7 habits of highly effective people

By Alison
31 July, 2009
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I’ve been wandering around the house being very inefficient these last two days. There are so many things that need doing that I keep starting on different things and then getting sidetracked. I’ve had to replace the covers on the sofas, sort out the errant filing, and go through all the children’s winter clothing to see what needs keeping and saving. I want to clean out the loft, I have some client work to complete, an entire pad of music to get to grips with the piccolo part for Sunday, and I need to get some novel writing done.

What I’ve done instead is wander about and start everything then walk away. I can’t even claim to have put the new sofa covers back on, as one single cushion is still uncovered – it requires Febreezing since the cat shat on it.

Some years ago while working at Carlson, the workers were sent off to a seminar called “7 habits of highly effective people”. I – however – never got to go. So to this day I remain ineffective, and I can obviously lay the blame for that on Carlson, which leaves my conscience clear from guilt. Laziness of course, has nothing to do with it.

But I really need to fill this lacuna in my psyche, so I am going to define my OWN 7 habits. (And at no point will I be using the term “Win/Win” in my own list.)

write down what you need to achieve
set aside a time to tackle a task one at a time
finish the task. If you get sidetracked, put down the iphone and go back to the task
don’t start making a cappucino before the task is finished
don’t get on facebook to update your status until the task is finished
when you’ve finished the task, tick it off in green highlighter
don’t start decorating the list with other colours of highlighter after the first task is done, just move onto the next task
don’t expect your husband to notice anything you’ve achieved at all, except the messy bits that you didn’t finish. don’t make husband a cup of tea as punishment.