The Sunday Mail
HAPPY Sunday to you all. We have come to the end of another month. While some were still trying to settle down, the month flew by just like that.
Changing Perspectives
Rutendo Gwatidzo
Time waits for no one, hence we must use it wisely.
I would like to share an experience I encountered, which I believe can help someone out there.
Sometime last year, I was overwhelmed by the many things I needed to do within set deadlines.
I had tried to ensure that I finished everything on my to-do list ahead of time.
However, the more effort I put into trying to complete the tasks, the more they piled up. I realised later that I was failing.
I was discouraged.
I then ran into one of my mentors, Imelda Tsumba, who noticed that I was troubled and asked why I was distressed.
I quickly shared my concerns with her.
The tricky question
“What must I do because I am already putting in extra hours; I wake up early and sleep late?”
She then looked at me and smiled.
She asked me to share with her the list of things that I needed to do.
After I shared that information with her, she told me about how she also used to struggle with meeting deadlines until she received help.
She bluntly told me that in most cases, I was being kept busy by nothing.
I was offended by her “insensitivity”.
There I was, not having enough sleep and time to rest, yet she dared tell me that I was busy for nothing.
The amazing response
She then taught me about categorising tasks into four broad groups.
The first category was that of important/urgent tasks.
This is followed by important/not urgent tasks. Then came the urgent/not important and, lastly, the not urgent/not important group. She said I needed to create time for what is important and urgent.
“How do I know what is important?” I asked.
She said important things are those that have a detrimental effect on you when you fail to do them.
I then realised that many things I considered important were not crucial.
That was because I could defer doing such tasks to a different time without suffering any detrimental effects.
Organisational status
Many organisations face the challenge of having teams that are busy for nothing.
Most of them do so out of ignorance.
When management then fails to appreciate their efforts, they get demotivated.
Note that management is impressed by results and not effort.
Whenever you find yourself getting busy yet you are failing to meet your goals, you probably need to group your tasks and focus on what is important.
Having key performance indicators is very important. Inasmuch as everything may seem necessary, it is not everything that is important.
You need to have an understanding of the most important things expected of you, and that should be your guide when undertaking tasks.
For example, the most important thing for a salesperson is business growth through sales.
For a technician, it is the technical ability to establish where there are faults and where repairs are needed.
Managers should guide their teams accordingly by giving them core competence areas so that they focus on what is important.
It is fatal for an organisation to fail to communicate to its workers what is expected of them.
General facts
One author once said: “Doing nothing is better than getting busy for nothing.”
Getting busy for nothing means you have given your time and resources to achieving nothing.
It also means you are operating at a loss because resources are being allocated to areas they are not required.
Guard yourself against such kind of loss.
Categorising tasks is not only ideal for the workplace but also for anything and everything that requires your time and resources. Yes, it is okay to allocate family time to your schedules.
You must allocate time to everything in order of importance. What is necessary but not important can be done together with other things.
For example, you can visit your friends or associates together with your family.
In doing so, you would have spent time with your family while doing other necessary things.
An experience I once had best illustrates this. There was a day I needed to urgently see one of my mentors, Dr Divine Ndhlukula.
However, at that time, she needed to spend time with her nieces who had come from abroad.
What I needed was urgent but, at the same time, it was important for her to spend time with her nieces.
She then decided that we meet at a restaurant. I met her for about 30 minutes while her nieces were playing games.
After I left, they then sat down to eat together and continued having fun as a family.
Be challenged, encouraged and inspired to avoid getting busy for nothing.
Rutendo Gwatidzo is managing consultant at The HUB HR Consultancy. She is a multi-award-winning consultant, speaker and mentor. She is also the author of the books “Born to Fight” and “Breaking the Silence”. Contacts: +263 714 575 805/ [email protected]/ Facebook: Rutendo Gwatidzo_Official
