your ability to focus on these critical tasks. Usually the
biggest culprits are meetings, email, and random disruptions. Sure,
they might often seem urgent, but they often can turn into time-
sucking tasks that cause you to procrastinate on the activities that
are truly important.
The key to the effectiveness of this step is to not complain about
being overworked but to provide solutions on how to fix this issue.
These suggestions can include skipping meetings that aren’t
directly related to your core two or three tasks; eliminating the
tasks that don’t directly align with your priorities; delegating
certain responsibilities that don’t align with your core tasks to team
members or subordinates; requesting a temporary worker or new
employee to lighten the load; and doing certain tasks on a less
frequent basis (e.g., weekly instead of daily or monthly instead of
weekly).
Sure, going to your boss and admitting that you can’t do it all might seem
like a scary conversation. But what you’re doing is trying to realign your
time so you can focus on the activities that generate the biggest profit for
the company. If you can show that eliminating the unimportant leads to
an increase in productivity, the conversation should be an easy decision
when it comes to getting what you want.
Practice #5: Ask Yourself, “What Will My Obituary
Say?”
It’s easy to say no if you constantly think about the important things in
your life. One way to do this is to imagine what will be written in your
obituary.
Think of the words in your mind right now. Would you prefer a
description that talks about positive things, like how you were a loving
parent, great spouse, world traveler, active member of your religious
community, and someone who loved life? Or would you choose an
obituary that describes how you said yes to every project, worked late at
night, and always chose your career over your personal goals?
Hopefully, you picked the first option—I know that’s the description that
I would prefer.
When you align yourself with your goals and consistently say no to
anything that doesn’t match your current focus, you’ll free up time to
focus on the activities that are worth reading about when you reach the
end of your life.
Those five ways of saying no are firm but don’t require burning bridges
with the important people in your life. Once you’ve freed up that extra
time, you can create a weekly schedule that focuses on your five core
projects, which is what we’ll cover in the next step.
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