Aim for the “Perfect Day”, once a week

I’ve noticed that there’s one thing that gets in the way of any project I’ve ever taken on… everything else! I’m always behind on half a dozen things, and that makes it difficult to focus on the project at hand. Most recently, it’s been license tabs for my car. My solution has been to catch the bus for the last month until I “have time to get those tabs”.

Now, it isn’t really that I don’t have time to do it. I’m not making time.

I think a lot of people can relate… unless you’re an editor at Lifehacker or you outsource large portions of your life, it can be difficult to catch up with life so that you can drive growth in your entrepreneurial pursuits.

Here’s where you can start to catch up. I call it “The Perfect Day”. In a perfect day, I don’t go to bed feeling like there’s a hundred things I should have done. I try to tackle a project or a to-do that’s been nagging me for a while. I focus on my health. I reach out to my family and friends. I wake up early and hit the ground running, and I plan to relax at the end of the day, catching a DVD or a show to unwind before I go to bed.

The reason that most people don’t have a perfect day every day is because, by nature, we lack consistency. If you buy a gym membership, or start a diet, or launch a new website, all of a sudden you’re committed… and that commitment sometimes comes at the expense of other areas of your life. A “Perfect Day” can be a real morale booster when you start to feel like you’ve been neglectful to your family, your health, or your business. It’s a short term commitment… 12 to 16 hours at most. And if you try to have a “Perfect Day” once a week, in a month or two you’ll find that you’re less encumbered by your own lack of consistency in paying attention to the life you have outside of your business or project.

The trick is, you’ve got to plan it! If you stumble through your day like normal, of course anything can happen, and it likely will… but if you map out your day (in a Franklin Covey style planner, like we’ve talked about), and write down all of the things you’d like to do and the targets you’d like to hit, then you’ll be a lot less likely to get distracted and fall out of “Perfect Day” rhythm.

Try it once and see if you like it… Wake up tomorrow and go for a run. Kick butt at work. Call your mother during lunch and tell her you love her. Eat healthy and drink lots of water. When you get off work, grind out an hour or so on your website or business while you’re still in work mode. Whatever it is that you need to do to have a perfect day. Write down your plan and stick to it… just for the day.

Let everyone know how your perfect day went in the comments!