This helps you decide what work matters most
Hi there,
A fresh week and a new chance to be the best version of yourself. What’s holding you back?
What you pay attention to grows. What you make time for develops.
So scrap the things that aren’t relevant and dive into what’s important to you. That’s the way to make progress in those areas.
Once you know what’s important to you, everything becomes simpler. You can fend off distractions better and put all kinds of smart tools to work on your behalf. If you take things a step further and share your aims, then people around you will help keep your focus. That can be as simple as friends asking you how project X is coming along.
But the question remains: How do we decide in the first place what’s important and what’s not? Today I’ve laid out a few ideas to help determine just that.
Important? Or merely urgent
President Eisenhower once said:
“I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.
It’s often the first clue: Truly important things are usually not the ones on fire. Truly important things almost never scream for your attention. When you’re busy, they retreat to the background, the back burner, the back of your mind.
What’s important to you? What if you were to set aside for now all the urgent matters you need to take care of. What’s left? That’s a good place to start looking for important stuff. What have you longed to do for ages, but never get around to? A year from now, what will you regret not having done?
A raise, promotion, or award
Take one minute to think about the things that could potentially earn you recognition or a reward of some kind. I often ask this question when I’m speaking to a group, and everyone can always name a few things. Maybe it’s designing an innovative new product, or coming up with a smart way to train new coworkers. There are all sorts of things we don’t get around to, but which would help everyone out in the long run.
You can also use this mental exercise to decide where you should invest less of your time and energy. Nobody’s handing out awards for getting your inbox down to zero day after day.
Apply the Pareto principle
The Pareto principle, also called the 80/20 rule, is based on the research of Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. He observed that 80% of the land in Italy at one point was in the hands of 20% of the population. Turns out this ratio shows up other places, including your work: Some 20% of your time and effort is responsible for 80% of your results.
Doesn’t matter whether it works out to exactly 20%, what matters is that not every hour of work you put in has the same impact.
If we want to know what work is important, then the Pareto principle can help. Instead of looking ahead, look to the past: What have you done that you’re now reaping huge benefits from? In my quest to find ambassadors for the international version of my book GRIP, I’ve discovered that the blog I started years ago in rusty English has been a great help. It shows I’m committed to this topic and didn’t just jump into this space yesterday. So publishing my thoughts is clearly a key activity of mine. The same is true for investing in my network.
Once you’ve identified what’s important, then you know what to do: Make time for the things that matter. Reserve blocks in your schedule where you put first things first.
This week: Make room for what matters most
So try analyzing your priorities using the Eisenhower matrix, looking through the promotion lens, or applying the Pareto principle.
If you still have a hard time choosing, remember: Knowing what you don’t want can also be a step in the right direction. Again, you know what to do. In that case, it’s time to make drastic cuts – either postponing projects or scrapping them altogether.
Whatever it takes to make way for what matters most.
Have a good week!
Rick
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