“You gotta make it a priority to make your priorities a priority” - Richie Norton

As we near the end of January it’s a great time to review your performance before it’s too late. Do this by questioning if you’re on track to achieve your goals this year or if you’re behind already.

We all need to be mindful of how our level of productivity impacts our brand.

Take Tim (not his real name) for example. Tim was a great guy, but he was the problem.

Sure, he had a significant workload, but performance expectations were high and too often Tim was the bottleneck.

Tim needed to deliver strategic objectives while keeping the day to day smaller business as usual tasks moving.

Yet, Tim was struggling with balancing his big and small stuff. He felt overwhelmed, lacked clarity and it showed in his performance.

Colleagues had lost respect for Tim and he felt awful. Now, this was a time when Tim could have put his head in the sand and either left or just hoped for the best.

Fortunately, Tim was brave enough to put his hand up and ask for help. The good news was Tim’s situation was salvageable because the heart of the issue was Tim’s work methods.

To get back on track, Tim:

✅ Based his workflow on the principles of the 2 Minute Rule

✅ Time boxed the strategic pieces of work

✅ Allowed for time to action the reactive tasks

✅ Worked in sprints when he could

Tim discovered the problem wasn’t the volume, but more so how the volume was being managed.

From improved performance, Tim gradually regained the respect he had lost. But it was the ripple effect on his personal life that was just as significant.

There’s a big difference between being busy and being effective.

How likely are you to achieve your goals this year?