In most jobs today, you have more to do than you can possibly ever accomplish. One lady told me this week, “I could sit at my desk 24/7 and still not get everything done.”
The answer to your problem is not time management (getting things done more efficiently) but priority management (what really needs to get done?)
Likely, lots of the stuff on your to-do list really isn’t very important, and won’t yield meaningful results. But, there are a few things that really are critical. If you just accomplish the really important things, lots of the less important things won’t be necessary anymore.
Charles Schwab (CEO of Bethlehem Steel in the early 1900’s) had a serious problem in his company with focus and productivity, and so he called in a business coach named Ivy Lee. Lee offered to give him a foolproof priority management formula, and asked Schwab to pay him whatever he thought it was worth after implementing the idea with him and his executive team.
Here was Lee’s formula to immediately double your daily productivity:
- Write down everything you have to do for the next day on a piece of paper
- Prioritize the list, A,B,C,D and so on and put it in your pocket
- Begin the day working on your A priority. Look at the piece of paper every fifteen minutes, and don’t move on from your A priority until it’s accomplished
- Go ahead and do the same with B
- Don’t worry about the rest of your list, because if you accomplish A and B, the others won’t matter all that much
Schwab was so impressed that he sent Ivy Lee a cheque for $25,000 (or so the story goes). And look at you, you’re getting this for free J
Multi-tasking is not a strength! Instead, get focused.
The formula works. Try it right now, today.
