 |
| "Equipping you with Biblical wisdom to win in the marketplace." |
 |
Okay my friends; this is the last of seven blog entries about how you can be ten times more productive if you will learn how to minimize the effects of pests. They are as effective as you choose to make them. To recap, here are the first six secrets… (1) Eliminate the unnecessary (2) Automate the mundane, (3) Delegate the routine (4) Designate your work (5) Procrastinate the undefined and (6) Separate to cogitate.
I have been discussing the seven strategies God built into the rainforest to deal with “pests” and how they relate so effectively to work. So far, we have discussed the following: (1) Eliminate the unnecessary (2) Automate the mundane (3) Delegate the routine (4) Designate your work and last week was number (5) Procrastinate the undefined.
I am wrapping up my four part series on personal productivity as modeled by the rainforest. In the previous three sessions, we discussed the importance of Eliminating the Unnecessary, Automating the Mundane and Delegating the Tactical. Now I want to get to your core competency as the CEO of your life. What are you the very best at? What gives you remarkable fulfillment? This is what you really want to do, free from the time wasters and time consumers that have plagued your life. It’s where you soar at the stratospheric level like an eagle overseeing the fields and forests, planning the next move from a place of strategic advantage.
In the rainforest, plants have certain designated responsibilities that only they can fulfill. They are wired or created to fulfill those roles and everything about their DNA beckons them to fulfill their primary purpose. The fourth law, therefore, is to Designate. By that I mean, designate your time, your resources, your heart, your mind, your strength to that thing you have burning in your heart, but as much as possible, do it at a strategic level.
We have been talking about how the rainforest is so incredibly productive. How does it stay so focused on the most important tasks it has like breathing in CO2 and exhaling fresh Oxygen for us to breathe? For the last two weeks we talked about the first two laws… Eliminate the Unnecessary and Automate the Mundane. These two laws, when properly applied, will create a vacation for you in every working day! But there’s more…
Once you eliminate the unnecessary and automate the mundane, it’s time to Delegate the Tactical. Don’t make the mistake of delegating to others the things you should have eliminated or automated. If you do, you’re just wasting their time and indirectly, yours. In the rainforest, there are many pests that consume the productivity of plants. While many plants have devised their own way of dealing with those pests, on some occasions, plants actually delegate the defense of their leaves to others. They hire ants by paying them with nectar. The ants get hooked on the income (the nectar) and ward off all potential intruders like caterpillars, grasshoppers, grubs, etc.