I find that when I’m solidly into spring semester I have to start being more intentional about how I’m spending my time. I want to make my highest contribution, but it is easy for other things to take over. Deadlines for required reports and activities attempt to fill my calendar. You probably experience a similar struggle if you’re in academia.
This struggle can be reduced by applying principles in Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. I re-read this book about once per year – it’s that powerful to me.
I know you’ve got your own important work to do; so, I’m going to distill some of his most important concepts. He breaks the Disciplined Pursuit of Lesson into three steps: Explore, Eliminate, and Execute. Incorporating these three steps can help you make your highest contribution.
By the end of this post, you’ll:
- Identify the activities that bring you the most payoff (joy, prestige, etc.)
- Identify the work and activities that you are uniquely qualified to do
- Begin considering how you can align your work with those areas
Explore, Discern the trivial many from the Vital Few
The most important concept in his book is the concept of your highest contribution. This idea is similar to the concept of zone of genius that you may have encountered.
You are uniquely qualified, skilled, and passionate in certain areas (and not others). You should pursue those areas with single-minded focus.
McKeown encourages us to ask, “How can we discern the trivial many from the vital few?” If we want to focus on our highest contributions and our zone of genius, we must explore the many options available so we can be sure we’re focused on the right options for us.
We will be presented with many more opportunities than we can pursue. So how do we decide which will yield our highest contribution? He offers some tips.
Create criteria for discerning the value of an opportunity
Greg suggests that we set minimum criteria for an opportunity to be consideration, and ideal criteria for an opportunity to be approved.
For example, if you get an offer to serve on a committee, co-author a paper, present, or re-design a course…what criteria would you use to decide if it is the right opportunity for you to purse?
For career related opportunities, you might consider minimum criteria to be something like:
- It excites me.
- It will have payoff (enjoyment, monetary, prestige, etc.).
- It aligns with my goals and values.
- It is required as part of my job.
So, if an opportunity meets these criteria you can consider it further. If it doesn’t meet these minimum criteria, McKeown suggests we give it an automatic “no.”
From there, you may consider the ideal criteria, such as:
- It aligns with my mission.
- I have time (or can easily make time) in my schedule for it.
- It feels essential for me to do this work.
- I’m uniquely qualified and passionate about this opportunity.
I recommend this type of criteria when you’re selecting service opportunities.
Assess an opportunity you’re currently facing to determine if it’s your highest contribution.
You probably have lots of opportunities you could pursue right now. Think about what minimal criteria you might use to determine if it is a good fit for you. Then create list of “ideal” criteria.
Now, pick an item from your possibilities list and evaluate it next to the criteria you created. You might have a different list of minimal and idea criteria for different types of opportunities.
How does that feel?
- What did you learn about yourself?
- What did you learn about your criteria?
- What did you learn about moving forward (or not) with that opportunity?
Were you able to move it to the “nope” or the “hell, yes!” category? Were you able to move it to the “nope” or the “hell, yes!” category?
Eliminate the Extraneous to focus on Your Highest contribution
You’re probably thinking, “that sounds all fine, but I already have more opportunities, projects, and commitments than I can deal with.” You’ve also probably realized that if you could go back in time, some things you’re doing probably wouldn’t make the cut based on your current criteria.
McKeown’s question here is, “How can we cut out the trivial many?”
His first step is to clarify your essential intent – a concrete inspiration statement that can direct your work. For example, my essential intent throughout all facets of my professional life is to “Support aspiring and current faculty in making their highest contribution through my publications and coaching.” This one statement guides my thinking about the work I do.
Will this statement be my essential intent for my entire career? Certainly not, but it is my current focus.
His other suggestions here include, saying no when something doesn’t align. If you’ve already committed to something, gracefully un-commit yourself. Set boundaries around how you’ll accept or reject future opportunities.
Brainstorm a possible essential intent for your work
What comes to your mind as an essential intent for your faculty work? What aspects do you want it to encapsulate? How might you phrase your essential intent?
Consider what you might need to eliminate so you can focus on your highest contribution
Based on your thinking about your essential intent, what opportunities have you clarified are the right ones for you to be pursuing?
What opportunities should you decline? What current projects or commitments do you need to recuse yourself from? It may take a while to disconnect from some areas, but begin thinking about how and when you can make the ties.
Get Support for Saying No to Everything except your highest contribution
Some of us have a hard time saying no. We can have a very hard time going back on commitments we made. In some cases, you may need to fulfill that commitment, and then set boundaries that remove that type of commitment in the future. Saying no to anything that isn’t your highest contribution is an important step for making progress.
Create a list of phrases for declining opportunities. Practice saying them. You might even create an email template with your typical no scenario.
Here are a few resources for saying no:
Execute on the Essential Few
If you work through some of the ideas above, you may still be left with how best to go about doing the essential things you’ve identified.
Greg asks, “How can we make doing the vital few things almost effortless?” He then suggests:
- Creating buffers in our schedule – literal white space on the calendar.
- Creating routines that provide flow states and focus
- Tracking and celebrating all the steps along the way
Build in Buffer
Many productivity gurus suggest creating an ideal schedule and it’s a tool I’ve shared with my first-year faculty research participants.
Where can you build in some buffer to enable you to focus on the essential without the unexpected things taking over that essential time? One example is give yourself a buffer of 30 minutes before and after meetings. Or if you think something will take 20 minutes, go ahead and block out the calendar for 30-45 minutes.
Create Routines
What aspects of your work and life can you routinize? Creating routines removes decision fatigue and helps us jump back into projects and activities.
Some people have morning routines, work-day start-up routines, lunch routines, writing or course prep routines, work-day shut down routines, and evening routines.
Here’s my workday start up routine.
What routines do you already have that support you?
What’s one routine you could put in place to support your essential intent and highest contribution?
Celebrate your successes
Although it’s not easy, I recommended celebrating your successes – espeically of the small incremental wins. Much of faculty work involves long projects that take weeks or months to complete. Celebrating the milestones along the way can help us remain energized by our work.
Even for minor wins I often text my supporters and get high fives. I’m not always sure how to acknowledge the larger wins, but it’s worth our time to remind ourselves of our accomplishments. Higher Education and the processes within the system can be brutal and make us feel like we’re never doing enough. Recognizing our work and contributions can help us feel successful in this landscape.