For the next part of our six-part series on ACCELERATING your business through LEADERSHIP, we’re going to build on the last post. Your SMART goals and planning system are such an important road-map to success, so if you’ve not looked at it, check out the last post. SMART goals give you a road-map that will help cut through a lot of the distractions. It’s a proven way to avoid wasting your focus and energy on tasks that just don’t matter. Because there’s always going to be something to do, and one of the most important things you can do as a leader is be able to sort out what is important from what is not, and what is urgent from what isn’t.

PRIORITIES

You only have so many hours in the day, and there’s never enough of them. That’s the part that we spend so much energy trying to avoid facing: you will never actually clear your To Do list. There is always going to be just one more thing, one last tweak, another meeting to go to, another client.

That’s where the matrix above comes in. We can’t avoid Urgent-Important tasks, but if that’s all we’re doing all the time, we’re just putting out fires. Not Urgent-Important tasks are the sweet spot where all good things happen: this is planning for your success, networking, working through the meat-and-potatoes of your day; this is where the quality and creativity happens. Urgent-Unimportant can be where procrastination starts — it’s the phone ringing right now when you’re working on something else. It’s the flashing email alert in your peripheral vision, and honestly, it’s a lot of meetings that just drag on. And then there’s Not Urgent – Not Important, and that’s all the things that don’t contribute. It’s true and often self-defeating procrastination: time-wasting on Facebook, torturing yourself with perfectionism, over-analysis, time-wasters and busy work.

As a leader, your task when it comes to setting priorities is to examine your tasks and determine where it fits on the matrix above — and then put your energy where it will be best used. Everyone procrastinates, but to keep your performance at optimal levels, it’s the Not Urgent – Not Important tasks you should put off until the others are complete.

FOCUS

Once you know what you need to do, having the discipline to ‘just do it’ is your next responsibility.

The ability to ‘multi-task’ is vastly over-rated in actually achieving anything. Yes, it’s important to keep your eyes on the broad picture you’ve defined for yourself, but when it comes down to the nuts and bolts, one thing at a time. There is no substitute for focus, concentration and discipline.

Cultivating willpower and discipline are like working any muscles: it takes time and sustained effort, and sometimes, when you’re tired, it’s harder than at other times. That’s why you’ll see the advice I was given once: every day, you pick your three Most Important Tasks. Make them Not Urgent-Important tasks (see last post!), ideally, and commit to working through them. If you can do more, excellent, but three is a good number to commit to, and to maintain your focus. We all get busy over the course of the way with Urgencies that arise, people who need attention and the like. As long as you’ve got the big picture in mind and can maintain your focus, you’re still on track.

In a leadership role with other people to factor in, though, you’ve got to give them their focus, too. You need to create that overall vision that everyone else will draw from that will enable attracting, satisfying and keeping your customers. Ever hear the old saying “if you have a why, you can put up with any how”? That’s what I’m talking about, and, as a leader, it is down to you.

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