This week, I want to talk about the similarity between achieving magic goals and Greg McKeown’s best-selling book on time management.
But first, let me give you a little ‘real-life” update…
I’ve spent the last week living in Ohrid, a beautiful city situated on the banks of Lake Ohrid, one of the oldest and deepest lakes in Europe.
(If you ever find yourself on a trip to the Balkans, add this place to your travel list.)
It’s definitely one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.
Ok.
Now that we’re all caught up, let’s talk about magic and time management…
Here’s some quick context:
Every Sunday, we have a mission-wide Zoom meeting where volunteers teach 20-minute lessons.
This week, we were asked to teach the class.
In our prep, we focused on a single line…
‘Seek not to be cumbered.’
Now, to be ‘cumbered’ simply means being weighed down, burdened, or cluttered.
So why does this verse tell us to ‘seek not’ to be cumbered?
Well, immediately after reading this verse, my mind went to the book ‘Essentialism’, by Greg McKeown.
The thesis of this book (paraphrased by me) is as follows:
We can achieve greater progress toward any given goal by (a) determining which activities are most essential in moving us toward said goal, and (b) doing only those things until we reach it.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it?
The hard part is that most of us drastically underestimate the proportion of our daily activities that meet those conditions.
(many a time we’ve made the decision to become the most amazing magician we can be, only to realize a year later we’re nowhere near that goal as we wanted to be…)
For many of us, it’s easy to fill our time with work that feels productive…but actually doesn’t move us any closer to where we need to be.
(like watching magic tutorials without actually learning any of the moves.)
In other words, we seek to be ‘cumbered’ in order to avoid actually facing the essential work that needs doing.
How can we know if this is happening to us?
One of the most revealing exercises you can do is as follows…
1. Write down your biggest current goal
2. Make a list of the various activities you perform in any given day.
3. Rank the list by how much time you spend doing each activity
4. Now re-rank them by how essential they are in helping you achieve your goal
5. Compare the results of 3 and 4
If you’re anything like me, you’ll quickly see that you often spend the majority of your time on non-essential activities and a minority of your time on essential activities.
But here’s the good news:
Once you’re aware of this, you’re already halfway to the solution.
Now, all that remains is to rethink the way you spend your time in order to prioritize the most essential tasks first.
As Greg points out, ‘it’s not about getting more things done, it’s about getting the right things done.’
But how exactly do you do that?
Well, as much as I would love to, I’m not sure I can fit the entire system in this email.
Fortunately, if you want to unlock Greg’s complete method, you can easily pick up Essentialism on Amazon using the link below: