How Long Is Your Quit List?

What’s that you say? You don’t have one? If not, your missing one of the most powerful management tools available. As time marches on we accumulate roles, responsibilities, tasks, projects, processes, and ideas.  Lots of stuff. When first introduced they all seem very important. Many seem urgent.  But there are only so many hours in the day, and we never quite seem to get them all completed. So they continue to pile up, and after a while really begin to weigh us down.

More importantly, they can keep us from getting to the most important (but less urgent) tasks that take our business to the next level.

Think of each task as a rock in your backpack. Some are large, some small. Every time we take on a new role, responsibility, task, project, process, or new idea, we add another rock to our backpack. Can you feel the weight of it?

At some point, it gets so heavy that it slows us down. So we set it down and take all the rocks out. We prioritize, track them, and then put them back in the backpack. And then… we continue to carry them. We continue to hold ourselves accountable. Is that really an improvement?

Feeling weighed down? Maybe it’s time to lighten your load.  Open up your backpack. Examine each rock. Some rocks may be obsolete, or irrelevant. Some should be handed off to others who can handle them better. Some should be put in a pile to be picked up at a later time (deferred). Remember it’s not about the size of the rock, it’s about the importance of having it with you TODAY. And it’s about managing the overall weight.

Make a quit list. Your quit list should be a personal commitment to no longer do that which is not needful. Throw away those rocks, or hand them off to someone else. Delegate and eliminate!!!

You’ll be amazed at how much faster you can travel!!! (everything gets done faster). 

And think about how much more you’ll enjoy the journey…