Effectiveness

Effectiveness is the ability to get the right things done. We get the right things done when we consider alternate opportunities and choose the best one. We take swift action on the opportunity once the decision has been made. We use feedback from reality to know when the decision and action is no longer relevant or may have been the wrong choice.

Our effectiveness is improved when we thoughtfully consider how we spend our time. What are we doing with our time? What things are we doing that are not necessary? What time wasters are we permitting to occupy our valuable time? What behaviors and elements from the past are we refusing to let go in order to create room for more effective use of our time?

Effectiveness is enhanced when we know the correct order of things to be done. Once we know that order, we focus on one thing at a time. Once the first thing is finished, we then re-evaluate our list of things to do again and then pick the top one off the list again. The scope of the list of things to do here is on the order of major accomplishments rather than mundane daily to-do lists.

We are more effective when we build from our strengths rather than try to remove our weaknesses. Building from strength allows us to put full focus into positive action toward a small number of things rather than trying to do a little bit of everything. We can drop activities that are attempts to eliminate weaknesses - those will be diminished soon enough as we build up our strengths and perhaps stop doing (or no longer have time for) some of the things that were building our weaknesses whether consciously or unconsciously.

Effectiveness may tend to go hand in hand with maturity. As we grow, we learn explicitly or implicitly which of our behaviors result in the more bang for the buck. The truth that we can learn to be more effective in our professional, social and family lives is inspiration for all of us to desire to do better. We can learn to handle ourselves and our situations better by growing our strengths and conditioning our choices through thoughtful decisions and deliberate actions that are consistent with our personal world view and inner consciousness.

Finally, effectiveness is about contribution. In any situation we can increase the value of our actions by asking the question, "What can I contribute?", or, "What is mine to do?". Our potential for broad and deep contribution is enhanced by our own self-development. We experience growth in proportion to what we require from ourselves. Require little and we probably remain stunted. Require a lot and we may develop into giants. We can ensure that we are headed in a productive direction when we require ourselves to pursue the next step in the form of the opportunity whose time has come.

Up Early

One of my recent projects has been to get up earlier than usual. My desire to do this was first motivated by my frustration that I was not able to maintain a daily consistency of gym workouts if I waited until the evening. I also remembered from many years ago that when I do workout early in the morning before work, I have much more energy, focus, motivation and engagement throughout the day. Not to mention higher confidence and a more positive mood. So, I started by getting up a half hour to 1 hour earlier than needed to simply get out of bed, shower and head to work.

The result of this change was significant. The benefits mentioned above were immediately noticeable. But I was still frustrated that by the time I get home in the evening, do dinner and catch up on the day's news and events, I did not have enough time or concentration to pursue some things. This realization, coupled with a strong desire to "get centered and focused" before starting the day led to moving my goal of getting up early to 5:00 am.

I've been working on this for about 3 weeks now and have been successful at getting up between 5:30 and 6:00 about 3 mornings per week. On the days I do this, I am much more productive. By the time I get to work, I am fully energized and focused for the day. My goal now is to increase the number of days that I get up earlier and continue moving the time back to as early as 5:00 am. The challenge here is getting enough sleep, but I have confidence this will happen.

The routine that seems to be jelling is:

1. Get up
2. Make coffee
3. Meditate
4. Journal
5. Read
6. Write
7. Workout
8. Breakfast
9. Get ready for work
10. Play a couple of jazz tunes on piano

All this is done by 8:00, when I head to work, so you can see why I need the 3 hours. I can definitely say it is making a positive impact on my productivity, effectiveness and life in general. I recommend quality morning time for anyone who can do it. Well, gotta go, time to workout :-)