When it comes to efficiency the power of two has been life changing and extremely motivational. But what do I mean by ‘the power of two? I’m not talking about numerology (although it’s interesting to know that 2 signifies prosperity, balance and teamwork), I’m talking about making a small change in your life, that can have a significant effect on your efficiency and mental and physical health.
So, what do I mean?
In the last few months I decided to embrace the number two – and subsequently doubled my output. It seems counter intuitive, but when I felt like I was ‘drowning’ in work, the solution I came up with was to embrace the power of two, and change my mindset. It has resulted in me feeling so much more empowered and, weirdly, I have become freed up from the burden of having way too much to do.
I think it may have all started subconsciously earlier this year when I took myself off for an 8 week tour of Europe, and when I was in Iceland, I did so many new things (eating whale, smoked puffin and even stood on the edge of a volcano) that it fired something up inside me!
How does it work? Well, I made a list of the key things I do, and I doubled them! So these days I make two sales calls instead of one. I walk my dog twice in the day to get my steps up, I review two pieces of work from staff, I had a lot of invoices backlogged, so I now send two invoices out at a time.
When it comes to being creative or creating content, I now do two at a time – like write an article, or do some social media posts or create two new widgets for my CRM. Whilst I don’t get every item done every day, it is amazing how many times I have set out to do two of something and have then done 20 and cleared a back log without it being the millstone it was!
Mindset is everything!
My suggestions for how to harness the power of two are below. Give it a try and let me know if it improves your life too!
Two Walks We all know we should be walking 10,000 steps a day, but who has the time? By doubling the number of walks I do each day, my dog is happier, and I am much more likely to realise 10,000 steps (or nearly!) every day. This makes me fitter and helps my mental health. Win win!
Only Two Wines Moderation is everything! Instead of ‘accidentally’ polishing off half, or even a full, bottle of wine (on occasion), I have now limited myself to only two glasses and it’s perfect! I feel the warm and fuzzy glow from the wine, but it goes no further, so I feel great (for my walk!) the next day.
Two new things I try to upskill myself, and also feed my sense of adventure by trying two new things every week. For instance, yesterday I learned and implemented two new aspects of our CRM, on the weekend I visited a venue I haven’t been to before, and I also tried fried jellyfish at a Chinese restaurant!
Two Sales Calls In my business, I choose two companies to call, or go through my recent contacts, select two, and ring them. It increases my network and my prospect list at the same time.
Invoices Don’t put them off until you need to set aside half, or even a full, day. I have started to send out my invoices to two companies at a time and I am watching the money flow in, and the stress levels diminish at the same time.
Two Reviews Every day I try to do a review of the work done by two of my staff members, just so I can stay on top of what they are submitting to me, and to maintain efficiency.
Two Jobs Out As a tax accounting firm, we have a never-ending amount of jobs to get through for our clients, so I tell my team members, and myself, that we need to complete two jobs (to billing stage) every day if possible. We are getting through far more work with this mindset.
Two help articles We have an amazing software product Wise Owl Legal Practice Management Software for law firms that has an amazing help portal. Everyone learns differently so we aim to expand our client resources by adding two ‘Help’ components each day.
Challenge I encourage anyone reading this to try The Power of Two. It is just so easy to implement, and I am sure you will start to see results like I have. What a wonderful way to fully embrace life – both at work and at play!
