Focus on Important Instead of Urgent written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
It’s guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing, and today’s guest post is from Paige Wilson – Enjoy!
photo credit: Copyright: elnur / 123RF Stock Photo
As a small business owner, do you know how much your company earns or loses because of the skills of your employees? How can you increase the productivity and efficiency of your business?
Productivity is vital to the success of a business, especially for small businesses. Every business owes its success to the productivity of its employees which is defined as the rate of output per unit of input. Productivity is not about working harder but working smarter and more efficiently.
What are the factors that contribute to productivity?
The most important factors are high morale, encouragement, and time management. Statistics shows that two out of five business owners rank time as their most important asset. Small companies need to keep encouraging and motivating their employees even in times of stress.
Some ways of improving productivity can be using apps and cloud tools which enable tasks to be completed with greater accuracy. Other ways are through steps like managing “dead time”. Many employees complain that they are unable to manage and complete their tasks within the stipulated time. One great way to resolve this is by using the Eisenhower Matrix.
Increase your productivity manifold with this simple and effective Eisenhower Matrix
This matrix is the very popular Urgent-Important Matrix popularized by Stephen Covey, but originally discovered by President Dwight Eisenhower. President Eisenhower always made decisions regarding work and time on the basis of two simple questions: Whether the work was important? Whether it was urgent? He described it briefly in this form- “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”
How are important and urgent two separate things and WHY understanding this difference can change you routine and eventually your life?
Before coming to how the matrix can be used, it is important to understand what Eisenhower meant by using the words “urgent” and “important”. The term “urgent” refers to things that demand our immediate attention. They scream out for instant responses and hence can be stress inducing and time wasting. These could be emergencies, telephone calls, meetings, or emails. But do they really merit our attention? Today’s digital technology and extensive use of social media have made it worse with multiple stimuli distracting us.
The term “important” on the other hand refers to those things, tasks, or activities that are important for us in the long term. They may refer to our mission, values, goals and need our time and attention. They are not “time wasters” but may never seem “urgent”.
How can YOU make use of Eisenhower Matrix to help yourself and manage your time better?
The matrix as depicted above has four categories of tasks. Check out which quadrant the task demanding your attention falls into. The top two quadrants fall under “important” and not “urgent” categories. If they are important give them priority. If the tasks do not fall into the above two quadrants, then either do it later or delegate it to someone who has the time to do it. This would help the work efficiency and help you in maximizing your time.
Examples of some activities falling into these quadrants are:
- Quadrant 1- Recreation, long term goals.
- Quadrant 2- Crisis, problems, deadlines.
- Quadrant 3- Meetings, activities.
- Quadrant 4- Timewasters.
Adapt the Eisenhower Matrix now
As a small business owner, it would help if you could adapt this approach and incorporate it into your daily life and train your employees to follow this as well.
from Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2014/12/18/eisenhower-matrix/
from Tumblr http://frankierwolf.tumblr.com/post/105551795019
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