This week gave me a pretty simple reminder about how easy it is for the important things to get pushed aside.
If we don’t intentionally plan the things that matter, something else will gladly take their place.
Every Monday, I send an email to everyone at MillerClapperton. I call it the Monday Memo.
Usually, I write it on Sunday or early Monday morning. This week, I didn’t. I got distracted.
I came into the office, sat down, and went straight to work. Emails. Conversations. Priorities. A few things that needed attention right away.
I was moving along pretty well when it hit me:
It’s Monday. I haven’t written the Monday Memo.
And for those of you at MillerClapperton who read the Monday Memo, you may feel like I’m double-dipping on the topic this week. Fair enough.
But over the course of the week, I received several comments about it, and it led to a few good conversations. That usually tells me an idea connected with people in some way, so I decided it was worth sharing here too.
The Monday Memo matters to me. I’ve made a commitment to write it every week. But apparently, knowing that something matters isn’t enough to ensure it happens.
That got me thinking about how often this happens elsewhere.
The important things in our businesses usually aren’t the things making the most noise.
Planning the next project may be important, but today’s problem is louder.
Developing someone on your team may be important, but the next meeting is already starting.
Thinking through a decision may be important, but your inbox keeps filling up.
None of those urgent things are necessarily unimportant. They just have a way of taking up whatever space we give them.
I’m reminded that planning isn’t something we do before the work starts. Planning is part of the work.
A full calendar can make us feel productive, but activity and intentionality aren’t the same thing.
Sometimes the simplest way to protect what matters is to decide ahead of time when you’re going to do it.
Otherwise, something else will usually decide for you.