Coach Carson

  • About
    • About Coach
    • Start Here
    • Contact
    • Charitable Mission of Coach Carson
  • Learn
    • Archive
    • Getting Started
    • Rentals & Landlording
    • Financial Independence & Early Retirement
    • Do More Deals
    • Investor Profiles
    • Entrepreneurship & Business
    • Personal Productivity & Growth
    • Travel & Life
  • Listen
  • Courses
  • Top Tools
    • Cash Back Reward Cards
  • Free Toolkit

Practical First, Big Picture Second – Why Goals Aren’t Enough

By Chad Carson 1 Comment Filed Under: Personal Productivity & Growth

0shares

I have discovered over the years the practical value of working on personal productivity improvement from the bottom up, starting with the most mundane, ground-floor level of current activity and commitments.”

Getting Things Done, David Allen

David Allen is probably my favorite teacher of personal productivity.  My copy of his book, Getting Things Done is dog-eared and highlighted, and his system of life management has been extremely helpful to me. (check out a cool summary of the book here)

David Allen’s main message is this:

Big picture thinking is valuable and necessary, but you must master the practical first. You must learn to get things done.

In other words, your goals, your ideal life, and more money don’t appear or manifest out of thin air.

So, if you’re unorganized and inefficient on a personal level, the best dreaming and goal setting in the world likely won’t gain traction.

Let me explain with a story David shared once during an interview.

Imagine two different train engines that must leave their respective home stations and arrive on time to pick up some boxcars.

The engineer of the first train engine spends most of his time before leaving mapping out the entire route to make sure he takes all of the shortcuts so that he arrives as fast as possible.

The first engineer, however, did not spend enough time doing basic maintenance on his engine. Although he was going the right direction on a perfect route, the engine broke down and he didn’t have parts needed to fix it.

Rental Property Analysis

A course by Coach Carson that teaches you how to run the numbers so that you can confidently analyze and buy profitable rental properties. It also includes Coach’s rental analysis spreadsheet.
Get the Course

The first engineer never did arrive at the destination.

The engineer of the second train worked tirelessly up front to do maintenance on his engine. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to map out his route very well.

In fact, he started off going in exactly the opposite direction of where he needed to go! While this error was certainly costly, because his engine was working well he eventually realized his mistake, turned around, and made up some ground later in the journey.

Although late, the second engineer did reach his destination.

Your personal management system is like the engine.  It’s great to have a clear destination (goals), but you won’t even move down the tracks without well-oiled parts (a good personal productivity system).

And even worse than not reaching goals, you might burn yourself out from stress and overload.  Falling short of your goals may be bad, but a heart attack, a nervous breakdown, or a broken family life are far more tragic.

My main point here is to encourage you to get better in the critical area of personal productivity.

If you’re looking for resources, here are some of my favorites:

  • Getting Things Done – The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, David Allen
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey (probably the book I recommend most)
  • Zen Habits blog
  • No B.S. Time Management For Entrepreneurs, Dan Kennedy
  • Eat That Frog – 21 Great Ways To Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, Brian Tracy

What do you think? Should the practical come before the big picture? What systems or habits do you use to get things done? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

———————–
Photo: Capt’ Gorgeous

Get My Free Real Estate Investing Toolkit!

Enter your email address and click "Get Toolkit"

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

NO Spam. Unsubscribe anytime with 1 click. Powered by ConvertKit
0shares

Tagged With: David Allen, Getting Things Done

Comments

  1. Rick Angell says

    June 13, 2013 at 6:00 pm

    Great post Chad. I’m going to put that book at the top of my list.
    Hope the family is doing well. Mine is great!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Search box

Guide to Financial Independence


ABOUT COACH

Chad Coach Carson
About Me


How Can I Help You?


GET STARTED

RETIRE EARLY

DO MORE DEALS

TOOLS OF TRADE

HOUSE HACKING

LANDLORDING

FINANCING

BE YOUR BEST

Let’s Get Social!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Products I Like

May contain affiliate links (Disclosure)

Use personal or business spending to earn cash back or travel rewards. Here are my favorite deals.


Online management software that I use. Useful when you scale your self-management to more properties.


 

Free software to track your net worth & portfolio in real time. Fun & intuitive to use.

Top Posts

  • The Best Real Estate Investing Strategy
  • How to Pick the Ideal Location For Investment Properties – a Comprehensive Guide
  • How to Run the Numbers For Rental Properties – Back-of-the-Envelope Analysis
  • The 35 Best Niches For Real Estate Investing (& How to Choose Yours)
  • Enroll in Free 7-Day Course – How to Get Started (or Restarted) With Real Estate Investing
  • The Baby Steps to Your First Rental, Flip, or Wholesale Property (6 Case Studies)

Top Resources

I have 85 recommended tools for you to become better as a real estate investor. My first priority is helping you, my reader, to learn and improve. These tools and resources helped me and I'm hopeful they will help you too.

Check out these tools and resources here: 85+ Recommended Tools & Resources For Real Estate Investors

Affiliate Disclosure

I recommend books, tools, and other resources from time to time using links within my articles. In some cases these links are affiliate links. This means that if you click through and purchase, my company will receive a commission on the sale. These commissions help pay the bills around here (and avoid the need for spammy ads). But keep in mind that I only recommend a product or service if I’ve used it and personally believe in it. And I’ll recommend something that’s good whether it has an affiliate link or not. My first priority is helping you, my reader, to learn and improve.

  • About
  • Learn
  • Listen
  • Courses
  • Top Tools
  • Free Toolkit

Contact ·Copyright © 2021 · Disclaimer & Privacy·