Coaching Tip:

When juggling multiple priorities,
focus on energy, not efficiency.

Happy Holidays
from Beth & Margaret

Focus on Energy

Do you remember the performer on the old Ed Sullivan show who could keep six plates spinning at once? Every time one of the plates would start to wobble, he’d run over to the pole to save it. Then he’d hustle over to give attention to another plate, adding some spin to keep it going for a few more minutes. Have you ever felt like that?

Most of the people we know describe their days in much the same terms. They have far too much to do; they run from one high priority task to the next, trying to keep things going. Employers expect us to do even more with less. The needs of our children cry out for attention. Many of us care for aging parents. Spouses and significant others make both reasonable and unreasonable requests for support. We struggle to find room in our busy schedules for social events. We feel the pull of obligation when someone asks us to help out with a volunteer project. Household chores await us when we return home. And most of us harbor the hope that at the end of the day, there will be something left for ourselves – at least a warm bath or a few nurturing moments with a loved one.

We live in a demanding world that requires virtuosity in the art of juggling multiple priorities. Many of us live with the sinking feeling that, at any moment, one of the plates could come crashing down despite our best efforts. Conventional wisdom calls for us to improve our time management skills. Learn to say no. Prioritize a task list with A’s, B’s and C’s and stick with it no matter what. But in today’s complex world we’re not convinced that is the answer. We’re not sure more efficiency is what is being called for. We believe that energy, not efficiency, is the key to working through most of our personal productivity dilemmas.

When we try to handle multiple tasks and priorities only by focusing on becoming more efficient, we are out of synch with the way life is. Life is really not a very efficient process, is it? When we try to force life (or work) into the efficiency model, anomalies stick out all over.

What do we do when we have done our best at time management and we still feel stressed out? When we have organized our schedules with utmost precision and still can’t get everything done?

If you’d like to take a different approach to handling multiple priorities, we invite you to access the complimentary Energy Exercise from the Tools section of our web site: www.forwardfocusinc.com

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