The 'busyness' trap

Book review of Do What Matters Most: Lead With a Vision, Manage With a Plan, Prioritize Your Time

How often have you said, “I really want to do this, but I’m just too busy” or “I know I should do that, but I just don’t have time”? These are familiar reasons that we often give to portray ourselves to be in a world of busyness. We also see being time-starved as a mark of high productivity. The Shallenbergers, a father and son duo, bust the busy badge myth, arguing that priorities slip through the cracks when there are too many competing demands for our time. And productivity invariably takes a hit.

They consider “time” the great equaliser because it is a universal resource. We all have access to it, we all have the same amount of it, and what we do with it determines our legacy. We also know that success comes from high-impact activities—those that produce the highest returns for the time invested. Yet, time and productivity continue to be huge challenges. In their research of more than 1,260 managers and executives from more than 108 different organisations, the authors found that 68 per cent of the respondents felt their number-one challenge was how to prioritise their time; 80 per cent did not have a process to plan or focus on what matters most. On the basis of this research, the father-son duo presents a transformational framework that can help us “lead a life by design” rather than “live a life by default”.

Organisations obsess over productivity and performance but they do not always achieve the desired results. There is a reason: A  person or team can only perform or produce to the level of their current mindset and skillset. Real transformation and improvement would set in only with a change in mindset and skillset. This book is all about that game-changing paradigm—the “do what matters most” mindset and skillset.

Developing such a mindset demands looking within to see how one can change from good to better and from better to best. It entails moving away from reactionary living to proactive or intentional living, wherein there is a willingness to make the time to “schedule our priorities rather than prioritise our schedule”.  Such a mental reset is not easy; it requires vigilance against tough enemies that can impede progress — task saturation, complacency, cynicism, procrastination and the like.

According to the authors, the “do what matters most skillset” comprises three habits integral to developing the flight plan for life — personal vision, roles and goals, and pre-week planning. Writing down a powerful, personal vision provides strategic focus. Identifying and setting roles and goals for the year offer operational focus. Consistent pre-week planning brings in tactical focus—it is about aligning actions with the vision and goals, and connecting them to the daily and weekly level. However, only less than 1 per cent of the people they surveyed had developed this skillset.

Do What Matters Most: Lead With a Vision, Manage With a Plan, Prioritize Your Time

Author: Rob Shallenberger and Steve Shallenberger

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers 

Pages: 192; Price: 1,255

 

The authors suggest that vis-à-vis each habit, life has to be viewed through the lens of the different roles that matter most to us — such as personal (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and financial), parent, job title, spouse, son/daughter, and so on. This will help maintain balance and allow us to think about what can be accomplished in each area.

Further, the strategy experts make a bold claim: Inculcating these powerful habits can translate to a 30 to 50 per cent spurt in performance and productivity. The umpteen stories in this book make for enough evidence. It is possible to gather more proof by taking a performance and productivity assessment test, as suggested in the book—before starting to read it as well as after having developed the skillset. The difference in score would provide a fair measure of how much the needle has moved in the different areas of life.

The authors also present a “do what matters most” matrix, giving their own spin to the much-celebrated Eisenhower Matrix. Q2 is where the majority of high performers live. It is all about scheduling our priorities to focus on what matters most while minimising the time spent in the other quadrants. Their research indicates that for optimal high performance and productivity, a person or team has to spend 60 to 70 per cent of their time focusing on Q2 activities.

There are obvious perks, but the realm of the “big three” is unfamiliar territory for most of us. It is pointed out that only 2 per cent of people have a written personal vision, less than 10 per cent feel confident about writing goals (or have written goals), and 80 per cent do not feel they have a process to effectively plan their weeks. This is precisely the reason most of us should pick this book up as a must-read. Step by step, it leads us towards showing us the best version of ourselves, not just at the workplace, but in personal life too.

The authors reiterate their viewpoint in this closing statement: “There is a wind blowing at each of our backs. The question is, how will we each choose to set our sails to catch it? The big three empowers each of us to hoist and set our sails, catch the wind, and do what matters most.”