Purpose, priority and productivity - a simple formula for extraordinary results. Productivity - work or effort - is only the tip of the iceberg. It is the visible that shows priority and purpose from below the surface. I heard a preacher once say that if you want to know where your priority is let me see your calendar and your bank account - where you spend your time and money tell you what matters most. Every venture needs productive people. Keller says that "Great businesses are built one productive person at a time." I am convinced that we need more people working harder. But not just harder, smarter too. Working hard at what matters most. People in purpose on purpose for purpose. How much more satisfying would it be to not only do what you love but get paid for it too? In my role as Director of Sixth Form and looking after EdTech I absolutely did. I loved it, got paid for it, was pretty good at it and certainly it was needed. However, life is seasonal. I am convinced that purpose may be too. Or it could be that there is a fourth P - place. You can be working on purpose, prioritising and being productive but if the placement is wrong, it doesn't necessarily mean the results are your best. You may well achieve extraordinary things but whether you are placed correctly is worth re-evaluating. Sometimes situations make the place untenable despite it being productive.
Know the Why as Simon Sinek would say. Helen Keller then says if we know this we can deal with almost any how. The what & when come next. Perhaps the where is worth another think too. Remember, practice doesn't make perfect; practice makes permanent. Practice in the right way (and place) can make perfect.
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I definitely thought this blog piece was just going to be two parts but there's so much in this little book that I need to break it down further! So here is Part 3 Having an ability to determine the ONE Thing comes from asking the right questions according to Keller. He uses the term 'The Focusing Question' to help us frame the important question: What's the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else becomes easier or unnecessary?He breaks this into a few categories: 1. ONE Thing I CAN do - what's within the realms of potential or possibility? What ONE Thing instead of multiple things on a to-do list? 2. Such that by DOING it - what actions can I take? How can I take responsibility? 3. Everything else becomes easier or unnecessary - what will have knock on effects? Think long game. He then suggests that we must be BIG & Specific in our questioning to get appropriate answers, e.g. What's the ONE Thing I can do today to double sales in the next six months?" By looking at these 7 areas, he asks some excellent questions and he has them in order starting from spiritual life and then clockwise around the diagram above.
I am blown away by how practical and applicable this concept is to my life. Thinking about priorities and then asking challenging questions - these two ideas will help me focus on the ONE Thing. This season certainly requires that I refocus and reimagine possibilities. Thinking about balance and counterbalance today. This is a mental concept. We try to fit as many things into our 24hours as is possible to "live life to the max" or because of FOMO. We want to make the most of every moment (which in itself is admirable and desirable) but EVERY moment? Is it possible to be 'on point' at every point in time? I have lived by the mantra of "It's all about balance" for many years - all things in moderation, don't go overboard, The Golden Mean. But I am thinking - is maintaining the balance what is required for a maximised life? Keller suggests that nothing of value is found in the middle, it's always at the extremes. Scientific breakthroughs, educational wins, political revolutions, personal triumphs. How many times have we heard heroes or athletes talk about "coming to the end of myself" or "pushing myself further than I thought possible"? Perhaps, life isn't about balances. Perhaps it isn't about fitting everything in and spinning all the plates that our three-score-years-and-ten offers. Perhaps in giving yourself to a few things really well or even ONE thing wholeheartedly, there is freedom, purpose, significance, greatness, happiness, wholeness. Just a thought... That said, it is not all about extremes. Keller suggests that there is a need for counterbalance instead of balance - the ability to swing back where necessary from the extremes. Civil servants who worked 55+hour weeks were 67% more likely to die from heart disease! I couldn't put it better than he did: So...in work, you can be extreme and in personal life you need more counterbalance is his conclusion. Not a bad little thought. Is it really possible? The jury is out on that.
So I started reading The ONE Thing by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan this week after a recommendation from Simon Rushton - his recommendations always yield great results so I was excited.
The book sat on my shelf for a few weeks until an opportune moment which arose on a family holiday to Kent. I am about half way through so thought I would blog about it now and then at the end - or I might miss some of the amazing stuff from the beginning! The premise of the book is that we should focus on the ONE thing rather than multiple lines of work or layers of priorities. The authors suggest that the myth of multitasking is making us almost 1/3 less productive than we could be if we focused (on average those who do more than one thing at once lose 27% of their working day in trying to refocus after a distraction). This is supplemented by an interesting critique of to-do lists - often we focus on ticking items off rather than being productive in the right areas. As an avid post-it user who writes down everything I needed to do to avoid missing things (!) I am acutely aware of this. I often wanted to cross things off rather than doing what needed doing. So the accomplishment dopamine fix from 'doing' rather than 'doing right' is addictive. I definitely need to rethink this. The next section looks at building habits and debunks the myth that habits take 21/28 days to form. They suggest that on average it is 66 days so if it doesn't stick straight away, don't panic! 2 months' worth of perseverance is necessary. I love how Keller discusses geometric progression in dominoes - that one domino can knock over another 1.5times it's size. That means that tiny decisions can have multiple levels of impact much bigger than their own size should really leverage. The key for me that Keller doesn't mention is alignment - unless the dominoes are aligned correctly they won't knock each other down. This ties into a great message by Sam Duerden about alignment - worth another listen I think. Here's to deciding on the ONE thing... Part 2 coming soon... |
AuthorI am Ben Whitaker. I love to write about allsorts - life, tech, faith, education, books. Enjoy! Archives
November 2017
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