part of all this is the 7 chunks +/- 2 that you're left with...
Because they are determined by your own personal focus, you're own interpretation, which has been built up over the years from your past experience, your education, your family and friends, where you lived, your religious understanding and so on.
So what does this all mean?
It really suggests that because you can only deal with such a limited amount of information at any one time, it's crucial that your FOCUS is on the right ACTIONS.
Like the internet and like your mind, your day will be littered with masses of information that cause distraction and take you away from your original thoughts, ideas and plans. Now remember, this is not only happening to you, it's also happening to everyone else you work with, and there really is only one choice remaining...
Process...
Make sure that you have a "Routine" that works like clockwork and is checked by whoever has that role in your business. And yes, they will need checking too!
It's not to say that you can't change direction or improve the process from time to time, but ask yourself that well known question - Why fix something if it's not broken? To make adjustments along the way is a requirement - In other words, the process can be affected by a number of things each day:
Maybe someone has called in sick
Your suppliers have let you down
There has been a breakdown with machinery or equipment
You know the story...
So adjustments always need to be made along the way.
Now is the time to stop and think about your daily checklists - knowing that the opportunities you have each day are already limited because your nervous system can't cope with the onslaught, what are you going to do differently?
Make sure that your team has a better understanding of what's needed, take into account that their "slant"on the world is going to be different to yours and remember this has major positives and is why "Teamwork" is critical to your success.
So there you are, these are some of the real reasons that you need to PRIORITISE and FOCUS on the right ACTIONS everday...
To find out how you can use this information in your business use the link below:
You can receive a FREE download of my Extraordinary Report - The 7 Killer Mistakes -
Take a look Right Now:
www.adviceinbusiness.com
Source...