Focusing on what really matters and getting back to basics
Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.
— Stephen R. Covey
I use a productivity journal, and every weekday morning I set my priority tasks and an estimate of how many “pomodoros” it will take to complete each.
I use the journal daily since I started my own consulting business earlier this year. It helps me focus on planning and completing what's really important each day.
I only write down professional work tasks, relegating all the things I need to do in my personal and family life to post-it notes and a Trello board I often forget to check. This made sense when I first started as I got the journal for work and if I used it for my whole to-do list, I'd never be able to fit it all; There is only space for 5 tasks per day and I do approximately 49 things a day.
But after this morning, I'm not sure separating the personal and the professional going to work for me when I prioritize what's truly important each day.
The day started when I woke up suddenly at 6:01 a.m. and immediately went down the stairs to check on my daughter to make sure she wasn't eating any non-liquid foods. (She wasn't.) She had to go under anesthesia for a dental procedure today, and I wanted (no, needed) to make sure everything went off without a hitch — because that's what moms do.
After getting her some Jell-O and water and myself an iced coffee I went back upstairs and took a quick shower, got dressed, and stepped into my office for a moment. I sat at my desk and opened my productivity journal. I opened to today's page, paused for a moment to think, and in the #1 spot I wrote, “Take care of Ella.”
I had, of course, cleared my schedule already. But it was a moment of realization that my single priority today was to get her safely through this procedure and through recovery to bedtime so we could put it behind us. And that meant nothing else could be a distraction, even one little thing on a secondary priority list.
She's fine now, but it was a tough day for her and our family, and I'm grateful that I have flexibility to take care of my family and time for recovery and unwinding.
And from now on, I think I'll start prioritizing more personal items in that journal. After all, priorities are priorities, right?
Maura Charles is the founder of Keep it Human. As a Product Leadership Coach and Consultant, she is on a mission to help teams and organizations embrace human skills like communication and emotional intelligence in their ways of working.
She brings 25 years of experience as an editor, product manager, and digital business leader to bear on the challenges of building human-centered high-performing tech teams.
If you'd like to develop more human business and tech teams that hum together to drive results, check out Keep it Human and follow Maura Charles on LinkedIn.