 |
 |
 |
| |
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
 Last week, I reminded you of John Wooden’s admonition not to confuse activity with achievement. Good advice for sure. Being busy and being productive are separate issues. Strangely though, deep down inside, we like being busy because it gives us the false sense of being productive, but this is only an illusion. It doesn’t matter how many trivial activities we complete, they’re still trivial and don’t improve productivity or contribute to the bottom line.
Important but Not Urgent
Stephen Covey and others have made the compelling case that the most important things are seldom urgent. The sad fact, though, is that we can easily become addicted to urgencies. Often our badge of honor is having the reputation of being a firefighter – able to put out dozens of trivial little fires in a single day. Let’s refocus.
In the last article, I offered several suggestions on how to better manage your time, so you could be more productive. Those suggestions included: planning your day; writing down your goals; keeping a journal; and reviewing your progress on a regular basis.
Here are a few more suggestions on how to make your days, weeks and months more productive.
Coordinate Your To-Do List and Your Calendar
Before you write a single item on your to-do list, review your weekly calendar. Get a bird’s eye view of your week and when you’ll actually have time to work on those few important tasks or projects. Writing a to-do list is much like building a budget. A realistic budget is preceded by a well-thought-out strategic plan. A daily plan has a much greater chance of succeeding if it’s coordinated with your calendar.
One of the best ways I know of to find the time to work on high priority items is to schedule them in your calendar. Make an appointment with yourself to work on “A” priority items – every day or certainly every week.
If It’s To Be – It’s Up To Me
Personal responsibility. You knew this one was coming, didn’t you? Yep, you’re the only one responsible for achieving your personal goals and improving personal productivity. It’s not your Mama’s job, your boss’s job or your spouse’s job to make you more efficient, effective and productive. That’s your job.
Like it or not, you’re the one who’ll have to take control and do those things that must be done for personal or professional development. You’ll have to control your schedule, take the class, get the certification, or heal the relationship that’s keeping you where you are now, instead of where you want to be.
E + R = O
This little equation will do more for improving your performance and productivity than almost anything else I know of. It stands for Event + Response = Outcome. This equation suggests that it’s not the events we encounter that determine the outcome. It’s our response to those events that make the real differences.
We all face difficult events throughout our lives. Every day, we’re faced with events that have the potential to derail us from getting where we want to go. Our response to those events will determine our success or failure. Controlling how we choose to respond to events not of our making is what develops the character of a winner.
Staying at the top of the productivity game isn’t easy. It takes work and it takes being savvy. Doing a few simple things, like those mentioned in these last two posts, will go a long way in helping you keep your performance and productivity at a very high level. You really can get more done by doing less.
Tags: achievement, activities, calendar, failure, goals, journal, performance, plan, planning, priority, productive, response, responsibility, success, to-do, urgent
Posted in 2011, Uncategorized | No Comments »
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
| |
Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
 We live in a time when we think we’re productive based on the number of items we can check off our to do lists. Most of us are on the run from the time we wake up in the morning until late in the evening when we click off the late night news. Our days are a blur. Our weeks become a blur as well. Even though we find ourselves being extremely busy, we realize we’re not very productive.
We all agree that being busy and being productive are not the same thing, yet we continue to crowd our calendars with one activity after another. Or, worse yet, we don’t even have a calendar, we just go, responding to one crisis after the other.
Busy people do have options regarding their time and, specifically, what they do with the precious minutes and hours in their day. We can have more control over our days and our time that we give ourselves credit for. When we do, good things happen; we’ll have more productive lifestyles; we’ll lower our blood pressure; and we’ll have heightened self-esteem.
Here’s how to take control of your day:
Understand the difference between urgent and important.
Urgent tasks are typically those things that must be done right now or within the immediate future. An unexpected project from the boss, for example, is a good illustration of an external source of an urgent task, but urgent tasks can be self-inflicted as well. Putting off a project or a report until the last minute creates urgency. Being busy makes us feel important. The downside to living in the world of urgency is we’re worn out at the end of the day and frustrated because we let the really important tasks slide – again.
Important tasks are seldom urgent, and there’s the rub. Because they aren’t urgent, these tasks are superseded with busywork or with something we’d rather do first. Important work moves our lives and businesses forward. Focusing on the important requires long-range thinking, as well as taking a hard look at the current realities. As a result, focusing on important matters often forces difficult decisions. Doing those things that matter most just isn’t as sexy or as much fun as running around at 900 miles an hour with our hair on fire looking real busy.
Taking Control
1. Take the time to compile a list of those things that matter most. On a personal basis, such a list might involve health or nutrition issues, more time with the family, or getting control of finances.
2. Professionally, the list of important projects might involve the development of a business plan, or a performance plan for your key employees. It might involve think time for new products or services.
