You know that feeling when you hear a song that is about to take off. Your foot starts tapping or your fingers drum. Or maybe you dance in your chair or bob your head to the rhythm. There is something about it that makes you want to listen. It is a feeling. And people who compose music can tell you about the technical side of what makes songs catchy. But for the person listening, the technical side might not matter. They just care about how they feel listening to it.

The same is true in any part of business. Ideas catch when they make life easier for the people they touch. They feel better because it is easy and takes some of the pressure off an already busy day. And businesses that are very successful know this and make sure their ideas catch before they are released.

How do you know when your ideas catch?

Last week, I tried a different class at the gym. And was I glad I did! My normal class wasn’t going to happen, so I needed to figure out an alternative. But I wasn’t excited by the options. Then, an instructor I liked walked by and told me she was teaching a class at the time I had open. It was a format that complemented the other classes I take. So, I tried it and was sore afterward. It was a great reminder that muscles adapt and need to be challenged with something new regularly.

The same is true in business. If you keep doing the same things, your business won’t continue to grow and get stronger. Keep doing the things that make you strong. And actively seek other things that compliment your strengths, but challenge you to get even stronger.

When was the last time you tried something new? Was it something that would challenge you, but make you stronger?

The ladies room at the gym was remodeled, giving it a necessary facelift. As happens with many remodels, input is taken from customers/members, then as construction happens, the facilities people get involved and make changes. And it happened here. To be efficient, automatic faucets were installed that have set temperatures and meter the water to minimize waste. The problem is, you can’t change the temperature. It isn’t possible to splash cold water on your face, or run cold water over your hands. The faucets are set to a temperature designed for germ reduction. The point that people may use the faucet for others reasons was missed. One size doesn’t fit all.

Businesses often try to put in one size fits all solutions. They may be systems to run the entire business, that don’t meet the needs of some areas of the business. Or processes that require a lot of work for one area of the business to make another area of the business work better. One size doesn’t fit all. That’s why it is important to understand whether changes will work for each of the impacted areas.

How do you make sure you don’t fall into the one size fits all trap?

Last week, several accidents and roadwork created bottlenecks on the freeway system. As the traffic backed up, it overflowed onto nearby streets and backed up adjoining freeways.

That’s the thing about bottlenecks. They don’t just impact the place they happen. They impact the entire system. What are you doing to get rid of yours?

A few weeks ago, it was snowing nearly every day. And if you’ve ever driven in the snow, you know how dirty your car gets. Finally, the snow went away and the sun came out. So, I went to the car wash. As did everyone else. The line was around the corner and down the street. That length of line was likely to take 30 minutes to get through. I drove off and planned to come back later. I did come back later that day and over the next few days. It was the fifth time that the line was reasonable and I was able to get my car washed.

In business and in life, things don’t always work out the first time. Commitment and persistence is necessary to get what you want. Are you persisting?

The studies are clear. Multi-tasking is not effective. It reduces productivity dramatically. And yet, many do it regularly and think they are good at it. But they aren’t. Booking travel on the wrong day, not hearing something important, and making errors are just a few symptoms of multi-tasking.

Want to be more effective in 2019? Try eliminating multi-tasking. Focus on the task in front of you and get it done. If you pay attention to what you missed while multi-tasking vs what you got done while not, you’ll realize the difference not multi-tasking makes.