Take this lesson to learn more and don’t forget to take the accompanying quiz at the end of the lesson.
Everyone has goals, dreams, and desires driven by ambition. Strangely, however, we often find ourselves moving further away from those goals with each passing day rather than closer to them, in spite of working harder.
The problem? We constantly live in fire-fighting mode. We spend more time reacting to the day rather than tackling it with enthusiasm.
We get overwhelmed, upset, and, by the evening, we’re too drained to do anything else. What’s worse is sometimes when we look back on what has been a really busy day, week or even a year, we can’t really recall what kept us that busy- we just recall being really busy.
Being smart about scheduling one’s day starts with realizing one basic fact.
Not All Tasks Are Made Equal
Not every task you are being called upon to perform is equally critical. Now, at first glance, every task in front of you may appear all-important, but the question that you must ask yourself is: important for whom? Is performing this task going to take me closer to those significant results that I want to achieve for myself? Is this task really as significant as I being led to understand?
By taking a few minutes to identify those tasks that are truly important, you’ll know which tasks will take you closer to your goals. That means spending time defining your Most Important Tasks – or MITs – the tasks related to your goals that absolutely must get done that day. Applying the five considerations you’ve learned in the previous lessons proactively will definitely help.
With that in mind, and for the sake of clarity, let’s focus on MITs some more.
What Are ‘Most Important Tasks (MITs)’?
As you know by now, you have limited time and energy to get things done each day. Of the things that are on your to-do list right now, some of them are really more important than others. If you want to make the most of your limited time and energy, it pays to focus on completing the tasks that will make the biggest difference, an MIT, in other words, first, before spending your time and energy on anything else.
A “Most Important Task” (MIT) is a critical task that:
a. Requires cognitive – mental, in other words – focus and
b. Will help you achieve those significant results you’re looking to achieve
A “Most Important Task” is not necessarily:
a. Everything in your inbox marked Urgent or Top-Priority
b. Someone else’s emergency that you’re being asked to step into.
We’re not saying you shouldn’t help people out. An email marked urgent or someone else’s emergency could very well be an opportunity that furthers your goals, or links to your MITs. We’re just saying don’t deceive yourself into thinking everything marked urgent is your MIT, when it’s clearly not.
