Blinkist Summary Book

2021-11-16 06:40:01 Do What Matters Most
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rsonal vision and set annual goals for each role you play in life – professional or personal. Finally boost your chances of success by scheduling weekly activities that can help you achieve your goals.
Actionable advice:
Review your priorities every morning.
Pre-week planning is a great tool but there’s something else you can do to improve your productivity: develop a morning routine. Before you even roll out of bed take a few minutes to review the action items you have scheduled for the day and identify the top two or three priorities. Starting the day on the right foot will make you more motivated and better focused. 
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2021-11-16 06:40:00 Do What Matters Most
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at for teams too. There’s just one thing to remember: planning together as a department doesn’t mean individuals can ditch their own planning process.
If you are a team leader you can invite each member of your team to practice the three principles we discussed in previous blinks. They are: to develop a personal vision to set annual goals and to do pre-week planning. 
Once each member of the team has adopted these habits set up an all-hands meeting on Monday morning where everyone can align their weekly plan. 
It takes commitment and consistency to make goal-setting and pre-week planning second nature. But you’ll soon find out that following your vision and scheduling clear priorities will make you productive. And if that’s not enough your life will become a lot less stressful too!
Final summary
The key message in these blinks:
You can boost productivity and performance by learning how to prioritize the tasks that matter most. To get familiar with your priorities develop a pe Open / Comment

2021-11-16 06:39:57 Do What Matters Most
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deadline for his goal. It became call my son at 7 pm on Wednesday . 
Six months later in a follow-up workshop John announced that he had accomplished his goal. Ever since the first phone call father and son spoke weekly and even developed a new friendship. 
John’s experience shows two things. Articulating your priorities is a critical first step but scheduling your goals is what really makes all the difference.
Here’s the key message: Schedule a specific time for each action item on your pre-week planning list.
You already know that goals should be measurable and time-bound. But your pre-weekly planning should also be specific. Each activity needs to have a time and a date. 
For example if one of your goals is to mentor more juniors by the end of the month here’s what you could schedule in your diary: on Tuesday at 2pm offer mentorship to Sue.  
The authors guarantee that over a year scheduling alone can increase your productivity by 50 to 80 percent.
Pre-week planning works gre Open / Comment

2021-11-16 06:39:56 Do What Matters Most
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written down don’t you? Now ask yourself what you can do in the coming week to move towards your goals. 
Sometimes the answer will be – nothing. For instance you may want to organize a networking event by October 1st. If it’s February then perhaps you can’t do anything to achieve that goal just yet. But if it’s April maybe you can create a list of invitees or send out an RSVP email.
What matters is to schedule everything you want to do for a specific time and date. This way you’ll turn vague ideas into clear action items. 
Schedule a specific time for each action item on your pre-week planning list.
John was a senior executive at PepsiCo. He’d been at the job for decades when he joined the authors’ “do what matters most” workshop. During the vision building exercise under his role as parent he wrote down one clear goal: Call my son . 
Somebody asked him why – and John said he had not spoken to his son since an argument seven years ago. So the authors invited John to create a Open / Comment

2021-11-16 06:39:56 Do What Matters Most
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your personal vision into reality. Maybe you already have a daily to-do list or sticky notes that remind you of just what needs to be done. But pre-week planning will take all of that to the next level. Each week it will force you to reflect on your priorities and schedule what matters most. 
It doesn’t matter whether you use a notepad or your laptop; it doesn’t even matter what your plan looks like. It’s the process of planning that counts. 
Look at your calendar and block off 20 to 45 minutes each week for this exercise. Most people choose to do their pre-week planning at the end of the previous week for example on Friday afternoon or over the weekend. 
Whatever you do don’t leave it until Monday morning. After all the whole point is to plan your week before it starts. That gives you enough distance to see the big picture. 
So it’s the end of the week and you’re sitting down to plan. Here’s how you do it. First take a minute to review your personal vision and goals. You have them Open / Comment

