Mastering the Top 3: How to Set and Execute Your Most Impactful Goals

Do you have a habit that affects your daily productivity and performance? In this episode, Tyson discusses the approach to getting things done by focusing on the top three tasks for the day. It is perfect for those who have busy work days and need to keep their heads down with no distractions.

Tyson suggests writing down the top three most important tasks each day, focusing on those that will have the greatest impact on your goals. But why only three goals? Why not five or ten? Having a long list of daily tasks means all of them are not important. This approach is about finding the balance and narrowing down your priorities to a select few.

Think about your long term goals and what daily actions will lead you to achieving them. For those in the legal field who want to grow their firm, tasks might be reaching out to referral partners or working on a high profile case. It is all about figuring out your vision and then tying critical goals to it.

Create space in your day to focus on these important tasks. One great way is to knock them out at the beginning of your day. Block time in your calendar and mute your emails and notifications so you are not distracted. That way they are complete and you can go about your day doing other things.

Achieving your goals through focusing on 3 tasks is a mindset that will only lead to greater success. This approach will create momentum and boost productivity.

Take a listen!

Episode Highlights:

• 1:15 The concept of focusing on the top three tasks for the day and how it can significantly impact productivity and performance.
• 5:15 Tyson explains the importance of executing the top three tasks and how it sets you up for a successful day and boosts productivity.
• 07:07 Common mistakes in choosing tasks and emphasizes that mastering the top three tasks is not just a productivity hack, but a mindset of knowing what matters most.

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Transcripts: Mastering the Top 3: How to Set and Execute Your Most Impactful Goals

Speaker 1 (00:00:00) - Run your law firm the right way. The right way. This is the maximum lawyer. Podcast. Lawyer, podcast. Your hosts, Jim Hacking and Tyson Metrics. Let's partner up and maximize your firm. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (00:00:25) - Hey, it's Tyson again and I'm excited to join you once again for a quick episode. And today we're going to shine a spotlight on a daily habit that can significantly impact your productivity and your performance. Before I get into that, I want to make sure that if you have something that you want me to cover on a show, I'd love for you to text me at 314501 9260. We're getting a lot of great ideas for episodes, so make sure you do shoot me a text with anything you want me to cover or really anything else you want to say to me or the show? Today's episode. It's about a powerful and practical approach to getting things done. It's focusing on your top three tasks for the day. It's been it's something that I've done for a very long time.

Speaker 2 (00:01:15) - It's a concept that I've seen transform the way several, many, many professionals, including many law firm owners that I know tackle their busy schedules. I first learned of this sort of idea of a concept from John Fisher, and he talked about his top five. I'll talk in a little bit why I think that that's too many, but I think the top three is a really, really great way of propelling your firm forward. So let's dive right in. Now, this topic came up the other day because I was having a conversation with Brooks Derek. He's a purple injury attorney in South Carolina. And I was asking him about, you know, top three, whether he does the top three. And he says, you know, that's actually one of my goals out of Denver because we had our mastermind recently, and he wants to do it more often. And so I asked him, I said, well, do you find the top three to be effective? He said, absolutely. It's extremely effective.

Speaker 2 (00:02:16) - It helps me get more done. At the end of the day, I feel a lot better about what I've achieved. And I said, Well, I mean, do you have a process for it? And he said, no. And and so I said, okay. I pushed a little bit further and I said, okay, well, if you had a process, do you think you would do it more often? And he said, Absolutely. Actually, he said, Heck, yeah. And so I'll get to I do have a recommendation for a process that I use like it get to a little bit later. But the idea is that you've got to have a process for it. So I can tell you to do this while you like until I'm blue in the face. But the reality is, is if you don't have a process, it will not matter. But let's get a little bit more into just sort of understanding the whole concept. And the idea here is simple, but it's transformative.

Speaker 2 (00:03:00) - You know, every day write down your top three most important tasks and what are the things that, if you complete them, will make the most significant impact on your goals and your firm. You want to focus on those before anything else. It's very simple. Now, why just three, right? Why not that long list that you have? Because that long list remains a long list because nothing is important on it. And it's about balance. One task, in my opinion, might be too little unless it's a very big task. It's going to take quite some time. If it's there have been times where I just had one thing that I needed to accomplish a day because I knew it was a pretty big task. But three is a very good balance between 1 and 5. I think that five it gets too overwhelming. Five It can be it can be really, really tough to achieve. Three gives you a target that's achievable yet impactful, and it allows you to concentrate on what matters most without spreading you too thin because that is a definite concern.

