Eisenhower's Decision Matrix is a simple but effective way to break down the 20%. The matrix breaks things down into 4 categories: Urgent and Important, Urgent and Unimportant, Not Urgent and Important, and Not Urgent and Not Important. The idea is that every activity can be categorized into these 4 boxes and to be effective, you need to know how to handle each activity in relation to the others.
To be effective, you probably realize you need to focus on the important things. You need to do the Urgent and Important things first and that is usually pretty obvious to most of us. It gets tricky however when we start to compare the other three quadrants. I find that if I don't organize my day properly, I can spend a lot of time doing things that are urgent but not important or even worse things that are not important and not urgent while the things that are important but not urgent sit on the back burner.
The reason most of us do this is because 95% of our decisions/actions are determined by our unconscious mind. We run on autopilot. Only 5% of our decisions/actions are driven by our conscious mind. Our conscious mind takes up too much energy and takes too long to think through everything. Just imagine if you had to consciously think through all the steps involved in your morning routine while you did them. This capability can come as a great advantage or result in a lot of wasted time depending on how you shape your path.
To make it easy to do what you want (focusing in on the important but not urgent or removing the unimportant and not urgent activities that waste your time) you need to set up boundaries before you get tested. I start in the morning by writing out the 3 most important things I need to get done today. Then I think about the important things that aren't urgent and I make time for them. I schedule an hour for the gym, I schedule an hour to write my blog, I schedule the evening to spend with friends and family and to read or relax. After the important things are taken care of and scheduled (it is important to schedule them otherwise the urgent things will take over) I will fill in the urgent things.
The last thing on my list is the unimportant, non urgent. These are time wasters like Facebook, Instagram, Television, etc. I try to make these as difficult to do as possible. My TV isn't hooked up, I have limits on when I can check social media and I only check email at certain times. By limiting my access to these unimportant things that aren't urgent I reduce the mental effort and willpower it takes to resist them.
It has been a great week. I hope you enjoyed the small series on being effective at what you do. I want to leave you with something I have to think about daily as I implement the things that I am writing about: Nobody is perfect, when I fall off the wagon I am not alone, when I check Facebook or I don't finish the things I wanted to because I wasted time: I am not bad, and there is always a way out. It is not how many times you fall down it is how many times you are willing to get back up. The fight isn't over until you are dead. It is never to late to change and move up.
Sorry a lot of cliches in there but I think they are important reminders sometimes.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Andrew
@andrewzimbd
[email protected]