Three Types of Activities

Three types of activities are keeping you busy:

Type 1: Bad

These are the things you should not be doing. They are wasting your time but still you do them. Stop it! For example, I just received a message from someone who never received the package I sent her. Now I have to spend my valuable time sending her another package. This sucks. I’m a writer and speaker, not a fulfillment agency. This is not how I want to spend my time. The challenge here is to figure out how to get rid of the bad activities.

Type 2: Good, But…

These are the things you should be doing, but they take too long. They are also wasting your time because you’re being inefficient. For example, I received a message from someone asking me about pricing for my keynote talks and I spent a few minutes answering it. This is silly, because I work with standard fees. The request is great but my response is slow. The challenge here is to figure out how to be more efficient.

Type 3: Good, And…

These are the things you should be doing, and you’re not doing them well enough, probably because you’re wasting your time with type 1 and type 2 activities. For example, I received a message from someone offering me to collaborate with Happy Melly. Wonderful! Sadly, I hardly have time to schedule a call with him. I merely sent a brief note (for now) while he deserves a deeper conversation. The challenge here is to figure out how to be more effective.

Which types of activities are sucking up your time?

image: (c) 2011 Courtney Dirks, Creative Commons 2.0