The "Flurry" Trap - What It Is and How to Avoid It.

Do you ever confuse activity with results? Busy, busy, busy, but at the end of the day, you're no closer to where you want to be? This is the "Flurry" Trap: a flurry of activity, but not in the right direction.

Sometimes you have so much on your plate that you hit the ground running in the morning and never slow down until you fall down, into your bed late at night. At the end of that twelve to eighteen hours of intensity, if there is no concrete progress towards your goals, but you've just a lot of minutia checked off, then you've fallen into the Flurry Trap.

The worst thing about the Flurry Trap is not just the wasted time, where you might have accomplished meaningful things. It's the discouragement of the bad habit. Build up enough disappointment within yourself over missed goals, and you might just give up on the whole thing.

The Magic Key to Beating the Flurry Trap:

There is a very simple, straightforward way to overcome the Flurry Trap, set a good habit, and rekindle your excitement for your goals. It takes a paper, a pen, and about two minutes a day (with an extra ten to fifteen minutes on Sunday).

Each Sunday (or some other day you choose), sit down in a quiet place and make a very simple list. On the upper right side of your page write your most important goal for the week. Halfway down the page (still on the right side), put the next most important goal. At the bottom right, put the third most important goal.

Now, work backwards. What is the last thing that has to happen before the top goal can be reached? Write it to the left of the goal itself. What big key leads to that step? Write that one just to the left again. What leads to that third-to-last step? It goes just to the right again. Finally, after a number of steps, you'll be at the left edge of the page.

Guess what your first task for Monday will be? That's right -- the left-most step toward your main goal. Before you do chores or exercise or shop or go to work, DO THAT STEP. Do it completely, and do not fudge on it. Let everything else go until that sub-goal is checked off. I've heard Brian Tracy call that "eating the frog" (I think he was quoting Zig).

Now, you'll do the same thing for goals two and three, except you'll check those tasks off later in the day. For example, once you've eaten frog number one, then exercise or shop or whatever ... until about ten o'clock. Then you drop everything, and work on task one of goal two UNTIL IT IS 100% DONE. (It must be done by noon.) Then you break briefly for other tasks or recreation.

Rinse and repeat with task one of goal #3, with a deadline of three o'clock.

Do you see the magic here? By the end of Monday, you'll have three major, concrete tasks completed, leading you strongly toward your three top goals. Think that'll be encouraging and energizing? You bet it will!

On Tuesday, you'll nail three more major tasks. Same on Wednesday. And so on....

If three tasks in one day is too much, then get two, or even one, without fail. If you work yourself up into more capacity, then five or six per day may be in reach. Either way, GET STARTED. Today. No excuses. Be relentless until you've formed the habit of meaningful activity.

That's real self-improvement.

That's how you beat the Flurry Trap.