At the end of each of my workshops, be it strategy facilitation, leadership development, culture articulation, or team alignment, I ask participants to make a simple personal commitment:
“Write down one action you commit to make to put into practice what you learned.”
This personal commitment is the bridge from the workshop to action that keeps the energy and the momentum created in the workshop, alive.
My workshop last weekend with a team of 19 wonderful people to develop their plans for 2024/25 was no different. As we reviewed the individual commitments, I noticed that 10 of the 19 committed to being more efficient. They basically want to use their time better.
Committing to be more efficient requires daily practice. But it’s not easy with the cut and thrust of daily organizational life and the overwhelming number of tasks we are faced with. Prioritizing our tasks is crucial for efficiency. The 3rd habit in the classic bestseller, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, by Stephen Covey is:
Prioritize by putting first things first.
A few years later, this became another book entitled “First Things First” so powerful is the concept. The book outlines the Priority Management Matrix, a tool that I have used personally for decades, that has made a huge difference to my life on a daily basis. And it’s the single most transformative tool as reported by my coaching and leadership development clients.
In this matrix, Covey identifies 2 dimensions:
- Urgency – Tasks and responsibilities requiring immediate action or attention.
- Importance – Tasks with high significance and value to goals
He invites us to view all our tasks using a simple 4 quadrant matrix that plots Urgency and Importance. Every task is one of these quadrants:
QUADRANT 1: Urgent and important tasks such as crises, pressing problems, deadline-driven projects. This is the quadrant of DEMAND, that often leads to stress and burnout.
QUADRANT 2: Not urgent, but important. This is the heart of effective leadership signified by tasks that focus on planning, prevention, developing new opportunities and building relationships. Proactive in nature, it is the quadrant of FULFILLMENT.
QUADRANT 3: Urgent, but not important tasks such as telephone calls, attending to interruptions, and the demands from other people. This is the quadrant of DELUSION.
QUADRANT 4: Not urgent and not important – Trivia, busywork, time-wasting such as social media scrolling. This is the quadrant of DISTRACTION.
Ask yourself:
“In which quadrant do I think I am spending most of my time?”
But do you really know?
Consciously choosing the tasks we must do each day is the key not just to efficiency (doing more things faster), but more importantly, effectiveness i.e. doing the things that will generate the results we desire. The key is to identify our priorities, and as much as possible, replace urgency with importance. Note that we will always have tasks in each quadrant. The question is: do these get there by default or by design?
The first thing is to become aware of how we are currently spending our time. Here’s a simple thing exercise to know where your time really goes:
- Choose one day.
- Download and print my free Priority Matrix Template HERE.
- Place ALL the tasks you carry out during the day, no matter how small, in the appropriate quadrant.
- Estimate the amount of time you spend on each task.
- Total the time spent in each quadrant.
If the overwhelming amount of your time is going to Quadrants 1,3 and 4, chances are you are not focusing on your, and the word here is YOUR, priorities i.e. those tasks that bring fulfillment to your life.
Review your template and reflect on how you are spending your time:
- What tasks can you eliminate?
- What tasks can you delegate?
- What tasks can you do more efficiently?
And then get to work putting first things first – i.e. tasks in Quadrant 2. It will take time to reorient your thinking and action, and the behaviour of others (you will find yourself saying “NO” to other people’s requests more often). Be aware that tasks in this quadrant is easy to overlook or delay as they are not (yet) pressing. Over time, tasks in this quadrant may end up in Quadrant #1 because due to procrastination. Be patient, take your time and slowly move more and more tasks into fulfilment – and do them!
Remember:
Every human is equal in this regard – we all get 24 hours in each day. The difference is what we each choose to do with those 24 hours.
