Screwing several things up at once.
Ideas to Action: The Little Engine That Could
I’ve often said that everyone has good ideas; it’s those who do something with them that succeed.
One of the most difficult things to do is convert an idea into action. It doesn’t matter if it’s an idea for a new business or for getting new clients, a personal or professional goal, or simply visiting a new place in the world, getting it from inside our heads to the light of day is often a struggle.
One of the biggest struggles is simply finding the time to make it happen. Yet, time management is not really at issue here. The real issue is prioritization. It’s amazing what gets done simply because we decide it’s going to get done or because it is assigned some “obvious” higher priority. High priority items are always get high priority. No argument, right? A bit of a circular argument if you ask me. My challenge to you is to change that perspective.
What I’m asking you to do is reconsider what is high priority and what isn’t. Before tossing your coffee at the screen or stomping away from the computer convinced I’m a soft-on-work nut, consider my perspective: Accomplish makes me feel good. Feeling good is my definition of success. Therefore, the more I accomplish the more successful I am. As a result, I strongly believe in getting as much done as possible, professionally and personally, to maximize the sense of success I enjoy.
I think you’ll find that layering this accomplishment perspective onto the priority question drives some different decisions making. Specifically, to get ideas to actions, you must really decide if the accomplishment of the idea will make you feel better. If so, then you need to proceed to the hard part – prioritize accordingly and define the specific tasks necessary to convert the idea into action.
In addition, you’ll realize that a lot of good ideas are just that – good ideas. They aren’t necessarily going to significantly increase your sense of satisfaction and well being if accomplished. Moreover, you may find that the arduousness of accomplishment doesn’t merit the reward that accomplishment will deliver.
Try blending how valuable accomplishing a good idea will be with the effort required before you determine what priority the good idea has. You’ll find it greatly helps in the initial decision making stage, which is often the most ambiguous.
Take Five – How A Little Break Goes A Long Way
Rushing to meetings to appointments to teleconferences and back again. Ah, the life of a busy professional. Whenever I work with a client who is scheduled back-to-back I am often put in mind of the disheveled teacher charging down the school hallway, papers flying asunder, racing to her next class.
In fact, change that imagery only slightly and you’ll have a more apt description of what’s really going on during that charge down the hall. Imagine that instead of papers floating to the floor, what’s getting lost are ideas and tasks.
To state it even more directly, when we schedule ourselves back-to-back, we never get a chance to “finish” one meeting before “starting” the next. We are still thinking about the last event as we enter the next one, resulting in lost information on both ends. That’s because we begin to forget details about the prior meeting and we aren’t focused yet on the current meeting. It’s ineffective and inefficient and, more importantly, it’s unnecessary.
Solution: Schedule at least five minutes between all appointments.
If you give yourself five minutes between events, you’ll have a moment to jot down or otherwise record all the pertinent information about the last event before entering the next one. This will greatly increase your effectiveness and your information capture in terms of thoughts, ideas and tasks that originated during the last meeting. Plus, you will enter the next appointment focused and fresh, ready to address the issues presented there.
Effecting this change is relatively easy once you make the decision it’s valuable. My recommendation is to be like TBS (Turner Broadcasting System) – start your meetings on the 5′s – 00:05 and 00:35. If you use Outlook, simply set your meetings for those times, which is especially effective if you use the Invite function in Outlook. You can also direct anyone who schedules you to do the same. Finally, you can regularly and repeatedly communicate your desire to do so to everyone with whom you meet, creating a bit of cultural shift in the process.
When you’re asked why the change, you explain that you want to give your full attention to every appointment. By putting five minutes in between each, you are assured of capturing everything from the last event and of starting the next event fully focused. Oh, and by the way, you might even have time to grab a cup of coffee or catch up on some other items (voice mails, e-mails, etc.) during that five minutes – assuming you’ve already completed your primary objective and still have some time left!
Try scheduling a few minutes between meetings to see if it increases your effectiveness and efficiency, while also reducing your stress.
QuickTip: Create A Designated Work Area
I had planned to post an article on another subject today, but was coaching a client this morning and we ended up focusing on QuietSpacing(tm)’s Designated Work Area recommendation. It’s such a simple but vital component to regaining command of our working environments that I decided to forgo the original topic for today and focus on this one instead.
The concept is very simple: Pick one identifiable area that you can define as your Designated Work Area. It must be physically definable, such as the four corners of your desk (versus a small space on your desk). This area must be kept devoid of ALL things except the occasional picture of the family or other such items (read: one or two total) . If possible, remove your computer monitor and phone from this area and, if also possible, place them so they are not even peripherally visble from your Designated Work Area.
Once established, your Designated Work Area must remain sacrosanct. By that I mean that only One Thing At A Time may be placed there. Keeping it devoid of distractions – other files, the computer monitor, the flashing voice mail indicator, etc. - means you will focus more readily and for longer periods of time on the work at hand. Increasing your focus will increase your productivity, which will increase both your effectiveness and your efficiency.
When you have accomplished what you can on that particular item, move it away from the Designated Work Area and place the next item there. Repeat as much as you need to or can within any given time period. Of course, you can shift your attention to the computer or your phone as necessary, but don’t ping pong back and forth. Make each attention shift intentional.
Note: If your work is exclusively (or nearly exclusively) on the computer, you can create a Designated Work Area by using full screen windows of each application you use. That way, you are only focusing on one screen/task at a time.
As a bang-for-your-buck item, the Designated Work Area pays both immediate and visceral dividends. You will instantly notice an increase in focus because there is only one thing in your field of vision. This will allow you to dive into the work more readily which increases your effectiveness and makes you feel more accomplished as a result.
Try this simple trick for increasing your productivity. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results.
Paul H. Burton is a nationally recognized time management expert who helps people get more done and enjoy life more. He is the developer of QuietSpacing®, a customizable productivity system that helps busy people increase focus and results on the job. A popular keynote speaker, Paul also provides interactive training programs and customized coaching services. For more information, see the 
