Your Picnic Basket and Sorting For Importance

Who owns you?

We’re torn by the distractions of so many things that are important. There’s where overwhelm comes from. There are so many things, big and small, that need our attention. Feeling like you own your day comes from having a handle on your “to do” items.

 

You own them, and not the other way around. 

 

A lug wrench, a hair dryer, or a bread knife all show up at your door…  They’re each important in a certain circumstance and, if you’re packing for a picnic, only the bread knife is making it into your picnic basket. 

 

It’s not that what doesn’t go into the basket isn’t important. It’s that you’re exercising discernment for what’s important now.

 

The same way you could acknowledge that any tool has a place, you can look at the projects that you’re pursuing or the ones that you’ve put on your to-do list for someday. Somehow those “someday” projects continue to haunt you. I teach my high-performance DynamicLeader® clients that you can manage about three big projects at a time. After that, everything you do is diluted. Your efforts aren’t fully focused and you’re simply running from task to task to put out fires rather than stepping into a project to see it to completion.

 

The “Urgent-Important” grid or matrix was said to have been developed by Eisenhower, though it seems that Covey made it popular. The concept is that if something is important and has become urgent, you need to DO it. Planning, delegating, and eliminating comprise the other quadrants and most time and focus really needs to go into the Important/Non-Urgent quadrant. That is, focus on planning so that you don’t have fires to put out.

 

There’s one person responsible for your calendar.

You’ve made commitments. You’ve said “yes,” and you’ve agreed to a timeline. 

And sure, you have obligations to your family and your work. You said “yes” to get there. Your calendar is full because you agreed to it.

 

This is a personal accountability nudge. YOU own your day. 

The bottom line is that you choose what goes into your day. In a recent Wednesdays With Wayne post, I shined a light on the myth of work/life balance. There’s no “balance” – there’s a day. You choose.

 

When you recognize that you choose, you get a little of your power back.

The rest of this week and this month, take a look at your calendar. What are you allowing on it that doesn’t need to be there? 

 

Challenge – 

1. eliminate one meeting each week. It can be done via an email. Take it off your calendar. 
2. Look at your “to-do” list. What has been following you for more than two weeks? Set a date to circle back to it/them in two weeks. Take it off of your calendar and give your mind a break from holding space for it.
1. If, in two weeks, you think it still needs some focus, then set a due date and make it a project. The thing is, you’ll likely find that it was a “supposed to” and not mission-critical for your life. Let it go!
3. PLAN – take time to plan to invest in yourself. Put reading back on your calendar. Set a time to take a course. Plan on investing in you. 

 

That’s how you sort for importance and make sure that only the right things make it into your picnic basket. And that’s also how you ensure your picnic basket isn’t on fire.

 

Not everything that is in front of you is important right now.

Not everything that is urgent needs to be handled by you.

 

Planning and investing in yourself makes you more productive, profitable, and fulfilled. 

Head there!

 

= Wayne = 

And do yourself a favor – CLICK HERE to simply see what’s up with my Signature Breakthrough Mastermind Retreat. Seats are limited and they’re filling. This may be your time to come, though. So at least do yourself the favor or learning more by checking it out.