I often talk about Ruthless Priorities – a way to focus on those few things that you refuse to put at risk.
I know I always have too much to do, and even when I have my list of Ruthless Priorities staring me in the face, there are things that lure me into wasting time.
A colleague of mine, Barbara Nelson, who I interviewed awhile back in one of my monthly webinars, on Ruthless Priorities shared with me a concept that she calls the “Don’t Do” list — the things that tempt you away from what you need to do.
Here are some ideas for your “Don’t Do” list.
Stuff that is Easy
Most Ruthless Priorities are the stuff of gut-wrenching strategic challenges that have draining complexities, obscure obstacles, weighty decisions and giant blank canvases to be filled. They are hard to do.
There is always a steady supply of things to do that are easier and more fun.
And you can always justify somehow that they need to be done. These are things like researching new suppliers, re-working a presentation to make it better, or working on the bookkeeping for your business instead of working on the content of your business. Catch yourself doing the easy stuff that is not serving your Ruthless Priorities, and get back to the hard stuff.
Puzzles & Mysteries
Humans don’t tolerate knowledge gaps. Once you are aware of a gap, when you see a puzzle or an unanswered question, it becomes irresistible. You need to get the bottom of it. You need to know how it works. Figuring it out makes you feel smart and satisfied.
Puzzles and mysteries land in your day all the time. Your USB drive suddenly becomes read only. Some of your materials have disappeared. You’ve done something before, but it’s working differently this time. You have a idea of something you want to do, but you don’t yet know how to do it — so you want to experiment and learn.
You can lose hours or days on a captivating puzzle and hardly notice that any time has passed.
When you encounter a mystery, catch yourself before you get in deep.
Allocate a time budget to your puzzle up front.
How much time is it worth to personally solve this puzzle? Is it worth 15 minutes?
2 hours? a day?
If it must solved to support a Ruthless Priority, have an alternative plan, or get someone else to do it when it goes beyond your time budget. If it does not support your Ruthless Priority let it go.
Stuff that is Broken
If you are a fixer, remember that not everything needs to be fixed.
Only the broken things that align with your ruthless Priorities really need to be fixed now.
If you spend your time fixing something because you are compelled to do so, or because you are embarrassed to have something broken associated with you, you may be squandering time you can’t afford.
If it is not strategic, leave it broken.
If fixing it makes you feel good that you have fixed something, but it prevents you from succeeding on your Ruthless Priority, you have lost the game.
Unresolved Issues
All businesses (and individuals) have unresolved issues. Why did that system work better than this one? These two people disagree. The description in this document does not match the one on this related document. Which one is right? Or maybe it’s that there is a bunch of old data that is not organized well…
Does it matter?
Does getting to the bottom of it move forward one of your Ruthless Priorities? What happens if you leave it unresolved for another week? Or another 2 months? Or forever?
I know I have squandered away loads of what could have been productive time, resolving things that in the end, served no real benefit by being resolved — other than I felt good about clearing it up.
One of the best pieces of advice I got early in my career is “Work fast, not perfect”.
How about 1 hour/day limit? How about sorting your email in terms of your Ruthless Priorities. See a prior post about not letting email kill you.
The Internet
Let’s face it. The internet is often as much a of a productivity aid as a pitcher of Margaritas. Know your vices.
Budget a specific amount of time in the day for the internet.
If twitter and Facebook are fundamental to your business strategy, by all means spend significant time there.
But catch yourself when your search for a best practice on your Ruthless Priority to restructure your organization diverts you to a fascinating series of photos on the moon landing, and then you get get sucked into researching African tree frogs, reading news, and shopping for red stilettos.
My confession…
Here is an example I will volunteer.
I should have been doing something really important, and really hard one day, and instead I invented a little mystery to work on. I wanted to see what happened when I typed “Patty” into Google. How many and who comes up before “Patty Azzarello”? This occupied me for almost an hour! Here are the results:
(Google search recommended)
Patty Hearst – General notoriety
Patty Griffen – Singer, songwriter
Patty Duke – Actress
Patty Murray – US Senator
Patty Loveless – Porn actress
Patty Mills – Native Australian Point Guard
Patty Smyth – Rocker
Patty Cake – Song, vegan bakery, sex site, religious music site
Patty Melt – Sandwich
(Here is what else came up on the first 10 search results pages – I showed up on page 11. Thank goodness. This might have taken all day!)
Patty Bolands – Irish Pub in Ottowa
Patty Shapiro _ Personnel recruitment company
Patti Smith (comes up under Patty) Rocker
Patty Larkin – Musician
Patty Stanger – Millionaire Matchmaker
Ask Patty – Automotive advice for women
Patty’s Toxicology – Text Book Series
PattyStamps – Arts and crafts site
Patty Sailor – Romance novelist
Patty Wooten – Nurse, humorist
Patty Ross – Comic actress, public speaker
Crabby Patty
Chatty Patty
Patty Diet
Patty-o-matic
