How we spend our time tells everyone around us what matters most to us. Good intentions and values aside, if something is important, it deserves significant time. Our true priorities are reflected perfectly by how we spend our time. The question is: Are you spending the most time on what you say matters most to you?
Two books I've read lately on this topic that have greatly impacted my thinking, as I've struggled with prioritization while being new to the CEO role over the past year:
Essentialism, by Greg McKeown - the pursuit of less allows us to be more selective about what is essential; priority means one single focus - not five, just one; the pressure to do more is self-imposed, and we have the power to manage these limiting beliefs; we often delay things for the future, especially enjoying life, that could be attained now.
Four Thousand Weeks, by Oliver Burkeman - the average human has just 4,000 weeks in a lifespan, give or take; we often postpone things for the future instead of enjoying now; our extreme focus on getting the most out of our time can lead to more of a time sink (i.e., inbox zero counterintuitively means more emails); sometimes our extreme focus on being present leads to the lack of presence - just let it be.
You might be interested to know that our October 11th virtual Community Conference will feature a conversation with Oliver Burkeman. Scott Baker, on our team, has a great line of questioning teed up for us. You can register for it free here if you haven't already: https://admiredleadership.com/2023-community-conference/
I'm excited to hear that Scott Baker will be interviewing Oliver Burkeman in October. His 4K Week book is in my queue. I guess I'll have to move it up and read before 10/11. I recently picked up Tiago Forte's small little book on his PARA method. The method is simple and you can get the gist from watching YouTube videos (although the little book is wonderfully illustrated). PARA stands for Projects, Areas of Interest, Resources, and Archives. Specifically, his take on Projects is helping me prioritize. I have the tendency to have a lot of interests and start many personal projects (not so much a work) at the same time and make very little progress on any of them. Over the past two weeks, I go into my Projects folder - see the 10 to 15 things that are in there (sounds like a lot, but it's not when you know how Tiago defines a project) and instead of searching for the next best thing on the internet, I pick a project, think about what I can do to get it to the next step, then spend a block of time doing it. So far, I've spent less time surfing and more time being productive.
This are all good books that would really help, not only in defining our priorities, but time Management too, I would get them..
So in essence there seem to always be some contradictions in the way we spend our time, our priorities and intentions, even our schedule. We shouldn't pay much attention to our schedule but instead what we spend our time on and how we spend our time.
So In essence, How we spend our time should actually be some sort of metric on how our schedule should be.
So in setting our schedule, we should pay very close attention to how we spent our time within the month or within the past week, then we should set our schedule after looking through our week holistically, while being ourself.
This is another twist entirely, because most person do not actually do what is on their schedule.
I really appreciate this perspective, there are many ways in which you could carve up your day, but unless you spend at least some of it focusing on your wellbeing then eventually that is going to be the area that suffers.
Two books I've read lately on this topic that have greatly impacted my thinking, as I've struggled with prioritization while being new to the CEO role over the past year:
Essentialism, by Greg McKeown - the pursuit of less allows us to be more selective about what is essential; priority means one single focus - not five, just one; the pressure to do more is self-imposed, and we have the power to manage these limiting beliefs; we often delay things for the future, especially enjoying life, that could be attained now.
Four Thousand Weeks, by Oliver Burkeman - the average human has just 4,000 weeks in a lifespan, give or take; we often postpone things for the future instead of enjoying now; our extreme focus on getting the most out of our time can lead to more of a time sink (i.e., inbox zero counterintuitively means more emails); sometimes our extreme focus on being present leads to the lack of presence - just let it be.
Josh.
Thanks for your thoughtful input.
You might be interested to know that our October 11th virtual Community Conference will feature a conversation with Oliver Burkeman. Scott Baker, on our team, has a great line of questioning teed up for us. You can register for it free here if you haven't already: https://admiredleadership.com/2023-community-conference/
Amazing - thanks for sharing! Just registered.
Josh,
essentialism is one of my favorite business books. The practical insight and guidance Mr. McKeown, MBA provides is so simple, it's brilliant.
So thrilled to hear how it's influenced you:).
Thank you for your time.
I'm excited to hear that Scott Baker will be interviewing Oliver Burkeman in October. His 4K Week book is in my queue. I guess I'll have to move it up and read before 10/11. I recently picked up Tiago Forte's small little book on his PARA method. The method is simple and you can get the gist from watching YouTube videos (although the little book is wonderfully illustrated). PARA stands for Projects, Areas of Interest, Resources, and Archives. Specifically, his take on Projects is helping me prioritize. I have the tendency to have a lot of interests and start many personal projects (not so much a work) at the same time and make very little progress on any of them. Over the past two weeks, I go into my Projects folder - see the 10 to 15 things that are in there (sounds like a lot, but it's not when you know how Tiago defines a project) and instead of searching for the next best thing on the internet, I pick a project, think about what I can do to get it to the next step, then spend a block of time doing it. So far, I've spent less time surfing and more time being productive.
Josh
This are all good books that would really help, not only in defining our priorities, but time Management too, I would get them..
So in essence there seem to always be some contradictions in the way we spend our time, our priorities and intentions, even our schedule. We shouldn't pay much attention to our schedule but instead what we spend our time on and how we spend our time.
So In essence, How we spend our time should actually be some sort of metric on how our schedule should be.
So in setting our schedule, we should pay very close attention to how we spent our time within the month or within the past week, then we should set our schedule after looking through our week holistically, while being ourself.
This is another twist entirely, because most person do not actually do what is on their schedule.
Good morning,
I enjoy the consistent formulating of quality posts.
Today's reminds me of the AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP model (Bill George).
Thank you for your time.
Always happy to see your participation, Joe. Thanks for your consistency too!
Agreeing with the Author's reply here, Joe.
Always good to see your comments and feedback!
I really appreciate this perspective, there are many ways in which you could carve up your day, but unless you spend at least some of it focusing on your wellbeing then eventually that is going to be the area that suffers.