When You Have a Frog to Eat, Do it First!

The Unity Community

A Weekly Letter About...

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and Valuable, to You!

November 6, 2019 - Issue 19-45

Good Afternoon

A friend pointed out last week that she received the last couple of issues with the salutation "Good Afternoon First Name". Obviously not what I intended!

My apology to you, dear readers, for that error. I've fixed the link so you should again receive it addressed to you personally. I'll be grateful to anyone who tells me about such an error if it happens again.

Cindy, thank you so much for bringing this issue to my attention!

Here's a podcast by Jim Riviello , making the distinction between busy and productive. You can be very busy and find yourself out of time at the end of the day.

No time left for the big things you really needed to do!

Brian Tracy is one of my favorite self-improvement gurus. A few years ago, he made a live "model" of an important concept. He filled a large jar 2/3 full of sand. He added a layer of medium-sized gravel, followed by a few golf balls. Then he tried to fit three large spiny hard-to-handle balls in the jar.

They wouldn't fit!

Next he put the three spiny balls in another same-size jar. Next he added the golf balls. They nestled around the larger balls. Then he added the gravel, and finally the sand. The sand and gravel filled all the little spaces around the bigger items.

Everything fit in the jar with room to spare!

This is a physical proxy for an important time management principle. Do the big, difficult, important tasks first! Have a frog you must eat? Eat it before you do anything else! You can fit the other things in as moments occur around the big jobs.

Here's a similar idea. Be aware of the difference between urgent tasks and important tasks.

Some things are urgent and important, like putting out an actual fire. If it doesn't get done, the result can be disastrous. And it needs to be done NOW!

Some things are, or seem, urgent. They're often not so important. There's a sense of urgency when the phone is ringing, even if it's a nuisance sales call. Letting the call go to voice mail will make no difference in your result, in many cases.

Some things are important and not urgent. Studying a book about an important business concept is important. You need to learn the concept. However studying when you have a quiet moment is just as effective as doing it now. Maybe more so!

Then there are the things that are neither urgent nor important. Chatting with a friend can, and should, be done in idle time.

Enjoy Jim's 11-minute podcast. You can get the "meat" of it between 0:50 and 10:00.

John Stevens

Note: Archived issues of The Unity Community are available here.

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About John

Throughout a career spanning over 45 years my management style has been one of building teams to bring several competent people together to focus on a common objective. I noted early in my career that, in most organizations, there is an enormous amount of time, energy, and effort wasted by people working at cross purposes.

As I transition to life in the Argentine outback, my focus shifts from coaching to helping other business coaches and advisers get their message out to their prospective clients. With my first-hand knowledge of the benefits of effective business coaching, I am uniquely qualified to help business advisers of all stripes convey their message.