The Eisenhower Decision Matrix

Goal Achievement, Planning, Reflection

The Eisenhower Decision Matrix (below) is a great tool to use to help decide on and prioritize tasks by importance and urgency. It helps us consider which of our activities are important and which are distractions.

Eisenhower Decision Matrix
The Eisenhower Decision Matrix – Keep focussed on taking important actions!
Journaling

I have kept an electronic journal since the year 2010.  It is part of my morning routine each day to write my reflections in my journal.  As part of my daily journal routine I time travel back to see what I was doing on this date last year.  Then I look at the year before and travel all the way back to 2010.  I am building up a data set on my own life!  What I have learned is that our memories are a poor way to record what is happening in our lives.  In time our memories become fuzzy and we can completely forget what happened.

One of the things that I have learned by looking backward in my diary is just how much time I have spent working on things which turned out not to be very important.  What I realise now is that I need to spend more time vetting what I am doing.  I need to make sure that my time is spent doing what is important.  Some things are just a waste of time.  If I had reflected more on this then I would have saved myself so much time and effort which ended up being wasted.

Eisenhower Decision Matrix

Through experience I have realised just how important the Eisenhower Decision Matrix really is.  Are you already familiar with this matrix?  Right now I am working through my projects and tasks and categorising them according to the matrix.  Most importantly before taking on new activities and projects I need to evaluate them according to the matrix and learn to say NO more often.  Otherwise our lives can just be a busy trap where we actually achieve nothing of importance.  This document (written for Life Coaches) explains more about the Eisenhower Decision Matrix (Thanks to Kain Ramsay, Strategic Life Coaching  for his permission to share this).

Best wishes,

Tom

Breakthrough to Success: The Flywheel or the Doom Loop?

Book Review, Discipline

The next lesson from ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins  is that the breakthrough to success is a slow build-up process.  Something like pushing on a heavy flywheel.  If you keep pushing on the flywheel it will slowly build up momentum.  Eventually with enough pushes the flywheel will start spinning on its own and take off.  Collins was researching what made good companies become great companies.  This research does not just apply to organisations.  Most importantly we can also learn lessons from the research to apply in our own lives.

The Flywheel

There is no one single push on the wheel that makes it take off.  Each little push on the flywheel in the right direction helps to build up momentum and leads to breakthrough to success.  In short if you consistently apply each of the concepts discussed in the book then eventually you will reach breakthrough.  Do you remember all the key concepts that we have discussed in this series of articles drawn from the research?  Just to refresh your memory here they are again:

  1. Great leadership – humble with absolute focus and stoic determination to succeed.
  2. Who first then what – get the right people around you (kinda like the no asshole rule!).
  3. Confront the brutal facts – face up to reality and seek out the truth at all times.
  4. Find your hedgehog concept – something you love to do, you are really good at and pays well.
  5. Have a culture of discipline – stay true to your hedgehog concept and say NO often.
  6. Use technology as an accelerator – work out how to apply selected technologies as an accelerator of momentum and not as a creator of momentum.

Keep working on the above concepts with consistency and keep focused and motivated by your vision for the future and push that big flywheel a little every day and eventually it will take off by itself.

The Doom Loop

In contrast to the above steps the Doom Loop is where you demonstrate chronic inconsistency and stray from outside the three circles of your hedgehog concept (below).  The doom loop focuses on posturing and looking good in the short term rather than doing the groundwork that needs to be done for long term success (such as facing up to reality and getting clarity on your hedgehog concept).

Loads to reflect on!

Best wishes,

Tom

P.S. Check out all my online courses here.  Check out Good to Great on Amazon below.  The book was first published in 2001 but is still as relevant as ever today (the fundamentals don’t change!).