We live in a busy world. Unless we take action, activity, both urgent and non-urgent, will fill every minute of the day.
I will give you an example. In this example you have a three gallon bucket, a garden hose and three bricks. You turn on the garden hose and begin to fill the bucket. How much water can you put in a three gallon bucket? Easy question with an easy answer! You can put three gallons of water in a three gallon bucket. Now you empty the bucket and put three bricks in the bucket. You again turn on the hose and fill the bucket. How much water can you put in the bucket? That is a harder question and it is hard to come up with the answer. However, even though you know that while the water will fill every opening and crevice in the bucket, three gallons won’t fit.
In the example the bucket represents your time, the water represents the busyness (reactive/urgent) of your day and the bricks represent blocks of time that you control (proactive/non-urgent). You know intuitively that if you don’t control your day, the day will control you.
How do you make sure that you are in charge of your day? Let me give you two easy ideas. Both ideas can pay immediate returns and both can provide long term results.
First, take a look at Steven Covey’s work. Almost everyone who is reading this article has spent time with his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He has a famous diagram that breaks down activity into one of four quadrants. Take a look at these quadrants and determine how much of your day is being spent in each quadrant. I am continually surprised by the amount of time that is being spent in quadrants 3 and 4. The ideal place to be is in quadrant 2 which are important and non-urgent activities. This is the proactive quadrant. Think of being proactive as the bricks you put in the bucket. The more proactive you are in your practice, the less space there is for your day to run you. The more proactive you are, the less urgency is in your practice.
The second thing is straight out of Supernova. That is the gameboard. As you know, you list one or two activities on the gameboard that are important for you to accomplish in the coming week. For an activity to be on the gameboard it must be quantifiable and can be accomplished with focus. I will give you a couple of examples:
You can find a discussion on the gameboard on pages 99-105 in Rob Knapp’s book, The Supernova Advisor.
Try these two simple steps and be prepared to have a quiet, proactive practice where you are not prisoner to the last or the loudest request.