When you’re working on your life, how much time do you spend looking ahead? How much time organizing and planning? How much actually doing the nitty-gritty work?
In his book The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber describes the three “personalities” he believes necessary in every business: the Entrepreneur, the Manager, and the Technician.
Entrepreneur – focused on the future, develops a vision for the company
Manager – the organizer and planner, translates the entrepreneur’s strategic vision into tactical work for the technician
Technician – performs the actual work required to run the company
Gerber then goes on to argue that anyone starting their own business must regularly switch roles in order to keep driving it forward.
This is a also an important framework for working on your life.
Do you spend most days head-down, grinding out the work, rarely planning or even looking up to see where you’re going?
Are you constantly making plans, scheduling, and organizing, but getting very little actual work done?
Do you pass most days with your head in the clouds, dreaming of your future, but with no real path to get there?
Are you some combination of of the above?
If so, get back on track by forcing yourself to spend time doing each on a regular basis.
Take time each month to focus on your vision for yourself: what are your goals? What do you want your future to be?
Time should be devoted each week to translating that vision into scheduled, organized work. You have a vision, now how do you get there? What is the timeline? What are the steps you need to take and the milestones you need to hit?
Finally, there’s the actual work, which should be done just about every day.
Dive into the work, come up frequently to make sure you’re on schedule and doing what you should, and take some time regularly to work on your vision.
Be the Entrepreneur, the Manager, and the Technician.