Opinion: Stop wasting time to get important things done

At a conference once, I watched a speaker enter the audience and offer to buy a young lady’s big diamond wedding ring to demonstrate his point.

“I’ll trade you $50 cash for it,” the speaker said as he reached inside his pocket.

“No way!” she said, waving him off.

He increased his offer to $100, then $200, and finally $500, but each time she rejected him, of course. No prudent person makes a bad trade like that.

The majority of us, however, make bad trades with our time at work and home more often than we admit. We trade activities that we ought to be doing for activities we’ll regret getting distracted by later. Regret comes from making bad trades on our time – and bad trades result from a lack of discipline to do what should be done even when we don’t feel like doing it.

We all have important things to get done at work – high-priority projects, assignments or tasks. Here are six simple ideas to help you consistently focus on and finish what’s most important.

1. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. There are two residential streets that intersect in Las Vegas: Priority Court and Abundance Street. I find it very fitting, and a reminder, because to create abundance, one must constantly focus on the right priorities and accomplish those priorities. When we spend too much time on busy work but not enough time on critical tasks, we end up disappointed with the results. Prioritize, create actionable steps and then execute.
2. Don’t disregard time. Time is a precious commodity that we often take for granted. We set aside time for our most important tasks but then waste it on our least important activities. One executive told me she felt like she constantly wasted time on trivial things. Her real problem was that she didn’t set controls around her busy schedule because she wanted to be readily accessible. Don’t discount the value of time by encroaching on your most productive efforts. Be accessible, yes, but put controls in place.
3. Don’t be fooled by the urgent. One leadership team I coached was in a vicious cycle of being in crisis mode. They felt stressed from putting out fires and addressing pressing issues. When you’re overwhelmed with everything on your to-do list, remember that not all of it is urgent. And even if it is crucial, that doesn’t mean it’s the most important thing you could be doing. Take a step back, assess what’s important and focus on those things.
4. Know your highest-value activities. Block out time (20, 40, 60 minutes or more) to work on your highest-value tasks each day and week to see progress toward your goals. Don’t start on anything else until you finish that block. When you know what’s most important to you, you’ll protect the time it takes to complete it.
5. Examine your time habits. Unfortunately, we don’t pay close enough attention to time. Often, we’ll idly browse social media or get sucked into a discussion for “just a few more minutes” until we have been searching or discussing something for hours. So, take a step back, assess what’s important, and devote yourself to using your time on things that are truly important for you to finish.
6. Treat time like money. Time is a tremendous gift, yet it’s something that none of us can ever get back. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. The fact that time doesn’t vanish in the same way as money can make us think it’s an unlimited resource, even though we wouldn’t waste money like that. By recognizing that time is finite, we should be motivated to use the seconds, minutes and hours well. Time is equal to money, so invest wisely.

Performing your highest-paying activities well is essential in today’s fast-paced world. Understand what activities are most important to you and your company’s success and invest more time in those. Don’t be pulled into low-value activities that can appear urgent but aren’t in the grand scheme.

Consultant, professional speaker and author Mark Holmes is president of Springfield-based Consultant Board Inc. and MarkHolmesGroup.com. He can be reached at mark@markholmesgroup.com.