Are You Running Your Week?

It's been a busy time of late between some increased travel while working with some great clients in Auckland, plus touching base with some in Christchurch, working with some really interesting individuals as part of the LinkedIn Mentoring program, preparing for our workshop next week on Understanding & Improving The Customer Experience and of course getting ready to spend 3 days next week as a volunteer helper at my daughters School Camp.

All of this makes me glad of a few things. I'm glad I got to spend the week learning and relearning things so I can better work with both current and potential. ( Dr Stephen Covey calls this sharpening the saw!) More importantly I'm glad that I've had previous leaders in my life who have taught me the importance of planning your week. I learned to keep looking at what you have to do and being able to say, this , this & this is important and will go in these slots, this is less so and gets that slot and this isn't important so no it's not getting done and so on. I remember initially pushing back against the routine, I felt didn't need it.. but actually I did. I remember being 'forced' to read & participate in a Covey 7 Habits of Highly Effective People course that the whole company were going through. I was really busy and besides I felt didn't need it.. but actually I did.

You see both of these things, and a whole more hints, questions, suggestions and direction from friends and mentors have helped give me the desire to work with a routine that I plan with and I use to get things done, to be more productive.

To be fair I take a little from each area although probably more from Covey's 7 habits than anywhere. I have only so many hours in the week I want to work, occasionally the hours I need to work is higher than my want to, but it is occasionally and believe me it used to be the rule!

So I thought this week I would share a link to one of Covey's key principals, this is Habit 3 - Put 1st things 1st.

So how do you put 1st things 1st? well you actually have to plan time to plan. I know it sounds weird but if you don't plan time into your week where you can look back at the week, think about what went well, where you could do better and of course what needs to be done next then are you remotely in control?

Think about it, if you are not planning your week is running you. You will run from fire to fire, meeting to meeting trying to accomplish something, it's just that something may not actually be what you want to or rather should be accomplishing. This is called being ineffective... you are doing stuff but nothing moving you towards the goal so it's not effective stuff.

By ensuring I get my big rocks done and then the next levels in the right order and that I say No to stuff I get through the week, more importantly than that, next week I spend 3 fantastic days volunteering at school camp with my daughter and time with the family should always be your biggest rock.