Plan your priorities. Do not prioritize your plan.
–Stephen R. Covey

It’s not difficult to plan. We all do. It’s difficult to plan correct. It’s a kind of art, which took me 39 years to learn. And three more years to master. The reason it took so long time is -not at least- because I just followed the crowd who planned with their heads in the sand.

Let’s try something. Imagine, you have seen your doctor a few days ago, for a general health check. Today, you call the doctor’s office, to hear about the results. The secretary says: “The doctor would like to talk to you. When do you have a possibility to see him?” Hvad would be the thing, that defines the outcome of the conversation?

Whether you use Google Calendar, Outlook, your iPhone, a retro calendar made of paper, Post-It notes or something total different, they have all one thing in common. They use a time line as absolute basic principle. And if you are just like most people, you would take a look at your calendar and find a hole in near future.

But what, if you are only interested in the numbers? Then it does not matter what the doctor has to say. And the numbers – well, he can just send them to you. Or tell them by phone. Perhaps you are not interested at all to reserve time to your doctor. You’ve been there a few days ago, and that took some time. The control is important but to talk about it …?

Your calendar does not take into account what your priorities are. The first step is “when”, and then “what”. And with that, your doctor has taken ownership of your calendar.

If you want to be effective in your time, you need to determine what is important to you. Not what is urgent. Because, if something is urgent and important, it’s difficult to plan. If something is urgent but not important, then probably another person finds it important to involve you, and thus he runs your calendar. If something is neither important nor urgent – then don’t do it. It leads to nothing.

A short question: what do you do, if your phone rings, while you are talking (live) to somebody else?