There are several benefits of shedding the not-urgent and the not-important from your life.
First, you'll regain a sense of control. Instead of being a victim of so-called emergencies (yours and others'), you'll develop a sense that your time is yours, your life is yours, and that life is working (mostly) on your terms.
Second, you'll get a spike in productivity. You'll get a lot more done in a lot less time.
Third, you'll feel more satisfied with what you accomplish each day.
Fourth, stress will diminish, leaving you more at peace and able to concentrate on the most critical things in your day.
Last, your life will be greatly simplified. You'll end up spending much less time in chaos and being overwhelmed.
But to be powerful, you must remember that you have a choice. When something comes up, go through this checklist:
1. Does anything need to be done at all? If not, just ignore the problem.
2. Does this have to be done now? If not, schedule when you'll do it.
3. Can someone else do it? If so, schedule a specific time to follow up.
4. Handle the issue now (this should be a last resort).
5. Can you do something to prevent these types of emergencies from occurring?
As we said last time: Take advantage of your freed-up time to do what's really important: what would that be?
