Working Even Smarter: The Eight Keys to
Dramatically Improving Your Personal and
Organizational Effectiveness in Just 75
Minutes!
Introduction
• Your presenter: Chris DeVany
• Our objectives
• This presentation will be available online after the conference.
You will receive an email for the Summit session website
approximately 1-2 weeks after Summit.
• Follow Sage on Twitter: @Sage_Summit
– Use the official Summit hashtag: #SageSummit
• Follow me on Twitter: @cdevany
Our Objectives
• Prioritizing using urgent and important
• Managing my day more effectively
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Plan the day
Choose Top 3 Priorities
Review the day mid-day
Review the day at end of day
Plan for tomorrow before leaving
• Identifying my top priorities for this week, based on my roles
(Goals for Roles)
Urgency v. Importance
im·por·tant (function: adjective)
– marked by or indicative of significant worth or
consequence : valuable in content or relationship
ur·gent (function: adjective)
– 1 a : calling for immediate attention, b : conveying
a sense of crisis or “near-crisis”
– 2 : urging insistently
The Activities Grid
Importance
High
Low
Urgency
Must be done now
or immediate and
severe
consequences.
Consequences for
not doing are
severe, but not
immediate so we
put these tasks off.
Grab at our
attention, but are
not actually
important as they
feel.
The things we do
when we really
should be doing
something else.
Low
The Activities Grid
Quadrant 1
Urgent and Important
Im...
•Crises
•Problems that have immediate
impact on customer satisfaction
•Mission critical and on a
deadline
Urgent, but Not Important
Not...
The Activities Grid
Quadrant 1, Examples
Urgent and Important
Im...
•Your boss demands a certain report
by 10am tomorrow
•Your engine blows a gasket
•The labor pains are 3 minutes apart
•It’s April 15th and you haven’t
finished your income tax forms
Urgent, but Not Important
Not...
The Activities Grid
Quadrant 2
…nt Important, but Not Urgent
•Strategic Planning
•Personal Development
•Relationship building
•Program Evaluation
•Clarifying vision and
values
...nt
Not Urgent, Not Important
The Activities Grid
Quadrant 2, Examples
…nt Important, but Not Urgent
•A special course you want to take
to upgrade your professional skills.
•Writing your mission statement.
• That new project you would like
to suggest to your boss once you do
some preliminary fact-finding.
•A focused planning-meeting
• Starting that retirement account.
•Exercising with your kids.
...nt
Not Urgent, Not Important
The Activities Grid
Quadrant 3
Urgent, but Not Important N...
•Many emails
•Some phone calls
•Some meetings
The Activities Grid
Quadrant 3, Examples
Urgent, but Not Important N...
•Someone asks you to chair a
fund drive or to give a speech or
to attend a meeting (low priority,
but b/c someone is standing in
front of you, and b/c these have
built in time limits, they often get
done while Q2 does not.)
•A co-worker interrupts you
several times a day with
information that’s not that
important.
The Activities Grid
Quadrant 4
…nt Not Urgent, Not Important
•Junk mail
•Spam
•“Escape” activities
•Time wasters
The Activities Grid
Quadrant 4, Examples
…nt Not Urgent, Not Important
•You’re planning to do some
specific work and end up
organizing your desk,
straightening up the drawers,
re-organizing files.
•TV (more often than not)
•Many things “you feel bad
after.”
How Will I Use My Time More Effectively Using
Important and Urgent?
• Q2 – Important but not urgent
• Q1 – Important and urgent
• Do what is important “first”; make these our Top Priorities
• Review everything on our “To Do List”: what is important?
• Take 3 minutes
• Avoid / reduce the priority on Q3 and Q4 activities (both are low
importance)
• Improve our effectiveness 300 to 400% when we just take 3
minutes
Planning Your Day
Plan each day before
it begins:



Before leaving work
At home
Before starting to work
Planning Your Day--The Steps
1. Acknowledge achievements from previous day
2. Update Task List
3. Review “I have to be there”s (meetings, conference
calls) to be sure we have blocked out sufficient time
4. Block out “Routine” activities
5. Start identifying Top 3 Priorities
6 am
What Steps Will I Take to Effectively Prioritize?
• Top 3
• Focus first on importance, then urgency
• Get Q1 stuff done ASAP, get it out of the way
• Focus on Q2 (High importance, low urgency)
• Get the other stuff (Q3 and Q4) done when able
• Begin before you leave home
• Do a recap at the end of the day to see what you actually achieved
• Acknowledge your goals
• Do the most unpleasant thing first, then you’re not dreading it all day
long
What Steps Will I Take to Effectively Prioritize?
• Set Goals (personal and professional)
• Set aside time blocks
• Prioritize accordingly
• You need to prioritize your priorities (schedule)
• Gives you a concrete deadline
• “Eating the frog” (Address the worst problems first)
• Super-pleasers: Learn how to say “no” and address my priorities first
So right now, what are my Top 3 Work Priorities?
• Write down on our Action Plan
Our Roles
Identify my top priorities for this week, based on my roles:
• Role:
• Goal:
• Role:
• Goal:
• Role:
• Goal:
To Summarize: Our Action Plan
• What steps will I take to more effectively prioritize using urgent
and important?
• What will I do to managing my day more effectively?
–
–
–
–
–
Plan the day
Choose Top 3 Priorities
Review the day mid-day
Review the day at end of day
Plan for tomorrow before leaving
• What are my top priorities for this week, based on my roles?
(Goals for Roles)
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• Session code for this session: P-ORG 12
Contact Information
• Presenter Contact Information:
–
–
–
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Chris DeVany
Pinnacle Performance Improvement Worldwide
cdevany@ppiw.com
Twitter hashtag #cdevany
• Follow Sage on Twitter: @Sage_Summit
– Use the official Summit hashtag: #SageSummit
• Thank you for your participation.