I just finished reading Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy, and thought I'd share a few of his bits of wisdom with you. (I read the first edition, not the revised edition pictured here.)
Rule: One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all.
Rule: You can get your time and your life under control only to the degree to which you discontinue lower value activities.
The Law of Force Efficiency says that, "There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing."
Around our home, we find this to be a good technique for figuring out which activities are "lower value": Have the parts for a project been sitting, unopened for weeks/months? Is it stuff in the back of a cabinet?
ReplyDeleteReally, if we are procrastinating about something, it probably doesn't need to be done at all.
Some time ago I learnt the principle (or heard, not sure I've 'learnt' LOL) that you are never 'too busy' to do something; you have different priorities.
ReplyDeleteFor example, with my study (and juggling my work and family) I have gently :-) refused to be involved in many activities and projects. I try to avoid saying "I'm too busy to help you with xyz." Instead, I say "I'm focussed on my study at the moment." (Come next Wednesday 11:30am Australian Eastern Standard Time 218 hours from now LOL, I will be saying "I'm catching up on all my projects right now.")
The point of avoiding "I'm too busy" and using "I'm focussed on ..." or "My priority right now is ..." is that it encourages you to think about your priorities.
Sometimes we say "I'm too busy" because we've cluttered our lives up with unimportant things/ activities, without really thinking about whether they fit into our principles, our goals, or our wants for our lives.
Louise, I procrastinated on doing my taxes - don't think I could skip that one! But it's certainly worth looking at those never-quite-get-to-them projects to see if they can just be eliminated.
ReplyDeleteSueBK, I too have heard that "I don't have time to do X" means "I don't choose to make X a priority" - and it's made me much more conscious of my language. But I'd never taken it the next step to say
"I'm focused on Y right now." I like that!
I must pick up this book! More and more I'm finding that lower value activities are really the bane of my existence.
ReplyDeletePerfecting the useless is useless perfection...you can quote me on that :)