30 days: Change your habits, Change your life

Questions:

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What are you going to choose from now on? Excuses or focused
action?
What are the excuses you are using to not change and stay in the
same place?

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56
Keep expectations low and then shine
Always deliver more than expected.
—LARRY PAGE
This is another biggie and probably the best time management trick I
ever learnt. It changed my professional and private life in an
extraordinary manner and reduced stress at work to virtually zero!
Most of my stress at work came from deadlines, and I or we, as an
enterprise, were always struggling, which made days when our
products were shipped to the clients—which was every day in high
season—horrible and very stressful. We were always just in time or
sometimes maybe a couple of hours late and I had to calm down
angry and sometimes hysterical clients…until I started to under
promise. I figured out that over 90% of our late deliveries were just a
question of a couple of hours, so I got the permission of my boss and
started my own delivery schedule that only I received access to. If
production gave me a delivery date of April 5th, I told the client April
10th. So, if we delivered on April 7th, instead of an angry client
threatening to fine or sue us, I suddenly had extremely grateful
clients who thanked me for delivering three days early. Within a short
time, we reduced late deliveries from nearly 50% to virtually 0% over
the next three years. As it worked out so well, I started applying it to
my whole life. When my boss gave me a project that took me three
days, I told her I was going to need five. If I had it completed after
four days, I looked great and if I took a little longer, I was still on time
—and spending without weekends at the office. If I knew I had to
stay at work longer, I told my wife I’ll be home at 9 p.m. Coming
home at 8:30 p.m., I looked like a hero. Careful here! This worked for

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me. My colleagues who knew the trick always warned me that one
day I could encounter an unpleasant surprise in the cupboard…Well
these are things we see in movies…

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57
Design your ideal day
You’ll see it when you believe it!
—DR WAYNE W. DYER
This is the favorite exercise of many coaches and the starting point
for many coaching processes.