One of the things I have been discussing a lot lately is how to transform the way you operate in a way that would provide more results in less time. And along with that is why I needed to design a new framework for focusing my thoughts on the things I think matter most in my life.
In short, many people ask me why I need to develop a new method when there are plenty around to choose from (like the GTD system, the Covey Approach, the Building a Second Brain, or Tony Robbins’ Rapid Planning Method).
Well, the answer is rather obvious! Because none of the above cover my requirements in totality.
So check below why I needed to develop my own method/approach to manage things and continue my course of action!
A Personal Story
Well, let me confess something.
As I get older and have a lot more things to handle (family, small children, house daily errands, chores, new work tasks and habits, a dedicated – working – project, things to read, learn, do, and make on a daily basis) I have to find new ways to get things done.
I had to change my mindset and re-engineer the ways I used to work in order to keep up with all the things I needed to do and produce, at minimum, the same results. I monitor my time to evaporate to daily chores and errands, endless commuting, and meaningless – reactive – actions while I keep on losing my focus on the things I need to cherish more.
Two basic factors for that are the growing requirements of my two daughters and the fact that I’m working on a fixed location in dedicated projects each day for 8 hours, something that diminishes my agility and flexibility about my working habits.
If you count on these and the fact that I need to keep up with all the things I used to do, you can discern my inability to adopt any of the above well-documented systems. These systems required a flexible schedule and addressed more CEOs, project managers, and entrepreneurs.
But all entrepreneurs are not equal! Many times there are solopreneurs who have a difficult time coping with all the things they should do while they lose the everyday battle with the endless chores, errands, and the things that need to be done. The same thing applies to many knowledge workers and small business entrepreneurs that need a new method and tools for Getting Things Dome.
My Requirements
All the above systems mentioned have been developed for optimizing your efforts and time, NOT FOR PROVIDING extra time, focus, energy, and new opportunities.
And I need exactly that! A system to optimize my time spent and efforts would guarantee an assured level of quality and results,
That needed a mindset change to ensure a level of life and work that I need to master while I should manage the things (or the limited resources) I have at the moment.
I needed a system to:
- help me gain clarity and focus on a daily basis,
- do what I have to do daily without losing energy and motivation,
- Gain momentum and find the right motivation to keep on doing the things I need to do, the things I should do, and the things I want to do,
- help me not to lose vital information or data in the process,
- keep my life and work in balance,
- provide me opportunities for growing, health, and fitness in regular periods,
- Allow me to connect with important people, associates, and partners,
- give me room and time to see my friends and connect with new people,
- support me in focusing on the things that matter most to me and my family,
To do so, I need a new method or approach to help me gain more time, energy, and opportunities in the process. I need to:
- Take into account my core values and principles, my character, my quirks, my personal habits, and specific working habits and rituals
- Become intentional or bringing about the results I am envisioned,
- Reflect on what has been done, and design the things and tools I need in order to better my work
- Employ augmented working structures and habits to automate many aspects of my work and assign essential work to people who can carry it out,
- Do less work while producing more results, more money, and more assets,
- Use whatever resources I had and still have results,
- Have time for deep work processing,
- Focusing on a 80/20 mindset while I would adopt a growth mentality for my life and work,
- Gain more energy, clarity, and focus, which would permit me to find out more opportunities during the process,
- Enjoy the process and maintain a high level of motivation,
- Help me to do the things I need to do in a better way and with better results,
- Support me in finding balance while I am optimizing and scaling up my work and myself toward the directions I have chosen and designed
Well, there are a few! But these are the things I need to do today in order to reassure better conditions of living and working tomorrow (for me and my family).
And that’s how came up the ACE approach. ACE stands for Alignation, Compose, and Execute or Evaluate approach. It is an approach to help you tune up who you are to your values, your principles and help you set up goals you can do in a more effective manner.
It stems from who you are (including your values, principles, beliefs, etc.) towards developing your main life and business goals and filtering from the available things you can do only the tasks you can do and you have to do based on your time, energy, attention, availability, and convenience.
Where to Start
The first thing you should do if you want to follow the ACE framework is to clarify what you want from life and business and become more specific in the results you want.
In that context, you need to decide what you want to build and what you have to invest in and/or learn in order to alleviate the obstacles and design a clear and intentional path toward the materialization of your goals.
You need at first to align your main life, business, financial, relations, health, fitness, etc. goals to who you are and how you have learned to bring the results you want. In this context, you need to clarify and re-state your motivation for each life or business goal, the outputs, and how they’re going to be implemented.
But this is the topic for the next article in this mini-series on the ACE framework! For now, please consider what you want from your life and business and how you intend to gain it!
What do you think about that? Is there a chance to adopt an approach like that for your daily activities?
Also published here.