As we close the door on 2021—another year dominated by the COVID pandemic—we’re all looking forward to brighter days in 2022. If there’s one thing COVID has taught us over the last couple years, it’s that time is precious. There are no guarantees in life, and we never know when our plans, vacations, holidays, or even our lives may be disrupted. We hope you have lots of time in 2022 for family, friends, and the things in life that are really important. Take advantage of these opportunities while we have them. Yes, work is important, but remember that we work to live, not the other way around.
At the beginning of each year, we try to provide some friendly advice to help you get started on the right foot, so here are our tips for 2022. They come from three best-selling books, ones you may have read in the past. Fittingly, these words of wisdom all focus on the subject of time.
From the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
Stephen Covey’s time management matrix has helped countless people determine how to prioritize their tasks. In short, Covey encourages people to focus on what’s important rather than what’s urgent. Obviously, some tasks are both urgent and important, and they should be done right away. And some tasks are neither urgent nor important, so many of them should be eliminated. Where most people could improve is by focusing on “quadrant two” tasks, those which are important but not urgent, rather than “quadrant three” tasks, those which are urgent but not important.
From the book Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy
Mark Twain famously said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Brian Tracy liked the message, and he wrote an entire book about it (get your free transcription of Eat That Frog! here). As the Amazon summary of Tracy’s best-seller explains, “eating a frog is a metaphor for tackling your most challenging task—but also the one that can have the greatest positive impact on your life.” Like Steven Covey, Tracy understands that we shouldn’t put off our most important, most impactful tasks. We should get started on them right away.
From the book The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
The core message of The One Thing is that in a world of non-stop interruptions, we should focus on one thing at a time. And the one thing we should focus our attention on is the task that will have the greatest impact on our lives. To determine what the most important, most impactful task is, the authors suggest that we ask ourselves this question: “What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
There are countless other books with similar messages, but here’s the point: We should spend our time wisely, focusing on the tasks that can have the biggest impact first, even if those tasks are unpleasant. Some of the most important tasks will pay huge dividends by making our lives easier, freeing up time, or both.
Here’s wishing you a safe, enjoyable, productive, and profitable new year. Please let us know how we can help.