Effectiveness: Getting It Done

“My life is not my own right now. My to-do list is a scroll.”
When I said this to a colleague recently, she did the unthinkable:   She asked me what advice I would give to someone else saying the same thing. I really don’t like when people ask me that, because sometimes a dose of my own medicine is a bitter pill. Besides, I don’t have time to think about that kind of thing right now… I am too busy doing.

Unfortunately, it became apparent by her patient silence that she was not asking rhetorically. She was waiting for an answer. So here’s what I came up with.

• Identify what you must do today.
• Prioritize those tasks based on where your greatest impact will be.
• When considering the remaining items on your to-do list, ask yourself if it is realistic that you can accomplish what’s left.
• If you decide that your to-do list is not realistically possible, take a moment to consider if this is a short-term problem that you can push through or if it’s a systemic problem. We all experience seasons of craziness, where demands on us seem to swell simultaneously. But most of the time we can push through that craziness, knowing that it is temporary.
• If this is a more chronic problem, consider what changes need to take place (e.g. delegating to someone else, hiring a new person on your team, stepping down from a board position, asking for help, watching less television).
• Get to work.

Now I’m off to take my own medicine.

re-S.H.A.P.E. your priorities™
Clifford Bailey