Common Pitfalls of daily activity

I have been asked very often how I manage to balance my life with all the tasks that I have on day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year and still achieve the goals that I set.

I am a full time dental student who has multiple surgery clinics, additional learning from the weekly objectives, exam preparation, exercise programming for individuals, my own health and fitness training, charity fundraising, developing a new business, working delivering seminars for fitness instructors at the weekends, a Wife, two dogs and the house chores. It isn’t easy and sometimes I want to just hide under a rock. However, the way I cope is y planning and executing that plan.

There are thousands of daily planners and organisers. You can buy a myriad of apps, notebooks, diaries and computer software to help you be more productive. These do work for lots of people but for the majority it is a fantasy, because they think the product will do it for them. The old tried and test methods are the best; a good old fashion list.

The list is a magic thing but the problem comes when you do the things at the top of the list and a few things get left at the bottom and carried over to the next day, month, year and ultimately never get done or they are done half arsed.

I can hear you saying “all you need to do is prioritise”. This is true and again this works for a short time and you achieve great results. But the problems are people prioritise the wrong things and they try to spin too many plates, all at once, and in the end some plates fall and smash. They prioritise things that they feel have to be done right there and then when they arrive at the door, phone calls, email inbox or text. This then results in the previous priority task being left by the wayside until the next day, week, month or year.

The solution that helped me realise how to actually be the most productive and achieve in all the areas was to use the Eisenhower matrix. This tool helped my awareness of what it is I am actually supposed to be doing and how long I am spending on each type of priority task.

The Matrix

 Urgent/Not important boxes the majority of the time. They are also incorrectly thinking that things are urgent/important but I could bet a lot of money that they are actually Not Important/Not urgent.  The other major thing is that if you spent most of your time doing Urgent (or believed to be urgent) tasks you end up burnt out, depressed and disillusioned.

This can result in you giving up on you goals and dreams. This also means that the Not urgent/Important tasks hardly ever get done so your business doesn’t grow as well or as rapid as you may like, you suffer with ill health, your fitness declines and your relationships with the ones that matter most suffer.

When you plan out your daily or weekly tasks you should have the matrix at hand and plot those tasks into it and then allocate your time wisely.

Lets use the timeless classic of the 80:20 rule that applies to so many things in life. Once the tasks are plotted on the matrix your goal is to spend 80% of your time in the Important/Not Urgent box and the other 20% in the Urgent boxes but split this 15:5%. 15% in the Urgent/Important and 5% on the Urgent/Not important. Ideally no time should be spent in the Not important/Not urgent box but in reality some time will be spent here to unwind and this is healthy. Just be conscious of the amount of time you spent here as it has limited value.

A cool analogy I read the other day  

(This story can be found on many internet sites)

A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty pint glass and proceeded to fill it with rocks, rocks about 2 inches in diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The students laughed.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.

“Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognise that this is your life. The rocks are the important things – your family, your partner, your health, your children, your development – things that if everything else were lost and only they remained, your
life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else, the small stuff, the trivia. If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness and success. Have family time. Develop yourself. Take time to get medical checkups. Do your work, clean the house, etc”.

• Take care of the rocks first – the things that really matter.
• Set your priorities.
• The rest is just sand.

But then…

A student then took the pint glass, which the other students and the professor agreed was full, and proceeded to pour in some beer. Of course the beer filled the remaining spaces within the jar making the jar truly full.

The moral of this tale is no matter how full your life is, there is always room for BEER!

I will leave you with this image of the matrix: It will separate you from your peers and you will achieve more than you have before. You will make huge leaps forward and have an impact on your life and the lives of others by using this productivity matrix.

Impact = success.

If you enjoyed this blog and gained value from it, please share with your team, family and friends.

Danny Watson

BeyondRx