In This Episode…
Having decided I need to make a course correction in a previous episode, I use this episode to remind myself of the value of knowing what is important to you. In this episode includes:
- A reminder of the structure of my Pyramid of Personal Productivity.
- Re-visiting the importance of knowing what your Main Thing is.
- How knowing your Main Thing makes decision making on what to do next much easier.
- A quick overview of the different ways to identify your Main Thing.
- The importance of your planning time horizon in deciding what to do next.
- Why I believe re-focusing on my Main Thing is the course correction I need.
Episode Show Notes…
00:18 – Background to this episode. In a previous episode I felt I’d lost my way a little. So today I am going to ponder on what I think I need to do next to get back on track.
00:44 – I thought it was useful to review my Pyramid of Personal Productivity. There are four levels:
- The level of energy – the foundational level covering physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy.
- The level of efficiency – doing things in the quickest and easiest way possible.
- The level of effectiveness – this level covers planning and the achievement of goals.
- The level of elite performance – at this level it is about master of your craft, creativity and leadership.
01:32 – Before I start working my way up through those levels, I have got to get clear again on what it is I am trying to achieve.
01:50 – In my seminars and live workshops I talk about the concept of the Main Thing (originally from Stephen Covey).
02:20 – I did set my goals back in May that have helped direct my efforts. I am not going to revisit them now. This is about looking at the principles of how I move forward from here.
02:49 – Getting clear on what it is I want to achieve means it becomes much easier to decide what to do – much easier to identify my priority.
03:35 – Knowing your main thing means if you go into the freeze mode when faced with an overwhelming amount of things to do, decisions are easier to make.
04:14 – Defining the main thing can be time-based, system-based or process-based. I like to look at where I want to be in 5 years time and then work back from that so I know what to do today to achieve that.
04:52 – I realise in the past that if I had too short a planning time horizon, then I’d be more erratic and more reactive. I found extending that time horizon to 3 months worked best for me.
05:26 – The last 6 months has seen me be very busy developing and delivering my Power of Focus seminars in 5 different countries across Europe and North America.
05:58 – The 3 month timeline has worked well for me so far but I think I probably need to extend that even further.
06:39 – So understanding my Main Thing and how to choose it is going to be the focus of my upcoming activities.
Until tomorrow…
