Don't Mistake Movement For Achievement

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Date: 01/09/2010

Working effectively is more important than working efficiently - focus on the things that matter to your business.

Two decades have passed since we were told that advances in technology would mean we'd all be working less. It hasn't happened, says sales and marketing guru Tony Gattari of Achievers Group. We may be all working more, but are we using our time effectively? Tony Gattari says Stephen Covey's book "First Things First" contains a diagram which sets out four Quadrants of Activity for businesses. The first describes activities that are both important and urgent, like closing a sale, taking an order or dealing with customer complaints. The second involves things which are important but not urgent, including planning, training and strategising; the third embraces activities that may appear urgent but aren't important, such as constantly reading emails or dealing with everyone else's problems, and the fourth is the Quadrant of Waste, time spent on things that are neither urgent nor important. Tony Gattari's advice is to focus on the compass before you wind the clock, otherwise you'll spend valuable time on things that don't need doing.