Skip to main content

A meditation on efficiency

For many years now, I've been a Franklin-Covey devotee. For decades it's been live changing/life affirming in the richest way possible. At one point, I was recruited to be a training facilitator. That didn't align with my objectives, but was very flattering, and shows my commitment to these principles.

Anyway, this week brought several reminders of all that. First, my son is getting introduced to the concepts more formally. He's enjoying the fact he knows all the concepts. And it's very satisfying to hear that attributed to my teachings.

Also, at my latest team meeting, my boss broke out my beloved "Importance/Urgency" grid. (Side note: I understand that this was developed by Eisenhower, but I was introduced to this by Steven Covey.)

As we were talking, the group was talking about focusing on quadrant I, what I call the hyper-urgent. Mostly, this is the land if crises and drama. No, we don't want to live in this space. Of course it needs to be dealt with; they only become more dramatic with neglect. But our goal must be to spend as little time in this space as necessary.

Quadrant II, the "non-urgent but important" is where we need to focus, and where the others 3 quadrants distract us from. Planning, developing, growing, learning and building our relationships all help prevent the crises of quadrant I. This is the area that grows our sphere of influence, too.

Moving our focus "above the line", only on the important is the real focus, and the real challenge. It requires forethought, planning, and consideration, all of which help define "important", and keep us focused on it. All quadrant II activities. See how this works?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Driving along in Kirkland , home of the modern yuppie, I’m passed by a new Mercedes. Lovely, silver, shiny, new, bling-bling; a part of me loaded with insecurity twinges while I purr along in my Toyota. Why? How come this is a metric of my self-esteem? Am I being unfair to myself, being upset by this train of thought and it’s influence? Consider, please, how much this viewpoint is drilled into us. Look at how often this imagery gets pushed into our faces, and how long that’s been going on. It shouldn’t surprise me, really, that I sometimes feel this way. Though my conscious values oppose this, the lingering thread of this programming has threads into the depths psyche.

Oh, A Meeting We Will Go

This post gives me pause. Meetings, the infernal overwrought obsession of our lives. It's not just corporate America, but the various groups and org's I've dallied with over the years suffer from meetopia, too. No one I know likes the blasted things, yet I don't know anyone offering up a successful resistance. Related to this, methinks, I have noted that I do a great deal over my workdays (check off a ridiculous number of to-dos) and accomplish little or nothing. The mass of tasks don't roll up to anything. And I've noticed a lingering sense of frustration lately. I spend precious little time reflecting on my goals, and how I can link them to what I do over the course of any given day. I'm so divorced from this, I really wonder what I really want to do, to accomplish any more. Within a recess of my brain comes a niggling thought. Perhaps this passion for meetings offers up a substitute for reflection. Knowing that we must account, personally, face-to-face f...