How to create more focus and get stuff done
/In my Overcome Overwhelm workshop there is a session on getting real about the way we use time. We all have the same 24 hours in a day and yet there are some people who appear to have more by the amount of stuff they get done!
It’s time to face up to the way YOU choose to use your time and if you can be completely honest about it then this my friends will gift you all the good stuff.
Because more than ever we live in a world where we are encouraged to be ever-stressed and busy. A world where we put our focus and energy into the stuff that appears urgent - either to us or others - rather than what is important.
This is the Eisenhower Matrix. It is a way of looking at time in 4 categories and it’s as useful in every day life as it is in the boardroom.
THE EISENHOWER MATRIX
I wonder what percentage of time you spend in each quadrant?
Important urgent stuff could be an emergency work meeting, taking your child to the doctor. But often it is self-created urgency…the race to the post office to post a parcel that should have gone last week, the last minute dash for school shoes.
Not important but urgent stuff is usually interruptions - things that are important to others and need doing now. Those WhatsApp messages pinging in for example…
Not important, not urgent things are distractions. Faffing, falling down the social media rabbit hole…..
And then there is the important stuff. The rich productive time. Hanging out with loved ones, moving your body, reading a book, working on your business, cooking gorgeous meals, enjoying nature, resting.
I ask clients to look at the percentage of time they spend in each quadrant. The answers sometimes shocks them - up to 80% in the urgent space sometimes. That’s a very stressful way to live. And it doesn’t have to be that way - it’s your choice. There will always be things that are both important and urgent but we can reduce the percentage of time spent here massively by seeing how much is actually self-created.
The good news is that by getting real with how you spend your time you can put strategies in place and take the action needed to shift the use of time to where you want it (hint…..top right!)
Then YOU can be one of those people who seems to have more time for all the good stuff.
What is fascinating is how lockdown shifted behaviours positively. Notice how much more time you have spent in the top right corner. And notice what happened to getting out and moving when it became both urgent and important because it was the only time you could leave the house each day. Funny how it suddenly became a priority.
So quieten the excuses, be honest with yourself, make a plan and I promise you it will transform your use of time for the better. Here’s the steps to take:
Draw out the matrix. In each quadrant braindump all the things you spend time doing in each category. Be as honest as you can.
Now put a percentage in each box - how much time roughly do you spend in an average day in each area. You may wish to use ‘normal’ life if things have drastically changed for you right now but either is useful
How does that feel? What do you notice? How does that stack up against how much time you feel you have for the stuff that really matters to you, the important stuff?
Now look at each quadrant in turn. Notice what specific examples you wrote down. Which of these things can you control/change? What strategies might you use? Perhaps you could start planning out cards/presents for birthdays earlier with phone reminders so they never became urgent? Perhaps you need to mute WhatsApp notifications? Perhaps you want to schedule all the important stuff and commit to those times in the same way you would your boss. Perhaps you need to have a set time for social media. There are endless ways we can intentionally take charge of our time - I wonder what you’ll come up with.
Start small by implementing one or two strategies per quadrant and see how that feels and what changes. Even by now being more aware of where your time is spent and what interrupts and distracts you things should change as you have engaged your conscious brain so it’s already working on the problem for you.
And if this is something you really struggle with then come and do the Overcome Overwhelm workshop and take control of your time, mindset and life again! Get real, get results!