work and play | Bigg Success

We’re testing a concept and thought we’d share it with you. If you’re a regular here, you know we think that work-life balance doesn’t work.

Our thinking has evolved over time. We believe life is a system. BIGG success is life on your own terms.

Work and play are two of the five elements of BIGG success. The BIGG idea behind BIGG success is synergy. Synergy begins with syncing work and play.

Just-in-time play

You may be familiar with just-in-time inventory management developed as part of the Toyota Production System.

The goal is to increase the return on investment by bringing inventory into the production process at the precise moment it’s needed.

So we’ve been testing what we call just-in-time (JIT) play. The goal is to increase our sense of fulfillment (i.e. our returns) by making time for play right when we need it.

Avoiding the crash

This is a response to what we’ve typically done. We love our work. But sometimes we push too hard.

We work and work and work. Followed by a crash.

We didn’t choose downtime. It chose us.

And it wasn’t very productive.

Your inventory of time

We all have a fixed amount of time. Unfortunately, we never know when we will be “out of stock.”

In the meantime, we all want to make the most of our time. In order to do that, play is essential.

Play is as much a part of BIGG success as work. The two go hand-in-hand. In fact, play makes you more productive at work.

Signals

With JIT inventory management, signals are sent to tell workers when to order parts. With JIT play, we look and listen for signals that it’s time to bring in some units of play.

For example, when we get stuck writing, we’ll take five minutes to rejuvenate. When we start having trouble getting started in the morning, we know a day off is the ticket.

By getting essential play on our schedule when we need it most, JIT play is helping us maximize our productivity and get away more often.

Our business permits a great deal of flexibility on when we work. If your schedule allows you to adapt, give JIT play a try. Now that’s win-win.

And it may be your ticket to BIGG success!

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Many people waste time and money trying to find shortcuts for reaching BIGG success.

They buy programs that promise an easy road to riches. Unfortunately, these programs almost never deliver.

Time and money wasted…once again.

We’ve talked before about hard work and BIGG success. In most cases, the first is part of the explanation for the second.

So here’s the dilemma:

What can you do if you’re working as hard as you possibly can but not making satisfactory progress toward your goal?

We relate to this subject all too well. We put in long hours almost every day of the week.

Yet, when we finally shut down for the day, there’s always so much left to do. It can wear on you after awhile.

So today we want to share a few things that have helped us.

Listen to this post! Click a player to hear George & Mary-Lynn on The BIGG Success Show Podcast.

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The 5 elements of BIGG success

Let’s do a quick review (or a quick primer for those of you who are new here):

BIGG success is life on your own terms. The 5 elements of BIGG success are money, time, growth, work and play.

Time and money are your two resources.
Time is more precious than money but, at any given moment, you only have so much of either one.
Almost every human (and every organization) faces resource constraints.

Work and play are your opportunities.
Growth bridges the gap between resources and opportunities.
Growth begins as an opportunity but can become your most significant resource.

Expand your capacity

As growth moves from opportunity to resource, your capacity expands.

As you master anything, you’re able to cut through the complexity and see the simplicity again.

This helps you get more done in the same amount of time.

You can also grow your capacity over time. It’s like any other sort of training.

How far could you jog right now?
If you did that every day for a month, do you think you would be able to either run the same distance faster or run further in the same time?
Of course, you could. This works in all areas of your life.

End your energy crisis

The BIGG idea behind BIGG success is synergy. One area to look for synergy is between the five elements.

We both love our work. We found that we often worked so hard for so long that it became counter-productive.

So now we schedule downtime. Here’s the funny thing:
We usually get more down when we work a little less!

Of course, there’s a limit to this. But there’s a reason for the fifth element of BIGG success – play!

Nobel Prize winners know how important it is. Have you ever wondered why kids have so much energy?

Because they play!

So don’t think so much about managing your time. Manage your energy!

Where to start

When you think of your goals, what’s the most important thing you need to do today to reach it?

Start by getting it done.
Then move onto the second most important.
Then the third.

What difference would it make if you got your three most important things done every day? It’s huge, isn’t it?

Focus isn’t fun.
It isn’t easy.
Focus sometimes means forcing yourself to do something you really don’t want to do.

If it’s important, get it done. Then relish in the accomplishment.

Oh…and keep going!

Can you borrow time?

We’re not talking about the traditional definition of “borrowed time”. It has negative connotations.

This is all positive. You know you can borrow money but you can also borrow time.

Money and time are your two primary resources. Your need for them is negatively correlated.

If you have money to spare, you won’t have to invest as much time. If you have time to spare, you don’t need as much money.

Let’s say you buy a house that needs to be painted.

If money were no object, you could hire a contractor. If you’ve selected them carefully, you shouldn’t have to lift a finger other than to write a check.

If money were a little more constrained, you might hire a freelancer.

If you have almost nothing left after buying the house, you’ll have to do it yourself.

If you have plenty of money and plenty of time to spare, you can do whatever you want!

So you can borrow time by spending money. However – even if you don’t have money – you may still be able to borrow time by taking on a partner.

Of course, you’ll want to make sure you share a vision and you have the same values. Otherwise, your partner will cost you both time and money!

Punt

Finally, we come to the last resort. If you continue to feel overwhelmed by how much you have to do, it may pay to punt. By that we mean:

Push back your due date.

We caution you to think long and hard before you do this. However, you may conclude that your goal was too ambitious.

If you’re stressing out so much that it’s starting to affect your health, the best action you can take may be to decide to give yourself more time to reach your goal.

It’s better to reach BIGG success a little later than to not reach it at all!

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00752-111011.mp3

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