Brandon ran a consulting firm with six team members, and he was constantly overwhelmed by his to-do list. He'd work 12-hour days and still feel like he was drowning.

His to-do list was full of everything: respond to client email, prepare for next week's presentation, approve payroll, fix the broken link on the website, follow up with that prospect from three months ago, plan the quarterly strategy meeting…

Brandon would tackle whatever felt most urgent in the moment, which usually meant putting out fires while important strategic work kept getting pushed to "tomorrow."

He'd spend an entire afternoon fixing a minor website issue because it felt urgent, then realize he'd missed the deadline to submit a proposal that could have brought in $500,000.

Everything blurred together into an endless to-do list where he was always busy but never made real progress.

After learning how to actually compare tasks instead of treating them all the same, Brandon cut his work hours in half while doubling his business results.
Now he consistently focuses on what actually matters instead of what just feels urgent.


Thinking Skills 
While you are doing any task, you, without even realizing it, are using your 28 thinking skills.
When the thinking skills you need to use are strong, doing the task happens easily.
If the thinking skill you need to use is weak, doing the task is a challenge.
The struggle that Brandon had came from a weak thinking skill of comparing.


Comparing
We tend to go into decisions and just say the good details of each option.

I like this candidate because she has more experience, and I like that candidate because he has a better personality.

Brandon was looking at his tasks and thinking of all the “benefits” of each task.
Doing task A will improve my branding.
I want to do task B because it’s takes less time to do.

Task A is talking about how it will improve his business.
Task B is talking about how long it will take to do.
He’s talking about the 2 tasks on different parameters, making it impossible to compare correctly to see what makes the most sense to do.

He needed to talk about each task on the same parameter.

How will doing each task improve his business?
For task A we said it will improve his branding
For task B it will help grow his email list.

How long will the task take?
Task A will take about 12 hours of work.
Task B will take about 30 minutes of work.


Do you see what happens when we talk about the tasks on the same parameter?
The information becomes clear in our brain as it’s just information. It’s organized information.

Without comparing, Brandon would just grab whatever task felt most urgent or was easiest in the moment.

But there's another layer to this that Brandon was completely missing - and this is where comparing gets really powerful.

Comparing One-time and Recurring Tasks
Brandon struggled with seeing the difference between tasks that happen once versus tasks that repeat.

Think about it - updating social media posts happens every single week.
That multi-6-figure proposal usually only happens once or twice a year.

When tasks repeat weekly or monthly, you want to create a system so it becomes easy to do every time.
Build a template, create an SOP, and make it automatic.
You want the system to do the heavy lifting so you don't have to figure out what to do each time.

Since building a system takes time, it’s usually not worth it making a system for a one-time task.

Brandon was treating everything the same.
He'd spend hours perfecting his weekly social media posts like they were one-time masterpieces. Meanwhile, that $500,000 proposal got rushed because he was busy with things that could have been systematized.

When you can compare tasks and see "this repeats, this is one-time," suddenly you approach each task more smartly.


2 Exercises to Improve Comparing
I did 2 exercises with Brandon to help him improve his comparison skills which made it super easy for him to prioritize his work, allowing him to focus on what actually mattered and get more done in less time:

1) I had Brandon take 2 random tasks that have nothing to do with each other and compare them on as many parameters as possible.

What was the benefit of this task?
How long will doing this task take?
Who needs to be involved in this task?
What tools/software will I need for this task?
What will I lose by not doing this task?

Just getting the practice of comparing tasks on the same parameter.


2) Before entering a decision, before even looking at the option, Brandon would list out all the elements that were important to him. And super important, you can’t miss this step! he’d put the elements in priority order. Which element was #1 most important?
What was #2?

Then, when he did enter the situation, he was able to compare his options to his prioritized list.

After a few times of making decisions in this way, Brandon realized many of the mistakes he made in the future where because of these shiny elements that were a distraction.

Previously, he would have loooved the fact a candidate had element 4 on his list and hire them, even though they didn’t have elements 2 or 3. Then he wondered why his employees were never good enough.

Now he realized, element number 4 on the list isn’t even helpful if they don’t have 2 or 3.


Brandon's Bonus Challenge

Without me even telling him to, Brandon decided to give himself a challenge:

Make a giant list of all the tasks that happen regularly (daily, weekly, monthly or even quarterly).
Then each week, he had to create one system for these regular tasks.

By the time the cohort was done, Brandon had 8 systems in place and could feel how easier life was.
Imagine what your business would look like if you took this challenge for the next 8 weeks?!

If you’re thinking that building systems takes up too much time up front.
Brandon discovered that spending two hours creating a social media template saved him at least an hour every single week.
In just two weeks, it pays for itself.

Sure, some systems take a long longer, but pull out a calculator and do the math.
You’ll see it’s worth it.
And if you don’t like math, just trust me, it’s worth it 😅


Cheers to Peak Brain Performance!
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