Why you don’t need more efficiency
Abstract:
Stephen Covey is best known for his seminal book The 7 habits of highly effective people. I’ve recently re-read another book he’s co-authored, which is based off the third of those habits: First things first.
I was startled to see how very relevant it is to issues I thought were the product of recent developments such as smartphones and social media. However, the book is from the 90s! I’d like to talk about one concept introduced there.
Your mission today is to learn why “time management” the way we know it can be counterproductive, and what to do instead.
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Background: The wrong map
One of the compelling metaphors used in the book is that of trying to find your way through a city whilst looking at the map of a different city. If you implement time management, if you learen to be more efficient, it won’t make a difference.
As the authors write, it’ll “only get you to the wrong place faster”.
I think this is so powerful. Lots of women come to me for coaching thinking they somehow fail in time management because on top of their demanding jobs and other commitments, they don’t manage to also spend lots of time on their passions.
You don’t need time management, you need a better map.
Task: Finding your compass
Another powerful metaphor used in the book is the comparison between the clock and the compass. It states that time management is focused on the clock, on productivity and efficiency. But as stated in the Background, that’s not going to help.
Instead, you should use a compass, a device which shows you the direction you need. I’ve found that the best compass is purpose. Once you know your Why, you can audit your entire life against it. In most cases, this doesn’t require any drastic changes like a different career.
What’s drastic is the difference it makes to focus on the right things. Priorities matter! And if you’d like to learn more about this, get onto my email list or check out my program The Magic of Purpose. It’s the most “efficient” step you can take.
Transcript
Here follows the exact transcript of everything that’s said in the video. You can find the same text as subtitles in the video itself, to be activated with the buttons on the bottom right.
More time management and efficiency can confusingly make you less efficient.
Hello and welcome to this week's Wild Spirits News. My name is Sibylle, and I help women between 40 and 60 to make the second half of their lives an absolute adventure, full of joy and passion, by focusing on their passions and finding their unique life purpose. If any of this sounds interesting, check out my website, wildspiritscoaching.com.
Today's topic is 'Why you don't need more efficiency'. Stephen Covey is mostly known for his seminal book 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People'. It's one of my favourite books of all time. But he has authored and co-authored several others. One of them is based on the third of the seven habits, 'First Things First'. I've had this book for a long time but recently, for some reason I took it off the shelf and re-read it. And I was absolutely thrown by how relevant this book is to certain issues that I thought were the product of very recent years and phenomena like our smartphones or social media.
But the book was written in the '90s! So that actually, you know, that showed me that these problems aren't new. They have been much longer in the making, they have only been exacerbated by these modern phenomena that I just mentioned. So that was a bit of an eye opener. I would like today to focus on one of the major factors talked about in the book, and your mission today is to learn why time management the way we know it can be counterproductive, and what to do instead.
Background
The background to this is called 'The wrong map'. One of the best metaphors used in that book is the idea of a person driving through a a new city that they don't know, and they're trying to find their way around it using the map of a different city. So they get more and more frustrated because they can't find what they're looking for, and they also - say, now, if this person now takes time management classes or learns to be more efficient or productive, it's not going to help them because, as they say - I love this - they say it'll only help them get to the wrong place faster.
And this struck me as such a wonderful metaphor because so many of my clients, my coaching clients, come to me thinking that they somehow fail at time management because in addition to their demanding jobs and other obligations that they already have in their lives, they don't also manage to spend plenty of time with their passions and hobbies. And they think that's somehow their own personal failure, when actually they only have the wrong map.
Task
The task is called 'Finding your compass'. Another compelling metaphor from the book is the comparison between the clock and a compass. The authors state that we are too focused on a clock on timebound measures such as - like I mentioned in the background - efficiency, productivity, time management, when really we need a compass which is a device, as we all know, that shows the direction that we should go into. This reminds me of a different saying. I don't remember who said that, someone wise once said - I'm sure you know this, you know this saying - that some people climb the career ladder all their lives, only to find when they arrive at the top that the ladder is leaning on the wrong wall, that they got to where they actually didn't want to get to, where they actually don't want to be, right? That reminds me of this.
So you should look for a compass, right, rather than more efficiency and timebound measures such as a clock. And the best compass that I am aware of, that I found in the 55 years of my life, is purpose, life purpose. That acts as your north star. Once you know your Why, you can kind of audit everything that comes into your life against it, like a new person or a new job, a new opportunity or even a new passion. You can quickly check it against your purpose and see if it's aligned with that, and if it's not, then you know that this is something that you probably should say no to. And you can also audit your existing life against your purpose which is one of the things that my clients do, my coaching clients in my main program.
This is my work, this is what I do, and that's why I have a lot of experience with it and can tell you that in almost all cases, no drastic changes are actually needed, such as, you know, leaving their jobs or starting a new career or moving to the South Pole or something - it's not necessary. Rather, what's necessary is-, what's required is tiny adjustments, tiny alignments, shifting priorities, things like that. What's drastic is not the changes that you make but the difference that these smaller adjustments make in your life. They completely and utterly change everything. They transform your life, they make you feel completely different, they make you feel like you're actually inhabiting your skin for the first time. They make you feel, they increase your capacity for happiness, they increase your sense of purpose. It's a completely new game and that is done, like I said, by these adjustments according to your purpose, your life purpose. So that is the compass that I would recommend.
If you're interested in that, I would really recommend you check out my, I have a coaching program called 'The magic of purpose'. I'll leave a link in the description, and what you should definitely do is to get on my, to join the community of wild spirits by getting on my email list. You can also do that on my on my website, and that's completely free. It's also 100% spam free, you'll get one email per week, and I would love to have you in the community.
Let me know
And with that, I would like to know what you think of the topic I talked about today. Does any of this resonate, like the wrong map, trying to navigate a city with a map of a different city? Or the clock and the compass? If any of this resonates, leave me a comment below the video or reply to the email that you got the link to the video with, and I'll reply to every comment. I wish you a wonderful week, and I will talk to you soon. Bye!