Time + Priority Management

Recently a woman gave me this handbill and asked me if I’d seen her dog. "It’s gone missing." She told me she’d put the handbill on telephone poles and posted her loss to Facebook as well. And as she talked, she'd reply to a text message and then apologize for texting: “I’m spending most of my time responding to people asking for updates.”

I suggested that maybe she focus more of her energy on finding her dog and block off a few minutes every hour to provide F.B. followers with updates. “Well, I don’t think that would be very fair given how many people are out there looking for him. One of my friends is also helping me reply to all of the inquiries.” 

Maybe she’s right.

Job one is finding the dog, not keeping the social network up to date with “Thanks for your concern, but nothing yet.”  

This applies to the workplace as well where well intentioned people waste countless hours keeping everyone up to date – "because we’re all in this together" – and reducing their own productivity due to a lack of focus.

Another option is to:

Plan the work.

Work the plan.

Celebrate key steps or - when you're done.