Did Yesterday Go as Planned?

Colleagues,
 
Yesterday I asked you to keep track of what you did during the day and how much time it took. Now let’s review your data. For each activity, ask yourself these questions:

• Did I plan to engage in this activity?
• If no
  • Why did I choose to engage in it?
  • What was the opportunity cost of engaging in this action? In other words, what did not get done because I chose to do this instead?
  • What was the benefit?
• If yes:
  • Did I achieve the desired result?
  • Why or why not?
  • Could I have achieved a similar benefit with less effort?
• Am I the only one that could have done this, or could someone else have done it?

 
After reflecting, identify where in the Eisenhower Matrix each activity falls. 
 
Important v. not important: The issue or task is relevant to the core purpose of the organization or is critical to operations or a specific initiative or effort that aligns to the core purpose. 
 
Urgent v. not urgent: Urgent issues or tasks will not be able to be completed at a later time. Ether the thing will expire, or it will trigger an event that will then require a different kind of response.
 
Now reflect again:

• What do you see?
• How much time did you spend in the urgent quadrants versus the important quadrants?
• What didn’t get done in quadrant 2, and how would those things influence the long-term health of your organization?

 
Tomorrow we’ll look at 5 ways to respond strategically to urgent issues!

Do good and be well,
​
Frederick