3. Make time in your daily schedule to work on one aspect of an important project. Important tasks typically can’t be done in one fell swoop. They need to be broken down into a series of incremental tasks. Turn off the cell phone and shut down email and Facebook; both are tremendous distractions and real productivity killers.
4. Tell a friend or colleague what you intend to do in terms of becoming more productive and less busy. Ask them to help hold you accountable. Start slowly. Pick one important project – break it down into five one-hour tasks and schedule time during the next five days to attack the project.
You’ll be amazed at the results!
Tags: activity, busy, calendar, important, productive, results, urgent
Posted in 2010 | No Comments »
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Saturday, May 1st, 2010
 Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important projects which must be done in order to move our life, our career or our business forward. It’s all too easy to convince ourselves that being busy and being productive are one and the same. Big mistake!
The same holds true for being effective and being efficient. Doing something unimportant well does not make us effective. Requiring a lot of time to finish a project or complete a task doesn’t make the task more important.
Here’s the key question to ask yourself: Am I being productive or am I just being active?
Being Selective Is the Key to Productivity
The two characteristics of high performers are: the ability to separate the urgent from the important, and second, the ability to focus their time and attention on those tasks that will complete important projects or produce the greatest results.
One of the best ways I know of to separate the important from the urgent is to apply the Pareto Principle. Also known as the law of the vital few or the 80/20 Rule, Pareto says the majority of productivity will come from a few select actions or activities.
The stark reality is most of what we do on a daily basis has little impact one way or the other in moving our most important projects forward. Unless we’re very selective in how we structure our day, the important will fall victim to the urgent. We’ll end up majoring on the minors, and what would otherwise be a productive day will be lost.
Being selective and doing less is the path to productivity. Identify those few critical tasks that contribute most to moving your career or your company forward. Schedule time during the day to work on those vital few tasks and don’t allow that time to be affected by trivial things. Hint: most email is trivial and meaningless. So are most phone calls and most office visits.
You have more control of your time than you give yourself credit for. Schedule your priorities. Ask yourself, if I could only accomplish one important thing today, what would it be? Once you make that important decision, schedule time to make it happen. The key to being more productive is doing less.
Tags: business, busy, career, control, effective, efficient, important, order, productivity, results, tasks, time, urgent
Posted in 2010 | No Comments »
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Successful people all have two things in common: they work with a sense of urgency and they understand the power of efficiency.
 Working with a sense of urgency doesn’t always mean working in a panic mode. It’s not about cranking out massive amounts of work. A sense of urgency stems from the desire to deliver value to those who are looking to you for results – your boss – your coworkers – your customers – your friends and, of course, your family.
Urgency is usually coupled with a sense of pride: pride in being able to provide good information, pride in being able to deliver on time, and pride in getting it right – the first time. Interestingly, working with this kind of urgency is actually energizing to those you work with. I don’t know about you, but I like working with people who want to get the job done quickly and correctly.
In addition to having a keen sense of urgency, being able to work efficiently is critical to success and achievement. The urgent is seldom important, it’s just urgent. To the extent you can, focus on those important things that move you or your organization forward. Make the important your highest priority and…do the important things first.
Urgency and efficiency go hand in hand. Here a few suggestions on how you can be more efficient and effective:
1. ORGANIZE…
Keep your desk and your files organized so you don’t have to waste time shuffling through files of paper.
2. WORK FROM A LIST…
Always work from a list. It doesn’t matter whether you call it a “to do” list or a “get it done list,” the important thing is that you have a list of those things that must be done today, this week and this month.
3. FINISH ONE TASK…
Finish one task before you go on to the next. Nothing destroys productivity more that jumping from one task to the next – and usually finishing neither.
4. COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY.
Let those you work for and those you work with know your schedule for the day. Let your boss know the priority of your projects and the time you’ll need to get them accomplished.
5. TAKE BREAKS.
Study after study shows the value of taking a break every couple of hours just to clear your head and re-focus on your priorities. Just a short walk around the office or stepping outside to get a little fresh air will do wonders for improving performance and productivity.
Getting Better, at whatever we do, isn’t particularly difficult, but it will require doing certain things, certain ways on a consistent basis. Learning to develop a sense of urgency, coupled with efficient work habits, is a good place to start.
Tags: accomplish, business, done, effective, efficiency, efficient, fast, finish, focus, focused, important, now, successful, urgency, urgent, work
Posted in 2010 | No Comments »
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Last week, I reminded you of John Wooden’s admonition not to confuse activity with achievement. Good advice for sure. Being busy and being productive are separate issues. Strangely though, deep down inside, we like being busy because it gives us the false sense of being productive, but this is only an illusion. It doesn’t matter how many trivial activities we complete, they’re still trivial and don’t improve productivity or contribute to the bottom line.
