Evoke Development

Anthony Robbins, peak performance strategist, categorizes to-do's into the following area in his Rapid Planning Method:

1. Not Important & Not Urgent – these to-dos are the distractions we gravitate toward when we are stressed and want something to do that doesn’t require any thinking – like watching television, eating when you’re not hungry, reorganizing your desk, etc. People who spend most of their time here aren’t really happy, but they are not unhappy enough to do anything about it.
2. Urgent, but Not Important – these to-dos help us maintain the delusion that we are extremely busy, making us feel like we are accomplishing something but really this activity doesn’t help us achieve any important outcomes. People who spend most of their time here are deluding themselves into believing that they have to do all of these requests. In reality, these keep them from doing more important and fulfilling things in their lives.
3. Urgent and Important – These are demands that often aren’t planned but have to be dealt with such as a car won’t start or a snow storm. The best way to deal with these to-dos is to be as proactive as possible by anticipating some of the possibilities and developing plans to address them.
4. Very Important, But Not Urgent – This is where you want to spend the majority of your time – this is “The Zone.” This list of to-dos contains all those things you know are important but never get to because you are so busy. Such as: working on a project that may not demand immediate attention, but one in which your participation would create a competitive advantage in the market place, allow you to spend more time with your loved ones, or free up time to exercise. By spending more time on these to-do’s you will feel more fulfilled and less stressed.

How do your “to do’s” stack up in the aforementioned categories? Where do you spend most of your time?

We all waste a lot of time dealing with other people’s priorities and stupid, annoying things. And, even thought all of us have had to prioritize for many years, we still typically tend to do it rather poorly. For some reason, we often have a hard time identifying and committing to do what is really important to us. And, as a result, we automatically fail to focus on what we really want. So, how do we fix this problem?

Look at your to-do list, in which category do most of the tasks fall? Can you chunk or combine any of them to make them seem more manageable? Can you delegate, ignore, or postpone any of them? Are you maximizing your return on effort?

If you are maximizing your return on effort, you shouldn’t feel stressed most of the time. By using your strengths and focusing on your Big Picture you will be able to create a system that works for you. If you are stressed most of the time, chances are you are spending less than 25% of your time doing things that make you feel fulfilled (things that are important, but not urgent) and you are probably spending the majority of your time dealing with demands (making everything urgent and more important than it actually is). If you want to be fulfilled and a higher achiever, you must spend and average of 40-70% of your time in the “Zone.” Doing things that are very important, but not urgent.

A shift in your stress level will come when you start to focus on what you do best and what is most important to you. Find ways to have others help you or take over those things with which you struggle or that have little importance to you. Develop systems that help reduce or eliminate wasted time. Identify repeatable processes and develop templates, procedures, or processes for dealing with them most efficiently.

Effectiveness is the art of achieving the optimum Return on Effort. The only way to maximize this rate is by efficiently and effectively choosing tasks that lead to realizing your overlying goals. A 2002 study in the Harvard Business Review (“Beware the Busy Manager” by Heike Bruche and Sumantra Goshal) found that only 10% of individuals use their time effectively. The other 90% waste their time on unimportant tasks because of inadequate focus and energy. They misinterpret busy for effective.

Visit us next week as we talk about the power of choice.