It’s been awhile since I last wrote a post. I didn’t realize how long it had been until an angry friend called me to vent about my lack of Inspired Idea writing.
We often put off the things that are important to us in order to handle the immediate. What’s in front of us, what’s pressing, what’s urgent gets our attention - everything else falls to the wayside.
It’s unfortunate because the things that are important don’t get the highest quality of our thinking or time. And this effects every aspect of our lives from our personal relationships to that big presentation that doesn’t have a set deadline but is important nonetheless.
Seth Godin wrote a terrific post on this topic called Managing Urgencies and offers a potential solution - “to make the long term items even more urgent than today’s emergencies.”
I’ll be honest, I don’t have the mental strength to be able to do that and sadly I can’t offer you a better solution. I haven’t figured it out yet. I’d love to hear how you find the ability to focus on the things that are important. Drop a comment or send me a note. And make sure you drop it like it’s hot…
- Fire Chief Nish
This post is tagged business life, fires, inspired ideas, nish shah, seth godin
7 Comments
Wake up an hour earlier. Set aside that hour to work on the stuff that’s really important to you. That way, by the time you’re digesting breakfast, you’ve already done something productive.
Sleep when you’re dead.
I’m glad to see that you got around to putting something up…I’m not saying that was the “Angry Friend” or something, but it’s much appreciated that when I need a break from work, I now have something to read!
And if you figure out to foucs on what’s important, please share…
Hey Nish,
Shout out to reaching our formal last week and giving a one of a kind presentation. In terms of this topic in focusing on the more important things, you have to commit yourself to that and like you said its all mental strength. If family or that big presentation is really important to you, you will find the time necessary for it.
“Live everyday as if it were your last”. You will hear people say this very often and the behaviour of human beings would reflect this. The more pressing needs or urgent needs have to be resolved first before getting to the items you throw to the “wayside”. Well thats just my 2 cents. Another great blog just like all the others.
-Yogi
P.S. Have you said to Ovechkin that Yogi says hi lol GO CAPITALS. Playoffs Baby.
@ C - the question is how do you motivate yourself to get up earlier? I find I just hit the snooze button even when all of my intentions are to wake up earlier before going to sleep.
@ Angry Friend - thank you.
@ Yogi - Thanks for the comment and reading. Looking forward to making future appearances at UTM. Watch out for a post on the inner workings of that speech. I’m interested in understanding how people are able to “live every day as it were the last”, we hear it often but it’s difficult to put into practice.
I think it’s all internal game for the first week. One thing that I did to get into it is to hide my alarm clock far away from my bed, so I’d have to actually get my ass out of bed to shut it off. It’s harder to cheat yourself and snooze when you’re already out of bed.
The good thing is that it gets easier as your body adjusts to the change. Then it’s just routine.
Routine is the enemy according to a presentatio I heard last week lol
presentation*
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