Follow Through

By Kerry Gleeson

Success is rooted in follow-through. Vision and planning give clarity and with clarity you are able to act. But how successful and effective you are depends on how well you follow through.

Most things get done because some individual or team sticks to them and makes them happen. Calvin Coolidge once said: "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

Things happen because you persist in making them happen. Napoleon Hill said: "Most people meet with failure because they lack persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail." The essence of work is knowing what you want, planning how to get it, acting on the plans, and following up until it happens-or developing new plans and following up on those.

Constantly thinking about, planning out, tracking everything you need to do, and trying to remember everything simply overwhelms most people. This constant, unproductive preoccupation with all the things we have to do is the single biggest waste of our time.

Personally, I don't want to remember the hundreds of details that make up my work; in fact I'm more interested in forgetting about all the things I need to do. Yes, I said forgetting. What you need is the right system in place to allow you to remember details when- and only when- you need to remember and act on them.

  • Use Follow-up systems. Having constant reminders staring you in the face is not conducive to concentration. In fact, if those reminders linger long enough, you become blind to them. Moreover, looking at these reminders and consciously deciding not to do any of them reinforces a Do It Later habit. So, have simple reminder systems and tools in place to keep focused on your most important work.
  • Follow up on paper. You can get papers off your desk and "forwarded" to an appropriate place and time with a "call forward" or "tickler file" system.
  • Use a planner or organizer. I suggest that you also use a calendar, log book, planner, or electronic organizer. Since you probably check your planner every day, its a good place to jot down items you want to remember.