Speaker 2 (00:04:09) - You do not want to spread yourself too thin by giving yourself too many things to do. You want to identify your top three tasks, but it's not always a a straightforward way of doing things. It's always very straightforward and figuring out what your top three are, but what you want to do is you want to think about your long term goals and what daily actions will bring you closer to achieving them. So if you've not yet thought about your long term goals, that's something you're you're going to want to do. And once you've done that, you're going to want to tie those to those long term goals. If you're working on growing your law firm, for example, maybe it's reaching out to potential referral partners. You could also say it's maybe reviewing a critical case or working on a specific case. If one of the cases in your in your drawer or it could be working on your marketing strategy. If again, your your goal is to grow your firm, you need to figure out what your vision is for your goal for your firm, and then tie those top three to your daily activities.

Speaker 2 (00:05:15) - The next part, it really comes down to execution. Once you've identified your top three tasks, it's time to execute. Okay. No questions asked you. To execute, you need to dedicate the first hours of your workday to these tasks. You got to eat that frog, put away the distractions, shut down the emails and you need to focus. If you knock out these tasks, you're now setting yourself up for for a successful day. Some people would even say, you know, once you've done those, you can quit for the day. I wouldn't go that far, but once you've done that, you've now had a successful day. So knock those out first. And it's really all about having that process in place. Now I'm going to tell you something that I do really effective, but come up with what works best for you. I've got an automated text that actually I send to myself every single morning. That's something that I've done through Shortcuts the Shortcuts app on my iPhone, and I send a form to myself that I've created in Zoho forms.

Speaker 2 (00:06:13) - You can do Google forms, you can do Google Docs, you can do a spreadsheet, whatever you want, But that is texted to me in the mornings. I fill it out and boom, done. This is also something you could do in Zapier. You could send yourself an email, you could send yourself text messages, you could send yourself a message in Slack, whatever works best for you, but have a way of tracking this and filling it out that that way it keeps you on track every single day. The benefits of this approach go beyond just getting things done by focusing on these most critical tasks. First, you create this momentum, right? In a sense of achievement early in the day. It's a massive productivity boost that can carry you through other tasks with the energy and focus that you had. And it's an energy that can carry you through some of the more difficult tasks that you don't want to do later in the day. I know that the approach, it sounds easy. It is, but it can be tricky.

Speaker 2 (00:07:07) - Some of the common mistakes that I see, they include choosing tasks that are maybe too broad or not truly the most impactful. So break down the bigger tasks. So let's say you have a bigger goals in mind. You want to break down the bigger tasks into smaller, achievable parts and be honest with yourself about what really needs to get done that day. Really, really important part of it. You got to be honest with yourself about it. In our profession as law firm owners, this this approach is especially beneficial because we have so many cases, clients, other administrative duties, running law firms. But focusing on these top three can keep you on track and ensure you're making progress in areas that matter most. That's what's really important. It's what matters most. You've got to focus on those things. Mastering your Top three. It's not just a productivity hack. It's really a mindset. It's about knowing what matters most and having the discipline to focus on those things first. So, you know, as law firm owners, we juggle a lot.

Speaker 2 (00:08:12) - We juggle a lot of different responsibilities. But if you adopt this approach, the top three approach, you're going to be able to create clarity. You're going to be able to drive progress and you're going to be able to achieve a lot more. So try this method. I encourage you to try it tomorrow. Don't delay. Don't say I'm gonna do it next week. Try it tomorrow. If you're listening to this early in the day, try it today. It doesn't matter if it's the weekend. Do it today. Do it tomorrow and write down your top three tasks and make them your priority. And then you're going to notice the difference it makes in your day. It's going to make a significant impact. But I'm going to wrap things up. I do want to hear from you. So if you want to hear about you doing this approach and some of the other things that we've talked about in the podcast, share your experiences with me. Send me questions, send me, send me other topics for future episodes.

Speaker 2 (00:09:01) - Text me at (314) 501-9260. And together we'll continue to grow and learn. This is a learning process for all of us. Also, stay tuned for our next episode, Cultivating Success The influence of your inner Circle on Goal Attainment. Until then, remember, imperfect action will always beat perfect in action. Take care.

Speaker 1 (00:09:26) - Thanks for listening to the Maximum Lawyer podcast podcast to stay in contact with your hosts and to access more content. Go to maximum lawyer.com. Have a great week and catch you next time.