Try To Minimize the Hot Fires
I’ve been really busy over the past several weeks with holidays, getting the Planning Journal for Builders published, and preparing for the BUILD Day workshop that was yesterday. The workshop went well, and I will share more about that later.
But for now, I needed to get a blog post out, so I pulled a previous post about being busy and prioritizing.
This post was originally published on October 23, 2021:
What should I do first?
There are so many things to choose from. What makes one thing more important than another?
Today, let’s talk about priorities.
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks discussing how we often make time management more complicated than it needs to be, and how being intentional helps us manage it better.
Prioritizing is no different than any other decisions we make. We have the power. We can choose.
And that’s the hard part.
Choice makes us responsible. If it doesn’t work out…it’s our fault. We’re to blame.
Don’t kid yourself, your choices are always your responsibility. Own them, make the best decisions you can, and keep moving forward.
Making these kinds of decisions ultimately comes down to who you are. You need to get clear on that and prioritize accordingly.
It comes down to deciding what your “big rocks” are.
Growing in your faith? Spending more time with your family? Serving your customers better? Paying off debt? Taking better care of yourself physically and mentally? Helping with community projects?
All good things.
But there’s limited space in your time jar, and only so many rocks will fit.
Deciding what’s urgent, important, or neither is hard. Too often, we find ourselves fighting fires. And most of the time, those fires come from a lack of preparation.
Many of us are familiar with the time management quadrant that sorts tasks into four areas:
- Quadrant 1: Firefighting (Urgent & Important) This is the easiest to recognize, and where most of us spend way too much time. Think about it this way: if the house is on fire and the phone is ringing, do you answer the phone or get the kids out of the house? The problem is, if we had spent more time on important (but not urgent) tasks, we might have prevented the fire in the first place.
- Quadrant 2: Quality Time (Important & Not Urgent) This is where we should focus. It’s where we get the greatest return on our time and energy. Unfortunately, it’s also the hardest quadrant to work in because there’s no immediate pressure like there is when fighting fires.
- Quadrant 3: Distractions (Urgent & Not Important) This quadrant can be filled with an endless list of small, trivial tasks that feel important, because some of them are. They usually require less time and energy than truly important work. The question is this: are you doing them because they matter, or because it feels good to check something off the list?
- Quadrant 4: Time-Wasters (Not Important & Not Urgent) These tasks are the least important of all. They don’t serve a meaningful purpose in accomplishing what really matters in your life. The goal is to minimize or avoid spending time here altogether.
While this framework is helpful, it still comes down to who you are and what your priorities are.
That is the hardest part.
A lack of planning and preparation is what allows fires to start. That doesn’t mean unexpected things won’t happen. Sometimes someone will throw a match into your plans and force you to stop what you are doing to fight a fire.
But the better prepared you are, the less intense the fire will be, and the quicker you’ll be able to put it out.
Hot fires are a great way to get burned.
Don’t get burned by poor time management. Know who you are, know what your priorities are, and always put the biggest rock in first.
If you’re tired of constantly reacting instead of leading your business, let’s talk. I offer a free 30-minute call to help you get clarity on your priorities, tighten up your planning, and start spending less time putting out fires and more time building the business and life of your dreams. No pressure, just a genuine conversation to help you move forward.