choong pw

Put first things first has been one of my frequent go-to habits nowadays. It often overlooks since the concept of it is obvious, to begin with. I used it to coach engineers, teaching them to prioritize work and to intentionally plan for their careers.

For those that wish to seek a growth mindset, this is important. We have to be deliberate in how we use our time, else you probably guess it. “Not enough time.” And, to make matters worst, as we grew older, the lesser time we have. Be it family or work. We start to take up more responsibility and accountability. And, if we keep on repeating what we do, we’ll go nowhere.

Therefore this chapter is all about this diagram. All work/activity/routine should be in one of these four quadrants.

Anyway, going straight to the point of my thought of this post. The focus is on Q2 Effectiveness.

Execute on most important priorities.

Should work come first or health come first? Pretty obvious? Yet, we focus so much on work that we have overlooked or reserve the time for exercising. How about family? The same thing applies. Is not like the work will take care of us when we fall sick.

Is important to start planning and prioritizing our day, especially the one in quadrant 2.

To start is not easy. There will be a lot of distractions and blockers (rocks) that are stopping us from executing. Therefore, it is also important to acknowledge those rocks and address them in your plans.

I have been more active and deliberate in my planning since the beginning of the year. Starting by defining my long-term goals and the things I wish to achieve by the year-end.

After that, is all about routinely taking some time to plan for the upcoming week. During this time, I also take this chance to reflect on how I am faring against the long-term goal. If so, do you want to put in some tasks that align with those goals this week? Like it or not, sometimes the schedule doesn’t make sense to force it. Example, injured and still do workout).

Take this chance to reflect on how you fare against the long-term goal

Finally, with the list written down, highlight 3 of the most important thing you MUST do. And stick to the plan. I tend to go a little extra with a weekly goal (similar to the sprint goal) to ensure I am sticking to a theme for that week.

Summary

It has been half a year since I started this, and it has become part of my habit to refer to the planner and re-affirm the important to-do. So far, I am proud of what I have achieved.

• Succeeded for the PSM certification
• Started my Instagram theme page
• Weekly workout (at least 3 times a week)
• Start to sleep and wake up earlier
• And a few others…

All of those are small steps to a bigger goal to build my professional profile and present online. Start to feel good when you manage to get them done.

Of course, there are also some that I failed as well. At least, I tried and did some deeper research only to found out that I lack the necessary skills. Address them as the next blocker or move on, is still a choice. In the end, I just want to make this habit as sustainable as possible.

As a bonus, this is how one of my week planning is like. The star is the important rock to address.