Are You In Denial?

Personal Effectiveness

Are You In Denial?

By Bob Moore, CMC, MCC, The Effectiveness Coach®

Word Count: 380 Words
Reading Time: about 3 minutes

We have come to the second week of the second month of the second decade of the twenty-first century. What about the intentions you had for 2010? What are your metrics? I hope you are not in denial about the importance of measuring your results? Regardless of how it is going for you right now, here are some tips to consider.

1. Re-prioritize:
Do the objectives you are currently focused on have the same priority as when you set them? What has changed? Be sure you are completing all High Pay Off Activities (HPOA's). Remember HPOA's are those activities and tasks that provide the most leverage toward achieving your highest priority. Get past any denial that changes have occurred that need to be considered in your action plan going forward.

2. Get Organized:
Clean up your clutter. It is not possible to work efficiently on top of a messy desk. Are you in denial that you are not wasting time looking through the clutter? How long does it take to find those important papers, documents, phone messages and other items that inhibit your effectiveness? Recognize you may be missing deadlines or forgetting to follow-up or follow-through on time sensitive issues.

3. Get Focused:
Are you living the myth that it is OK to multi-task? Get out of denial that you are not effective when you are attempting to accomplish many tasks at once. Completing one task at a time is the most effective way to operate. When you are interrupted, which on average is probably about every 7 to 10 minutes, deal with the interruption, then return to the priority as soon as possible. To do otherwise, increases your stress level and risks producing a lower quality outcome. You may need an un-natural amount of self-discipline to stick with a task until complete. If this becomes a major challenge for you, simply break your tasks into smaller segments that can be completed in a shorter amount of time. After all, your day is likely to be a series of small tasks that, when completed, make up the whole assignment or project.

All that said, you still have almost 90% of the year ahead. Imagine what your bottom line will look like by becoming fully engaged and operating at peak effectiveness everyday!

Enthusiastically,

Bob

Bob Moore, CMC®, President
Effectiveness, Inc/The Effectiveness Coach®
Aligning Human Capital with Strategic Objectives

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