In the world that we live, our day to day lives are busy beyond belief. The question that we want to ask ourselves is, “Are we achieving, are we being productive and reaching our goals and vision?” Recently in teaching the class, Excellence in Leadership, we talked about habits that we have that we would like to change. One that came up for everyone of the students was – procrastination. How do we achieve a productive life without becoming overwhelmed to a point of paralysis?
First we must recognize that activity is not accomplishment. For many of us we have to do list that is a mile long, and for some of us we get to the end of the day and feel like we did not get anything done on our list. Here is the suggestion that came out of our discussion that I felt is worth sharing with our community.
At the end of each day:
- List five or six actions that you would have the greatest impact on your work, schooling or parenting.
- Prioritize them from the hardest thing to do to the easiest
- When the next day arrives, tackle the most difficult one first and stay with it until it is complete. (doing so will give you a great feeling of accomplishment and the other tasks will seem much easier to complete.)
The Priority Test
- Think about what it is that you must do that nobody can or should do for you.
- Is it possible to delegate a project to someone else, even if they will do it 80% as well as you would have done?
- Consider what energizes you and keeps you passionate? Be sure to include the things you love as a part of your daily routine.
Reaching our goals of excellence in life takes discipline and asking the right questions on a daily basis.