Become More Productive in 2009 - Part 1
This post is part of the New Year’s Resolutions series running through January.
If we’re going to make 2009 the best year ever, we need to make sure that everything gets done that needs to get done. That may include any of your other goals, whether it’s losing weight, saving money, paying down debt, making time for family, or any of the other numerous things that are important to you.
Organizing your time to emphasize the important is the foundation of achieving your goals, and this series of productivity posts is aimed at giving you some ideas for getting things in order.
Put First Things First
In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen Covey argues that there are four quadrants in our lives. Activities can be broken down into urgent and non-urgent, as well as important and unimportant. For us to create a fulfilling life for the long term, we need to put an emphasis on the non-urgent, but important activities.
The breakdown of the four quadrants are below:
Quadrant I emphasizes the urgent deadline orientated activities that are both important and urgent. Quadrant II are the prevention and relationship building activities that are important, but usually not urgent. Quadrant III is where to group the annoying office tasks like going to routine meetings or answering general phone calls. And last is the Quadrant IV activities that include the busy work, television watching, or other time wasting activities.
Quadrant II
It’s important to ask yourself what activities, if done on a regular basis, would bring a positive change in your life? Exercising more can make you feel better about yourself as well as improving your appearance and physical well being. Saving and investing your money provides you with a peace of mind, and can take you from someone who works for money to someone who has their money work for them. Spending time with family and friends creates an intangible feeling that only interpersonal connections can provide.
These are the quadrant II activities, and quadrant II is where success in life comes from.
The funny thing about quadrant II activities is that they are the easiest to neglect. These are activities like exercising, spending time with family, cooking at home and eating well, keeping your home clean and organized, or saving money and investing. Doing any of these once is usually not enough for you to see a positive difference, and in some cases, like exercising, the first time you do it is painful.
But doing any (or all) of these over time can transform our lives for the positive. I doubt many people reach the end of their lives wishing they had exercised less, saved less, or spent less time with their families. I also doubt many of them wish they had watched more television or spent more time in the office.
Thinking 80/20
The Pareto principle, covered in depth in the book The 80/20 Principle, tells us that a minimum amount of effort is needed to achieve a majority of the results. After accounting for sleep and work, that only leaves about 8 hours a day for personal time, and even more of this time is taken up for eating, commuting, and hygiene. So it’s important to use that time the best way that you can. 20% of 8 hours is about 1.6 hours a day, or about 96 minutes of solid time needed to make positive changes in your life.
The best thing about many of the changes you can make this year like saving money, is that it can be automated. Spending a few minutes to set up automatic deductions and bill pay can save you an enormous amount of time later on. That time can then be used for exercising, reading, or any other activities you think could be valuable.
Thinking 80/20 means digging into your quadrant IV time and spending it on quadrant II activities. The best part is that is the small amount of time you spend a day in quadrant II can have an enormous impact on your life if you stick with it. 20% of your time spent on those life building activities will affect 80% of your life. Not a bad trade off, right?
For more ideas on how you can use that time, check out my previous post on 120 Minutes to Success.
Get Started
So for this first week of January, start thinking about not only what you would like to work on in 2009, but also why. It’s not enough to tell yourself that you are going to make time to workout or make time with your family. You need to realize why it needs to be a priority in your life if you’re going to take the time out of your day to do it.
Also think about where you can find 1-2 hours a day to exercise, read, and spend time with loved ones. This will be the foundation for the rest of the year, and if you do it right, the rest of your life.
