Tag: priorities

Setting Priorities in Your Schedule

Do you make time for what’s most important in your life? The best tip I ever heard for setting priorities was a technique taught in a Franklin Covey time management seminar I attended. This is included as one of Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits, “Put First Things First”, using an object lesson involving rocks.

big rocks are your prioritiesA college professor takes a box of rocks from behind his counter and proceeds to place them into a jar in front of his students. When the jar is full, he asks if there’s room for more. The students say no, because the jar is full. He pulls a box of smaller rocks from behind the counter and proceeds to add them into the jar. Each smaller rock fits into the cracks around the big rocks in the jar. He repeats this question and demonstration pattern with gravel, sand and water until the jar is completely full. What’s the moral of the story? he asks. “You can always fit more,” one student suggests. “No, you have to put the BIG ROCKS in first.” There won’t be room for your priorities if you fill your schedule with little things first.

I heard this lesson and concept nearly 15 years ago but still use it and have found tremendous value in it.

Application

Here’s a way you can try applying this to your own schedule:

  • Step 1 – identify the important roles in your life. For me, that’s husband, father, pastor, employee, manager, mentor, etc. Note that some of these are closely tied together, but I separate them when I’m trying to identify priorities. I prefer to define each unique role in which a person sees me. For me that means, being a pastor (to the congregation I serve) and manager (to the staff I oversee) are distinct.
  • Step 2 – within each role, on a weekly basis, identify the most important thing you should do. What would help you excel in that role for the coming week?
  • Step 3 – once you identify it, block time in your schedule to do that thing for each role. As husband, that may mean date night, or it may mean being home in time for dinner.
  • Step 4 – keep to the schedule that was built around your priorities!

schedule your priorities

Downloadable Resources

I developed worksheets to guide you through Step 1 and Step 2 which you can download here:

Halfway through – checking progress

As we cross into July, I am reminded that with six months down, I have now used up half of the available capacity 2013 offered me to achieve the goals which I set for the year. Am I halfway there? More? Less?

Pull out the goals you wrote at the first of the year and ask yourself some questions. Be honest and then decide what you need to do over the remaining six months to call 2013 a win.

1. Have you measured any progress at all? Make sure you celebrate any wins, even moderate ones. Most people I know focus more on the things that aren’t done yet, but forget to rejoice over what has gotten accomplished.

2. Are you satisfied with your progress? If you are dissatisfied with your progress in any area, are there any mental or schedule blocks that are keeping you from making the progress you’d like? Address these. (Here’s a post regarding the margin you’ll need to make progress on goals.)

2. Are there any goals which seem more or less important than they did January 1? Perhaps a family situation has caused one of your goals to seem unimportant at all? Adjust for these.

3. Are there any new goals you would set based on how the year has gone so far? Remember that you want your goals to be moderately ambitious, but not too much so. If you have already met one of your 2013 goals, maybe you should set an additional goal to work toward unless your other goals will require increased focus. (Goal-setting tips, if you need them.)

4. Based on your revised goals for the year, decide on one action you can take THIS WEEK to make progress on at least two of your goals.

A wise man told me people overestimate how much they can get done in a year, and underestimate how much they can get done in ten years. I have found this to be very true, so pace yourself, but set your mind toward progress.

Final tip – take five minutes to write yourself a note in your calendar for August 1 – “Check goals”!

Micromanaging has a bad rap…

A great deal is written on why micromanaging is bad for organizations and teams. I do not disagree.

One thing that is important though, and this is often disregarded in environments where people complain about micromanaging: someone HAS to manage micro!

A different take on micromanaging…

Every team and endeavor that I have ever been involved with has required detailed execution to be successful. Someone on the team has to manage things at the detail level. Whether it is the point person on the project or a designee, it needs to be covered. The saying may go, “the devil is in the details”, but I would contend that excellence is in the details. Organizations that manage well to the detail level present as world-class. Who’s managing the details in your organization?

If you are a team member and responsible for the details, but feel your leader is micromanaging, you may want to look at your own execution. Are you getting things done and moving the ball forward on behalf of your team consistently? Here’s a link to some personal productivity tips that may help you build your capacity in this area.

For team leaders

If you are the team leader, and don’t see details being handled well, check your leadership. Have you delegated the detail role specifically? Is your team overburdened by the amount of details needing coverage? You may need to consider re-focusing your team on the big picture and help achieve a greater victory by tightening things up. Sometimes details get dropped because the team is going in too many directions and sometimes it’s simply a matter of individual team members not understanding their role or expectations.  Training and coaching your team on what you are looking for is a better way to build toward organizational success than letting the details slide and settling for less than excellence.

An illustration

If you pickup that your team may feel you are micromanaging, you may need to look at your strategy. My favorite metaphor for micromanagement is when my children are learning to tie their shoes. As they start to learn, the laces will invariably be weak. I have a choice. Do I bend down, tie them myself, and communicate to my child that they aren’t ready for this detail? Or do I bend down, encourage them, and help them understand how to tie them tighter? Depending on my choice, I may be stuck tying their shoes forever!