{"id":810,"date":"2011-11-30T11:05:54","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T11:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peterjohnsononline.com\/?p=810"},"modified":"2011-11-30T11:05:54","modified_gmt":"2011-11-30T11:05:54","slug":"gifts-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterjohnsononline.com\/index.php\/gifts-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Gifts of time……"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Sometimes we are confronted with a pile of work that needs\u00a0our attention. Each part of the pile cries out to be done first and we know\u00a0that some of the tasks are more interesting than others. Usually we have scooped up an article or two that we want to read that is in the pile too. And just occasionally we have mislaid something that is buried in its depths.<\/p>\n

Well today I had amassed such a pile \u2013 and at least I knew\u00a0that nothing was client focussed and delaying their work. I pulled the pile together as I had a wonderful \u2018gift of time\u2019, created by a stalled meeting. So rather\u00a0than wonder what to do I decided to set about this pile and get on top of\u00a0 things.<\/p>\n

As I started to sort things out I was distracted by\u00a0something I had popped to one side some while ago and so started to read the\u00a0article, quickly noticing an advert on the side and found myself absorbed in that\u00a0before I finished reading the article. This is where I had to put on my mental\u00a0brakes and STOP! What was I doing? I was meant to be sorting the pile\u00a0out….not reading things on a whim. It did not mean what I was reading was not\u00a0useful, but, and this was a huge BUT \u2013 was I working on the most valuable thing
\nin the pile?<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know the answer to that so this made me think about\u00a0what I should be doing to maximise the use of the precious time, this precious time\u00a0I had been gifted. I then sorted the pile\u00a0out into a logical order, and then\u00a0set too on the most useful thing to do. This is the approach I took:<\/p>\n

I did a fast sift to establish if it was either A) need to\u00a0do or B) like to do \u2013 while doing this I was ruthless in binning any stuff that\u00a0had crept into the pile that had no real value and would waste time.<\/p>\n

The \u2018B\u2019 pile \u2013 \u2018like to do\u2019 – was put to one side for\u00a0another day, perhaps to skim over and bin as I had a coffee.<\/p>\n

The \u2019A\u2019 pile \u2013 \u2018need to do\u2019 – was then deliberately\u00a0prioritised into order using the following criterion:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Important & Urgent<\/li>\n
  2. Important & less urgent<\/li>\n
  3. Urgent \u2013 this pile is always rubbish so I forced it into 1,\u00a0 2 or 4<\/li>\n
  4. Not urgent or important \u2013 this pile got moved to the pile \u2018B\u2019 or binned as I had missed the opportunity on the first pass. Also when we have context, what may have seemed worthwhile pales when compared with the really good stuff we have unearthed.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This left me with tasks from 1 & \u00a02 which I then prioritised again so I was always working on the most important task. Simple really, but sometimes we forget and get sidetracked by the \u2018new shinny object\u2019 that has just arrived.<\/p>\n

    Having got myself back on track I felt much more focussed\u00a0and much more genuine \u2013 well I do help my clients maximise their potential. This slip was good \u2018research\u2019!<\/p>\n

    Do you work on things in a prioritised way? Or have you \u2018slipped\u2019 and become busy but not effective?<\/p>\n

    My best wishes,<\/p>\n

    Peter<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Sometimes we are confronted with a pile of work that needs our attention. Each part of the pile cries out to be done first and we know that some of the tasks are more interesting than others. Usually we have scooped up an article or two that we want to read that is in the pile too. And just occasionally we have mislaid something that is buried in its depths.<\/p>\n

    Well today I had amassed such a pile \u2013 and at least I knew that nothing was client focussed and delaying their work. I pulled the pile together as I had a wonderful \u2018gift of time\u2019, created by a stalled meeting. So rather than wonder what to <\/p>\n

    Continue reading Gifts of time……<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-reflection","odd"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjohnsononline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjohnsononline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjohnsononline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjohnsononline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjohnsononline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjohnsononline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjohnsononline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810\/revisions\/823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjohnsononline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjohnsononline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjohnsononline.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}