Your path to time well spent.
Are you as productive with your time as you’d like?
If you’re like the majority of people I know and coach, there’s always room for some improvement on this front.
Too often, I’ve heard folks complain that they don’t have enough hours in their day. Yet, each of us has exactly the same 24 hours in a day as everyone else. How is it then that some people are so much better about using those hours more wisely?
Today I am going to give you the cheat sheet that helped me become significantly smarter with where I spend my time. Tony Robbins taught me this time-management hack years ago when I participated in his mastery program. It’s an investment that keeps on giving.
The Productivity Quadrant - Your path to time well spent.
First, begin by creating a grid on a pad of paper that contains four equal quadrants. Leave plenty of space in each of the boxes for notes. (See diagram.)
Label each quadrant as follows:
Upper left, “Urgent. Important”.
Upper right, “Not urgent. Important”.
Lower left, “Urgent. Not important’.
Lower right, “Not urgent. Not important.
Next, following the diagram, add the specific descriptors for each box as follows:
Upper left: Deadlines, Exams, ‘real’ crisis, emergencies, last-minute preparations, meaningful appointments.
Upper right: Planning, self-development, healthy/quality relaxation, recognizing new opportunities, relationship building.
Lower left: Some calls, emails, reporting/addressing someone else’s problems/needs, shallow relationships, some meetings.
Lower right: social media, watching TV, gossiping, time wasters.
Now add the ‘results” for each column. When you spend your time in this area, your outcome will be:
Upper left: Stress. Burn-out, crisis management, putting out fires.
Upper right: Vision, perspective, balance, discipline, control, few crises.
Lower left: Short-term focus, crisis management, feel victimized, shallow/broken relationships
Lower right: Total irresponsibility, fired from jobs, dependent upon others or institutions for basics.
Here’s what’s important to do now. Pay attention to what activities consume your allotted minutes. Be disciplined about where your time goes. Take notes of each hour or thirty-minute intervals of time in your day for at least one full week. What you discover might be astounding.
You likely THINK you spend your time in highly productive ways, when in reality, you don’t.
Finally, you can add one final label to your quadrants- Your focus. This is how to approach this time:
Upper left: Do it now!
Upper right: Decide when to do it.
Lower left: Delegate it.
Lower right: Dump it.
Now what? Decide to make a change.
Yes, it’s that easy. Decide to start your day focused on what actually matters, those activities that will bring you the success, joy, progress you desire. Don’t do any of the other activities (unless they’re urgent and important and therefore must be attended to) before your priority activities.