In the past week I spoke with two leaders who were completely overwhelmed and stressed about the amount of work they had on their plates. They felt so mentally exhausted that they had little energy to do anything. How often have you experienced similar weeks?
“Looks like I’m not getting anything done”
“I’m so disappointed with small mistakes”
“I get distracted all the time”
“I should be doing A, instead I spend all my time on B”.
In our sessions we did ONE thing, which is often the ONE thing people have a hard time doing by themselves:
WE SLOW DOWN
Slowing down means breaking the cycle of frantically ‘doing’. Slowing down means getting off the hamster wheel. Stop doing what you’re doing and take a few deep breaths to clear some of the mental fog.
The next thing we want to do is create:
FOCUS
So I ask them: What are your 3 Big Rocks?
Your 3 big rocks are your 3 biggest priorities. The 3 tasks, projects or goals that are most important to you, your team and the business.
Some leaders struggle to answer this question. That struggle is a huge indicator of WHY they are in that overwhelmed state in the first place:
1. No clarity what the 3 Big Rocks are
Lewis Carroll’s said: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” If you’re not sure what your most important goals are and the measures of success to get there, it’s no wonder you’re side-tracked.
2. Too many Big Rocks
If you have too many priorities, none are priorities anymore.
What are the 3 goals that, if you focused on them, to the exclusion of the other goals, would make the greatest difference?
3. My 3 Big Rocks are too Big
Thinking about all the work that needs to be done just to get one project completed can feel too overwhelming. So we delay, we procrastinate. The longer we stay stuck without taking action, the greater our worries about it become. Worrying takes a lot of mental energy. How can we break down larger projects into smaller, highly doable tasks and switch from ‘worry-mode’ to ‘action-mode’ instead?
4. We get distracted
Others don’t distract us, we let ourselves get distracted. Look at your calendar and all the meetings, appointments and to-do’s lists you have in there this week. How do these meetings and tasks reflect your 3 Big Rocks? Cross out and cancel anything NOT to do with your priorities. Now see how much time you have available to work on what matters most!
Start the day with 15 minutes of ‘planning’ your day. Don’t allow your devices to call, ping, beep and distract you all day. Turn off notifications and allocate specific blocks in your calendar to ‘catch up on email’, ‘talk to team members’ and ‘make calls’. Don’t forget to schedule some time for yourself; time devoted to you, to relax, reflect, exercise, call a friend, anything that gives you energy and adds fun to your day.
By staying focussed on your 3 Big Rocks you can shift from feeling OVERWHELMED to being EFFECTIVE.
Let’s Lead!
