What is it about taking advice about leadership that people eat up with a spoon? Leadership and its gurus have grown exponentially over the past decade. It seems if you want to be noticed, tell people how to be a better whatever it is they want to be better at.

Good stuff, for sure.  Heck, I’m swimming in that pool too. I want to know how to be better, do better, accomplish better, see better, hear better, plan better, and write better (to name a few).

But its really not that complicated. Let me tell you what I mean through an experiment we’ll do together. Grab a piece of paper and a pen. I prefer lined paper, but its your life.

What do you want to do?  Write that down. Keep it to one line and measurable. Break big goals like “Get on the New York Times bestseller list” into chunks like “Write page 1” or “Lose 40 pounds” into chunks like “Walk the block every night”.  You get the idea.

To the left, draw a small box. This is where you’ll put your “check” when you’ve done it. To the right, draw seven small boxes. One for every day of the week. Sunday through Saturday. You know how a week works.  This is your list, so make it as long as you want, but I’d stick with 5 things or less. Keep it focused.

Now, for every day you don’t put a check in the “done” box to the left, put a check (or frown) in the “day” box to the right. If you fill up every “day” box, take that thing off your to-do list. But first, figure out why you didn’t get it to “done”. No, you don’t get to make an excuse and leave it on the list. Take it off.  Live at least one week with it off the list, then you can put it back, remembering why it didn’t get done the first time.

After trying this little experiment for a while, let me know how it’s going. Send me an email or something. Feel free to comment if you don’t mind the known universe knowing what you’re trying to get done.

Or feel free to share your best practices in getting stuff done. THAT  I would love to see in the comment section. You never know who besides me could benefit from it.

If you want to use the list tool I’m using, give me a shout and I’ll email it to you. But seriously, it took me 3 1/2 minutes to make mine. You got this.