TIME.......5

 1% Better Every Day

The alarm rings and it’s another day. Most of the time we go about it with the same routine; from working out to when you have breakfast, coffee, paper reading time, and commute to the office … you get the picture ... SOSDD (Same Old Stuff Different Day). I am not one for messing with a good routine, but I am one for trying to figure out ways to get better.

The other day I ran across an idea from the CEO of Zappo’s ( The Internet Shoe Store ) who took his company from $0.00 in sales to $1 billion in less than ten years and then sold it to Amazon for over $1.2 billion in 2009. He said that they try to make at least one improvement in their organization every week, but suggests on a personal basis to shoot for some sort of improvement daily. He went on to say, “wake up every day and say to yourself what is the 1% improvement I can do to make myself better both personally and professionally.” 

Now you’re thinking, “Rob, where in the world am I going to find the time to make this 1% improvement goal work ?” … well let me help you with that.

Found   5 minutes -   Streamline you morning routine time to dress, shave, put on makeup,                                                          drink coffee, read the paper, etc., or just get up 5 minutes earlier.

Found   5 minutes -    

Avoid idle talkers, gossiping or other distractions.                    If your conversation is not a constructive one, get out of it.

Found 10 minutes -    Take a shorter lunch or break.

Found 10 minutes -    Eliminate the things you do each morning to stall starting your workday.

(You can probably find 20 minutes per day you waste just surfing around on the internet)

You just found thirty minutes per day you can use to make yourself better. Now that doesn’t sound like much time, so let me put it in a different perspective. By following these 4 simple suggestions 5 days per week, 50 weeks per year, you just gained 3 forty-hour weeks per year. If you watch TV just 30 minutes less per day, you will double it to 6 forty-hour weeks; that is a lot of extra time to work on “you.”

I can think of no better place to put my time than improving myself. Along with helping myself, it will benefit my family, my company and maybe even rub-off on a few of my friends and associates.

Success has a great deal to do with discipline,

so make it a habit to work on “you” just a little bit every day.