How will postponing the decision you are trying to make really improve the decision you end up making?
Tag: priorities
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Question of the Week #15
How well does your team know what your priorities for them are?
The Question of the Week is offered to increase awareness of one’s personal leadership practices and encourage experimentation with creative alternatives.
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Loving Monday: Bright Open Spaces
The wind-swept skies jump-start my morning with their radiance. Amazing how powerfully beautiful they shine in their crystal clear bright blueness.My imagination wanders to images of those blistering winds sweeping through my office. Piles of clutter, stacks of minutiae, lists, books, files and forms go flying away.
Instead of the chaotic and overwhelming blur of stuff obscuring my vision and oppressing my spirit, there is only the sleek clean lines of my desk. There is open space in which to maneuver, to pace and think, maybe even to dance.
What if…
Why not?
And so I grab three boxes. One I label, “Clutter.” One, “Delegate.” And the last one I label, “Tackle.”
And being the wind god that I am, I don’t waste time pondering over the labels, but with broad strokes of my forearm I sweep across the ravaged surfaces of my domain and watch as the piles delightfully disappear into the “Clutter” box.
Once in a while I notice an important item go flying from being lost on my desk to possibly being lost in the “Clutter” box, and I pause.
It is practically impossible to hold onto, the wind is pounding so hard. The gale forces of this wind god’s focused fury insist that these important items be released nonetheless. And thus the “Delegate” box gets a small portion of this office’s hoard.
Most rarely of all, as the storm continues, is the item so important that it can neither continue being lost nor be passed on to another. And any matter so exceptional and crucial can only be placed in the “Tackle” box. There is nothing to be done with these items except to do them. Right now. Before doing anything else. Tackle them.
Now it’s time to step into your bright and refreshingly clean workspace…
…and dance.
– Karl Edwards
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Loving Monday: Rhythms of Newness
Happy New Year!Another warm, sunny day for the Rose Parade. A thrilling or disappointing Rose Bowl game depending on your loyalties. Any late night festivities are but a memory.
This morning most of us fortunate enough to be working are back at it.
In one sense, we’re picking up where we left off.
In another sense, it’s a brand new year and we’re at the start of something.
We might be tempted to conclude that New Year’s is a day like any other. We’d be right, though, only in the one sense.
More importantly would be the opportunity to use the calendar with its annual and seasonal cycles to help us stay fresh, start over, and/or change course. As satellites use the gravity of the planets to propel themselves forward, so we can use the spirit of freshness the New Year brings to propel ourselves forward.
New energy, new ideas, new perspectives, new attitudes, new approaches, new relationships, new strategies. And on and on we might go. On and on you should go! The new year is an opportunity to use the annual cycle to structure a rhythm of newness into your routine.
It’s too difficult to be endlessly creative and energetic all of the time. It’s too easy to let busyness and urgencies dictate your priorities year after year while time slips through your fingers.
Start this year off by choosing to begin or renew three values, projects or attitudes. There’s no need for a huge laundry list of “good” ideas. Neither should you sell yourself short by taking the easy “way out.”
Seize the initiative. Tap into the spirit of newness that the New Year offers. Design your own rhythm of newness.
How might you use the New Year to catalyze or renew your priorities?
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Loving Monday: Back in the Saddle. Back in Touch.
Reality occasionally feels like a cold slap across the face.Returning from vacation can be one of those occasions. Returning from my vacation is currently that sort of occasion.
Between the email, voice mail, and snail mail alone, there is more to catch up on than hours in the day. There are projects to resume, events to prepare, articles to write.
The priorities shouting for attention can be overwhelming.
But I begin with reconnecting. Getting back in touch.
Acknowledging messages, letting people know I am back, reestablishing my presence.
I am effective to the extent that those around me believe that I am available and on their side. After an absence like a vacation, reconnecting lets people know I’m back, I’m available, I care.
Been out of town? Out of touch? Difficult to contact?
Spend the best part of your day getting back in touch. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how it helps everyone involved.
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Question of the Week
How well does your team know what your priorities for them are?
The Question of the Week is offered to increase awareness of one’s personal leadership practices and encourage experimentation with creative alternatives.
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Loving Monday: Do It Today
What’s the one thing that, more than any other, you want to get done this week?I know there are many candidates all shouting for your attention. But which one do you want to see completed most of all?
Do it today.
Yeah, go ahead and do it this morning. Get it done. Start the week off with a success that is important to you.
Give yourself the gift of diving into and polishing off a significant task right off the bat. It’ll feel great.
If it’s not a one-day project, then break it into three parts and complete the first part now.
You’ll give yourself a great Monday and set yourself up for a week of making and acting on choices.
On your side,
– Karl
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Resource Find! Concrete Goals Tracker
Check out this Concrete Goals Tracker. David Seah has put together an easy-to-use tool for prioritizing and encouraging progress on the tasks most important to you.We’re always looking for ways to move away from overwhelmed busyness and move toward satisfying effectiveness. (Without, of course, needing to be divine first.) I like his priority categories for weighting the value of the various outcomes of our efforts.
Here is a simple tool I am going to try right away. I thought you’d like to know.
On your side,
– Karl