Remember last week’s article where we highlighted time management tips sent to me by Women in Retail Leadership Circle (WIRLC) members? Well, we have another great time management tip to share this week from June Ryan, RADM, USCG (Ret.), whom some of you might remember from her inspiring and heartfelt presentation at this year’s Women in Retail Leadership Summit. Below is what June sent me (and I encourage others in the WIRLC to send me your ideas on this important topic so we can keep the conversation going; you can email me at mcampanelli@napco.com):

I’m a strong advocate for the “Power of Five.” This is the idea that if you have a big goal, like a big oak tree, if you took five “whacks” at it every day with a sharp axe, eventually the tree would fall — no matter how big it was. The same is true with any goal in your life. If you take focused aim at a goal and commit to completing five action items a day, you can accomplish your goal.

There are the basic steps to implementing the Power of Five:

  1. Each night BEFORE you go to bed, make a list of five things you want to accomplish the next day. These should be items that will bring you closer to your goal(s) (or tasks you need to accomplish).
  2. Make the list the night before. This does a couple things: First, it jump-starts your next day. If you have “Call Melissa” as one of your five items, next to the item you would (perhaps) have her phone number listed and a few bullet points you wanted to discuss with her. The most important reason to complete your list the night before is that it allows your subconscious to “work” on the five tasks while you’re sleeping. Individuals who take this advice find that when they wake up in the morning they have new and creative ideas on how to tackle their five items.
  3. The five items should NOT be “day-to-day” tasks. Rather, they should be bring you closer to your goal. For example, if you’re a retail manager, but have a personal goal of writing a book, perhaps one item is “Write three pages for my book.”
  4. Share your Power of Five with an “accountability partner.” My accountability partner and I conduct a five-minute call each morning. I ask, “What did you accomplish or not accomplish yesterday?” and “What is on your list today?” After we share our successes (or failures), we hang up the phone and move on.
  5. If you’re super committed to your goal, consider adding consequences for failure to complete the five items. One individual I know was so committed to completing her goals, she committed to donating $1,000 to the SPCA if she didn’t complete her five items every day. The SPCA loved her! She ended up donating over $5,000 before she recognized her limits, and how she was consistently overcommitting herself. She eventually learned to divide the tasks into smaller chunks, and she accomplished her goal!

The five items could be a mix of any goal you have in your life — business, relationship, health and fitness, etc. One goal for me under “Relationship” was spend more time with my daughter. Therefore, I had several goals related to planning, organizing, scheduling and going on vacation in Florida with my daughter (we just returned!).

You’ll be surprised how much more you can accomplish each day by implementing the Power of Five.