Category: Productivity & Effectiveness

One of my challenges: sitting still. I love getting stuff done. This week, though, is about learning, preparing; not about acting. For action without planning often is empty, or worse, counterproductive.

I don’t spend enough time planning. Sadly, it’s very easy to confuse action and activity with progress. I need to add “focusing time” into my day. Thus, I shall act rather than react. And ensure my efforts build something, not just spin my wheels needlessly.

I’ve known about this weakness for awhile. Yet, it’s really being driven home this week. If I learn nothing else this trip, my deeper understanding of this is worth it all.

The mania of my life lately has provided a convenient excuse for putting off zeroing my inbox. After spending a bit of my weekend scrambling because I missed crucial emails, I’m raising it’s priority again. “Later’s” glorious promise, and inevitable bite.

In Stephen Covey parlance, I’ve spent too much time in Quadrant 1, urgent/important and Quadrant 3, urgent/unimportant. Neglecting the important/non-urgent work of Quadrant 2 has always provided pain points for me.

KNOWING what’s outstanding, what my commitments are: critical knowledge that I musn’t allow to slip. And, hence, I”m all back in with my favorite project management tool: IQTell. Additionally, making sure my work, my actions track with my goals, priorities and values is the ultimate in live-giving. Focus, focus, focus!

Updated: I found this graphic that sums this up well. Enjoy!

My thought of the morning: I don’t think I believe in mistakes. The hedging quality reflects the newness of this notion. It’s reflects a rather radical shift in my mind.

There’s sloppy execution, then there’s discovery.  Sloppy execution isn’t a mistake, it’s a lack of care and diligence. Clearly, more effort/better focused effort would’ve overcome the obstacles.

Accepting a challenge which doesn’t go as expected isn’t a mistake, either. We learn deeply from those moments. Amazing, cosmos shifting events resulted from unintended consequences.

I mustn’t let my fear of mistakes paralyze me. This ruins so much joy, limits life’s delights. I’ve seen this, up close and personally. And desire the removal of such life denying scripts from my psyche. Walking that path, slowly but surely, reaching that destination.

In Steven Covey’s “Seven Habits…” book, he relates a story of a consulting gig. After asking “what’s the best way to motivate…” some one spat out “hand-grenades”.  Apparently a bit of a debate broke out. I’ve wondered what would say during that, and think I have my answer. “That’s effective if your goal is to build a subservient fiefdom. If you’re trying to build a dynamic team of effective contributors, this will fail gloriously.”

In today’s economy, a company of meandering automatons who only act directly upon orders is a recipe for failure. This is a blind bureaucracy. Any need for independent thought or action induces a fear based paralysis. These are non-agile orgs that cannot react nimbly. Their only strength comes from sheer mass. Most of the entities which remind effective do so because they command immense resources, enabling them to catch up with innovators…eventually. Or they just acquire them.

Many managers feel empowering their teams is some fluffy, sentimental fad. Sadly, some systems allow them to flounder in their ineffectiveness. They remain blind to the costs they craft, and to the opportunities squandered. Thus is the path of fear and brutality.

Going to the “next level” only has value when YOU have defined success, when YOU know where you want to go. Otherwise, without goal/direction, your psyche knows the emptiness of your drive. At best, you’ll feel empty, that your work is meaningless.

As a productivity and effectiveness junkie, I found this clever little bit from my chums at Moleskine a gentle little reminder about the importance of planners and planning. And a nice nudge to grab a new paper planner. More on that soon, though.

Random observation: people seem to land in one of two camps regarding their responses to recognizing challenges. Either we over-dramatize (see the mountain instead if the molehill), or under-estimate (see a molehill instead of the mountain). Perhaps the later deception is more productive, as you avoid paralysis. However, neither is truly effective. Either one is paralyzed needlessly, or starry-eyed unaware of truly harmful danger.