Did You Complete Your To-Do list This Week?

​We began the week by identifying the four traits of a strategic leader:

1. Acting with intention on a daily basis
2. Solving problems
3. Enacting relentless incremental change
4. Developing people

 
We continued by describing four barriers to strategic leadership”

1. We are overwhelmed with the treadmill of the urgent.
2. We lack clarity of purpose
3. We are infatuated with big change.
   
4. We lack the training and skills to engage in consistent action.

Yesterday, we used the Eisenhower Matrix to reflect on how we spend our time, specifically thinking about the differences between quadrant 1 (important and urgent) versus quadrant 3 (urgent but not important). We also differentiated quadrants 1 and 3 from quadrant 2 by noting that we spend time in 1 and 3 but invest time in 2.
 
As part of yesterday’s work, I asked you to make a list of all the things you’d done over the previous day (or days). Today, we flip that around. ​

Take a few minutes now and make a list of all of the things you did not get done!
 
Now plug them into the matrix. Notice anything? If you are like some of us, many of your uncompleted tasks will fall in quadrant 2. This is just one more reminder that we can be more driven by urgency than by importance.
 
Now, compare what you did in quadrant 3 with what you didn’t do in quadrant 2. You can think of this as a strategic deficit. While quadrant 1 activities are largely unavoidable, quadrant 3 activities are avoidable. All the time that you spent in quadrant 3 was time you could have invested in quadrant 2. That quadrant 3 time is your strategic deficit!
 
Next week we’ll start digging into why we would spend time in quadrant 3 instead of investing time in quadrant 2. If you want to get a head start on that work, spend a few minutes reflecting today or this weekend.
 
When you chose to act on specific quadrant 3 issues, why did you make those choices? What criteria did you use in choosing between urgent and important?
 
If you’ve enjoyed this week’s focus, send me an email by clicking here and telling me what had the biggest impact on you this week.
 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick