EXTRAORDINARY PRODUCTIVITY
Part 1
The information and lessons presented in ‘5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity’ has reinforced pre-existing patterns of behaviour that were a part of my life, whilst at the same time it has also provided me with new ways of focussing my energy and time.
Reflecting on the 5 Choices and my successes and failures, I feel it best to review each one separately.
“Choice 1: Act on the important, don’t react to the urgent. Discern the important from the less important. Create a Q2 Culture”. This has motivated me to take action within both the work and personal areas of my life. On the work-front while I still react to the urgent (as it is sometimes necessary), I now manage the process by looking at each request and responding to them by asking ‘How important is this request? What happens if I don’t fulfil this request this week? Can I delegate this?’, etc. This has allowed me to manage the inflow of such requests instead of simply reacting to them. This has had an impact on my day to day activities at the workplace and has allowed me to devote larger portions of time to planned tasks without being distracted. There have been days though when the outcome of this processing still leaves me with a whole bunch of urgent tasks which I need to address.
“Choice 2: Identify your Q2 Roles and set Goals” has allowed me to sit down and think about the Q2 roles and goals that I want to make a priority. I decided on three to begin with, and they were my work place role and in my personal life. In the workplace, I realised I needed to focus on not just the day to day tsunami of tasks, but to also find the time to address Q2 tasks I needed to do.
“Choice 3: Schedule the big rocks. Create a master task list. Do weekly Q2 planning. Do daily Q2 planning”. Of all the choices, this is the one that resonated with me as I was already practising this competency before the course. This requires setting aside time at the...