Daily evaluation plays a vital role in daily success. One of the little-known secrets of successful individuals is that those who are most successful use performance evaluations daily. While many individuals conduct some form of consistent personal evaluation, it’s usually a perfectionist evaluation. Research suggests that highly successful people do two things extremely well; They give themselves credit where credit is due and they relentlessly pursue improvement. By learning to turn the perfectionist evaluation into a performance evaluation you will learn to achieve at an even higher level and you will be able to enjoy yourself along the way.

Perfectionist Evaluation Characteristics:

1. Write successes off as “that is just what I expect of myself”.

2. Heavy focus on failures.

Performance Evaluation Characteristics:

1. Give credit to self where credit is due.

2. Relentlessly pursue improvement.

Get in the daily habit of taking 4 minutes per day to answer the following three questions and you will literally train yourself out of the perfectionist mentality and into that of the performance evaluator. The three questions below are scientifically proven to increase productivity and success.

1. What three things did I do well today?

2. What is my number one most needed improvement for tomorrow?

3. What is one thing I can do differently to help make the needed improvement?

You can further improve your effectiveness by answering each question with what I call level 2 detail. Level 2 detail essentially means that each answer is detailed enough to take your mind to a specific point in time. For instance a level one answer to question one might be “I did well today with my effort”. Whereas level two would be, “I completely finished every one of my process goals”. Level two means be specific, the more specific the better.

My clients usually answer their three performance evaluation questions each day as they are leaving the office or as one of the last things before going to sleep each evening. Either way, remember to only allow four minutes for completion of your three performance evaluation questions. If the four minutes are up and you are still not finished, stop where you are and feel good about what you have done. You will learn to get it done within the four minutes by thinking about the answers throughout the day. Thinking about what you are doing well and what needs to be improved during your day is proof that the training is working and your perfectionist tendencies are being replaced with that of the performance evaluator.