Execute, Execute, Execute

No, I’m not talking about your partners, clients, or employees. I’m talking about executing your duties without delay. I’m talking about doing what you have agreed to do. And I’m talking about myself as much as anyone else.

When I have trouble getting off the dime, here’s the conversation in my head:

Productive Me: “Melinda, get your fanny in gear and do something. You have multiple deadlines this week.”

Whiny Me: “What are you talking about? Clearly, you have no idea how busy I am. You don’t understand how many times I’m interrupted during the day and how much I have on my plate.”

Productive Me: “You’re a whiner. Shut up and do something.”

It occurs to me that we all have this conversation, because we’re all in the same busy boat. But I’m betting that our customers, clients, colleagues and employees just don’t care about our full plates. We have been talking about how busy we all are for so long it’s beginning to lose its meaning (much like the word “awesome”, as discussed in my previous post).

If I am not meeting commitments I made, I simply can’t get away with whining and not expect consequences: lost credibility, lost clients, lost opportunities. In the time I spend complaining about how busy I am, I absolutely could have completed one task – maybe more. Being busy has become a very poor excuse for not getting the job done.

So, for those of us who want the Productive Me’s to rule the day: let’s block our emails and silence our phones for a couple of hours. Let’s ask colleagues not to disturb us unless the building is on fire. Let’s start with one task — preferably one that we can complete easily. Then complete it. Then let’s do another one. And another. Eventually getting things done — one task at a time, because multitasking is crazy — will become as ingrained as complaining about our workloads.