Lock Priorities in the Basement and Take Control of When You Check Messages
The Fulling team is watching a new video series! Each week in our staff meetings, we watch a culture & leadership video to aid in our professional and personal development. We are diving into the series called Redeeming Your Time At Work by Jordan Raynor
Managing our time wisely and effectively is one of the most important things we can do to advance our careers. When we institute the right lifestyle changes—not just adopting some habits—we can begin to reach our full potential. In this ten-session series, bestselling author Jordan Raynor will cover ten simple practices that will help us manage our time wisely and clear out the distractions that keep us from making progress with our work.
In these videos, Lock Priorities in the Basement and Take Control of When You Check Messages, we learned that posteriorities are all the responsibilities that we have committed to but are not priorities. They are the tasks and projects that can wait until we achieve our actual priorities. Posteriorities aren’t bad and may even be essential problems we need to solve; they just aren’t problems we need to solve right now.
Jordan’s method to focus his attention on his priorities is to set specific quarterly goals for his current projects & put the rest away in a Maybe Someday folder. Setting quarterly goals not only helps us focus on our current projects but it also allows us to accomplish our tasks more efficiently with less stress.
If we aren’t careful, our incoming messages and emails can dominate our attention. Even if we don’t engage with every new notification, stealing a glance every now and then can kill our work momentum.
Jordan gave us three steps to control our incoming messages.
Step one is choosing ahead of time when you’ll check your messages.
Step two is to make a list of VIPs who can have constant access to you, even outside of the predetermined time you set for step one.
The third and final step is to proactively set expectations with the VIPs in your life. Let your VIPs know that you only check messages and emails during a certain time of the day, but if they call you, you’ll be sure to answer every time.
Join us as we hear more from Jordan about clearing distractions and managing our time wisely!
Food for Thought
What posteriorities typically distract you throughout your week? What nonessential tasks could be stealing time from your most critical work?
What boundaries, if any, do you currently have in place to keep from constantly checking your email, texts, and other notifications?
Who are your VIPs at work and in your family? Is there anyone on that list who does not need constant access to your attention?