Do you feel like you are putting out fires all day long?
Do you feel like your time is never your time?
At the end of the day do you wonder what you really got done?
Take a look at this short simple video on “How To Set Priorities”
Then read on to get the top 4 quadrants to getting things done.
#1 Urgent/Important:
You wake up in the morning. What is one of the first things you do?
Is it urgent and important? If you are like most people it is….going to the washroom J
Then, getting washed up, fed and out the door to work. These are “must do’s”
These tasks have timelines if you want to be on time. They are urgent and they are important.
Waking up in the morning and checking emails is “not” urgent or important.
Don’t get me wrong, your emails could very well be important; however do they need to be responded to before you have even taken care of your personal needs first?
What other “must do’s” do you have on your list of things to do?
(Oh wait a minute, you don’t have a list?) Let’s start there.
Do yourself a favour and write out your 6 most important things (6 being the magic number) you must do for the next day. These are things that only you can do. Then put these “to-do’s” in either the first or second quadrant.
#2 Not Urgent/Important:
This is the best quadrant to work from.
These are things that are important to you. Quality time with your family, exercising, clearing out the clutter, downsizing your aging parent’s home, spending time with friends, getting your taxes done. Achieving highly productive work activities without the sense of stress.
If you procrastinate on these above items they get moved to #1.
For example: Your Doctor orders you to start taking care of yourself, your parents pass on and now you are left with downsizing their home, your friends get resentful because you never make time to see them, your kids complain that all you ever do is work or your marriage is in trouble because you are having an affair with your mobile device. Your boss is yelling at you for the overdue reports.
Impeccable scheduling will eliminate the above examples.
#3 Urgent/Not Important:
Checking personal emails every single time the notification goes off. Note to self; turn the notification off. Instead, set aside 2 times per day to check your personal emails.
Responding to texts the second they come in or worse while driving.
Answering your phone even when you are not free to talk. Like while you are with family and friends, while you are at dinner, while you are in the shower (yep, someone did that to me once)
Saying “yes” when you really mean “no”.
Anything that is a creative avoidance to what you really need to be doing and want to be doing.
#4 Not Urgent/Not Important:
Anything that is taking valuable time away from what you really want to do in life.
Watching endless TV, playing endless hours of video games, getting screen sucked, attending functions that are not contributing to your professional goals, attending meetings without an agenda or timeline, talking on the phone to a negative person who is not willing to take action to change their life and so on.
Don’t get me wrong, we all need some down time. Is yours in proportion to the rest of your life or are you using this quadrant as an escape?
PS: Are you still feeling time strapped? Connect today and receive your FREE weekly plan sheet. I will go over the best way for you to manage your time.
Know anyone who is always late? Share the love by sending this link to them.
Awesome video Rowena! You are so organized, what an inspiration!