When the people have to manage dangers from inside the organization, the organization itself becomes less able to face the dangers from outside. Truly human leadership protects an organization from the internal rivalries that can shatter a culture. When we have to protect ourselves from each other, the whole organization suffers. But when trust and cooperation thrive internally, we pull together and the organization grows stronger as a result.
My son is a former Marine captain. When he was going through Officer Candidate School, he told me there were times when he was leading a unit on an exercise and he didn’t have a chance to eat. Why? “Leaders eat last” he told me…
“This one choice, whether a leader puts themselves or their people first, determines if they are worthy of our love and loyalty.”
I am a huge fan of productivity thoughts, tools and tactics and I firmly believe that no matter what business you are in, you can benefit from some intentional thinking in this area. All of us have more things to do than time to do it in and could benefit from a tool that would help us to organize our thoughts and tasks in a more systematic way.
I have been interested in this space since the early 90’s when the company I worked for at the time implemented the Franklin Planner as a means of increasing or enhancing productivity. Franklin Planner was a great way to start but organizing things according to their methodology was as cumbersome as the mass of binders that we had to carry around in order to manage our days.
Almost 20 years ago David Allen came on the scene with his radical ‘Getting Things Done’ approach to time and task management. His ‘mind like water’ approach is perfect for a time when to-do lists must be more flexible while recognizing the context of tasks as well. I have taken his approach to productivity to heart for almost half of my business life and thought of you who know me have heard me talk about it at least once, if not more! What I have never really found is a way to implement his thinking in a way that incorporates the best of software tools, the cloud and a platform independent approach that met my needs. Until now, that is. The tool I want to tell you about is called Priority Matrix from Appfluence.
Priority Matrix is platform independent, based in the cloud, freemium software that integrates with any email platform you’re using including Office 365, Outlook, G Suites and Gmail and it does it seamlessly and elegantly.
Here’s a brief overview:
Overview
Additional Examples…
It’s even available for smartphones!
You can find many more of these examples on their YouTube channel here.
This solution hits all my high notes around thoughts, tools, tactics and timing in the productivity space and it meets all my criteria for an effective solution. It is simple, it is powerful, it is platform independent, it is freemium and therefore it is effective. If you’d like to talk about how this applies to you, please use the contact form below!
Supplemental articles
“Benjamin Franklin didn't become one of history's greatest inventors just by sitting around. His daily schedule was pretty intense. This meticulous and rigorous routine may seem impossible to follow, but it could mean a serious productivity boost” https://t.co/Fv8oqua50lpic.twitter.com/M4eNqOExkj
These thoughts were assembled with care for the important people in my life. If you’re getting this link, it’s because you and your productivity and happiness are very important to me! I hope it benefits you…
Bright, shiny objects! 