Welcome back to ‘Three thoughts Thursday’ within this weekly blog I will share the three thoughts that have been at the front of my mind over the last few days. I hope these three thoughts can be of benefit to you. This week I would like to focus on productivity and take much of my inspiration in writing this blog from the work of Dave Allen.
An inbox
Communication will come at us from every angle, our brain is designed for creating ideas not holding them. Things will always slip through the cracks. The first step is to capture communications so you don't have to keep it in your brain this will allow you to understand what you have heard. Many benefits will come from you committing to an inbox whether it be a notebook, an email inbox, or a digital to-do list. Once you have this firmly in place you will reduce the feeling of overwhelm and begin to work out what is actionable and what you should focus on.
Time allocation
Time is one of our greatest assets, therefore we must use it wisely. far too often we can be guilty of doing the nice to do’s rather than the things that will make a real difference. When I first heard the idea of ‘big rocks’ this thought really resonated. In simplistic terms imagine you have a vase some rocks, sand, and stones. Many times we would fill the vase with the sand first (the easy-to-do stuff) then the stones (as we grow confident perhaps) finally move on to the big rocks (our most important tasks) The problem in doing this is the vase is now full before you can put the rocks in and your time has run out. Instead of the previous approach, I learned to do the important things first (put the big rocks into the vase) The stones will then fit around the rocks before finally pouring in the sand which will fit in around the stones and big rocks (in the same way as the small stuff has to fit around you big stuff) If you run out of time getting to the small stuff it is far less impactful.
Get started
Many things will stop us from getting started such as the conditions not being right, perfectionism, procrastination, or distraction. I have been terrible in this area for many years creating unnecessary worry. I benefited massively from the advice I received to ‘Just get started’. In these instances I realised quickly I was going to make progress and on many occasions, the task was never as difficult as I thought it would be.
I wish you well in all your endeavours.
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Thanks for reading. Have a great day.
Whatever you do always believe in yourself, Mark.