Priorities on Time Management Revisited

Priorities on time revisited
Many people continue to ask me how can I separate the important from the urgent in relationship to “Time Management.” What a great question. I always respond the same way, you can’t, you will always have the urgent, but you must focus on the important. The urgent will take care of itself over time. I call this “Priority Management.”
We know that many business people fall prey to the call of the urgent and get buried so deep within their businesses, they can only escape when they have no energy left for the important things of the business.
How do you deal with this? If your strategy is working and you are able to complete two or more important things everyday, then you do not need to read any more here, but if not, I encourage you to read the next several articles in the weeks ahead.
Priority Management operates under the context we all have the same amount of time, so what separates successful people from less successful people is how they spend the time. Successful people spend their time working on the MOST IMPORTANT PRIORITIES and allowing the urgent stuff to get done at their convenience on not the convenience of the person creating the urgency. Because, if you think about it, the majority of urgent matters we must deal with are almost always someone else’s issue – aren’t they?
So, if we can begin this process by developing a list of the most important things we need to accomplish for the BHAG to become closer to reality what would that be? Over the next several articles, we are going to begin developing a Priority Management model THAT WORKS! If you will do the things we suggest, I promise you, your level of effectiveness and peace about your production will increase dramatically, if not exponentially. So, how do we start? For starters, let’s outline what we will be talking about in the next several articles.
The BHAG
The Mission, Vision, Core Values
Goal Setting and Goal Achievement
How does that fit into the calendar/agenda?
Accountability
The BHAG
So, what is a BHAG? A big, hairy, audacious goal according to Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in a book they wrote called “Good to Great.” Or, as I describe it, it is a goal so big that everything has to change for it to become a possibility, of becoming the new reality. That is where it gets really good, because when we start changing, opening our eyes to new opportunities, then new opportunities become available to us.
However, the importance is far more than a goal. We have learned in working with over 150 companies and over 1,000 individuals as coaches that what human beings think about, dwell on, and spend the majority of their time “worrying” about that is what they become. For example, if we live circumstantially and we are in debt, and the majority of our time is spent thinking about debt, then we actually become even greater debtors. Think about it, if you concentrate on, spend most of your time thinking about how to make money then you will most likely make a lot of money. Same thing applies in the area of physical fitness. If you spend the majority of your time in the gym, eating right, drinking a lot of water, and all of the other great things you need to do to take care of your body, then most likely, you will have a healthy, strong and fit body.
When the BHAG becomes the primary objective or thing in our lives/ business lives that we think about, therefore it gets the majority and best of our emotional energy. And we mentioned how this applies in the money arena, look at Donald Trump. All he thinks about is money and he has literally gone from bankruptcy to billionaire twice. As our mind, body, thoughts and actions are getting the majority of the impulses we send regarding the BHAG, the actions we have towards the BHAG become more powerful, more effective and more synergistic.
So, in conclusion for this part of the blog, develop a BIG, HAIRY, AUDACIOUS GOAL Post it on your mirror, use it as a desktop, have it in as many locations as you desire and most importantly, think on it everyday and watch what happens.
The BHAG and your Core Values, how do they interrelate?
Once you have the BHAG firmly established and a part of your daily thoughts, actions and learning, it is time to break the BHAG into its smaller components. Often times, these smaller parts are called goals. I would like you to consider them as SMART goals. Without going into what smart goals are in this article, we will provide a quick orientation on the importance of Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time sensitive goals so as to correlate the time element with the effectiveness of priority management.
You see, when you are focused on the most important things that originated from the BHAG, which in turn were broken into SMART goals, you have given yourself the focus, direction and clarity of the most important things. Now you have the plan! All that remains is to put it into practice, to implement it while dealing with all of the other issues we have been discussing, most importantly, those continuous, relentless, sometimes irritating demands on our time by customers, clients, staff, people who ask if you have a minute “Got a minuters,” (pardon the abuse of the English language) and then they take 10.
Now, you are probably saying, regardless, I still get phone calls, the customer interruptions, employees who need my attention right now. All of these are clearly issues which we need to plan for. I must protect my PEAK PERFORMING PERIOD.
This is where the whole idea of the Core Values becomes significant and so important. Your Core Values are so compelling, so motivational to you that they invigorate the passion that lies inside of you; thereby, creating increased energy and commitment to concentrate on implementing your SMART goals. As long as the BHAG and there corresponding SMART goals are in alignment with your CORE VALUES, you can create blocks of interrupted time.