Glancing at your to do list, you look top to bottom, scanning the tasks. Some are for business. Others are personal. Some are time critical. Most are not. As the day goes on, the list gets longer. A fertile mind seems to constantly give birth to another great idea.
Or so it seems that the time.
The best of the best don’t do this. They focus on what is important and they recognize that while they can do anything, they can’t do everything.* They have learned the skill of either not writing everything that comes to mind on the list, or crossing things off.
WAIT, WHAT??? CROSSING SOMETHING OFF MY LIST? BUT THOSE ARE MY BABIES!!!
Do yourself a huge favor. Either buy, borrow, or steal a copy of Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism. It’s an easy read, one where you will likely take notes, as I did, copying down pearls like, well this*
My daughter Emma, who is completely guilty of the “I’ll do that, too” syndrome discussed in the book, suggested I read it. Her timing was perfect as I’ve just created an interesting process of planning out my 2019 sales activities and the lessons I learned from McKeown either augmented or improved on my thinking. Thanks, Emma.
It’s the hardest thing in the world to do, that of crossing off a task. It might even take two hands. But it is a key step in becoming essentialist. Read the book and you’ll find out why that is something to strive for.
