We start each day knowing we’re not going to get everything done. Every year, we reflect on our progress and wonder where the time went. Why haven’t we completed our innumerable to-do lists?
While we assume we’re doing our best to juggle work, family and friends, we often move along a path that doesn’t feel like “flow.” Even if we recognize we are “out of synch,” we keep doing the same things. Habits are hard to break. We instinctively know, however, that there has to be a better way!
Reading another “do-it-now” time-management book isn’t the answer. Here are four categories of questions that will help you to laser-focus your day, adapted from “Harvard Business Review” columnist and consultant Peter Bregman, from his book “Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done” (Business Plus, 2011):
1. Where are you now? Are you doing the right things, with the right people, in the right way to make the most of who you are?
2. What is this year about? What are the areas of focus (work and personal) that you want to spend most of your time over the next year? Write these down.
3. What is this day about? How can you structure your day so it’s most productive and satisfying?
4. Are you present? What is this moment about? Are you ready to get started on your main project,manage distractions and have a strategy in place so you stay on track?
This time of year is perfect for sitting down and asking these kinds of questions. Looking at what you you want to accomplish and being honest with yourself about the ways you hold yourself back can give you the clarity to create and live a positive and productive year ahead!
Go get ’em!
Copyright © 2018 Diana Long