2021-11-16 06:39:55 Do What Matters Most
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onsciously or even subconsciously. 
We’re nearly at the last step of the program – and as you’ll hear in the next blink it’s all about creating an action plan. The authors call it pre-weekly planning.
Manage your time more effectively using the pre-weekly planning tool.
Before each flight a pilot goes through a process known as pre-flight planning. It takes up to ten hours and involves everything from researching the destination and weather conditions to planning the route and checking that the plane is actually airworthy. 
Now imagine if a pilot decided to skip this process even once. No doubt the result would be chaos and confusion. 
In the same way as pre-flight planning is critical for pilots pre-week planning is essential for every one of us if we want to remain in control of our lives. 
The key message here is: Manage your time more effectively using the pre-weekly planning tool.
If you develop the habit of planning each week in advance you’ll be well set to transform Open / Comment

2021-11-16 06:39:54 Do What Matters Most
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ch of your roles in life? Well now it’s time to create a plan for turning your vision into a reality. The tool you’ll use is called goal-setting. The authors recommend setting goals for between now and the end of the year – unless of course you’re reading these blinks in November or December in which case it’s fine to start the other side of Christmas.
To begin write down your roles in a row just as you did when forming your vision. Only this time set annual goals for each role. A useful way to test if your goals are effective is to use the SMART acronym. It describes goals that are specific measurable achievable relevant and time-bound. 
For example let’s say one of your personal goals is to become physically fitter. To translate this into a SMART goal you could write: Achieve a resting heart rate of 66 BPM by August 31st.
Once you have your vision and goals set place them somewhere in sight – perhaps on your desk or by your bathroom mirror. This way you’ll always refer to them – c Open / Comment

2021-11-16 06:39:51 Do What Matters Most
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le.
One night a father was working late into the night after skipping another dinner with his family. His young son walked up to him and asked: “Dad how much do you earn in an hour?” The father answered “$40 ” to which the son replied “Can I have $20?” 
Frustrated by the distraction the father snapped at his son to go to bed. But when he heard sniffles from the bedroom the man guiltily went up to his son’s bedside and handed him $20. 
The boy now grinning reached for the piggy bank under his bed and put all his money together. He counted it up held the coins and notes to his dad and said: “Now that I have $40 can I buy an hour of your time?” 
This touching tale can serve as a reminder of why it’s important to focus on what matters most. The best way to do that is by setting annual goals in your professional and personal life.
Here’s the key message: To boost productivity and performance set annual goals that are measurable and achievable.
Remember how you created a vision for ea Open / Comment

2021-11-16 06:39:50 Do What Matters Most
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t in others? 
Now that you’ve got this list in front of you think about the different roles you have in life. We all wear different hats each day. We can be parent partner manager employee – and we can also be self-focused trying to keep our bodies healthy and alive. 
Write out between five and seven of these roles. Under each one jot down your specific vision for it. Use the present tense to make the mental reality even more vivid. You could write something like I am an outstanding manager who inspires my team to do their best under work or I choose to live a healthy lifestyle under self or even I help to uplift or inspire my friends under friendships . 
You will know you’ve got the vision right if it evokes a range of emotions in you. You should feel excitement but also a small degree of discomfort. This is because your vision is meant to help you grow. Its job is to direct you towards what really matters.
To boost productivity set annual goals that are measurable and achievab Open / Comment

2021-11-16 06:39:50 Do What Matters Most
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tural drawing you have to fire up your imagination. You need to picture where the house will stand how big it’ll be and even how many bedrooms it’ll have. 
In the same way when it comes to becoming the best version of yourself you need to imagine the new you first – only then can you decide how to achieve it all. This sense of direction is known as your personal vision – a vivid image of where you want to end up. 
The key message here is: Get familiar with your priorities by forming a vision for each of your roles in life.
The process of forming your personal vision will help you identify what matters most to you. Here’s how you get started. Put some time aside and grab something to write with – whether it’s pen and paper or a spreadsheet on your computer.
The first step is to reflect on the following questions: Twenty years from now what are some things you want to have accomplished? What would you like to improve about your life or your community? What qualities do you admire mos Open / Comment