Filipinos know that our political leaders lack a sense of urgency. They say they’ll solve poverty so poor people will elect them. They say they’ll work for job security to get the votes of the jobless. They make promises to everyone to get votes.
But after the election, they work as if they’ll be in power forever.
Good leaders work with a sense of urgency. Their words are their vows. They work on the most important and stick to it until it gets done. They make things happen.
US President Joe Biden first pledge 100 million vaccinations in 100 days. Then, he increased the number to 200 million vaccinations in 100 days. Getting vaccinated will help Americans recover. It is the highest priority. It is more important than any political initiative.
He delivered his promise seven days before the deadline. That’s a leader with a sense of urgency. Good leaders deliver.
Here in the Philippines, there as early as the first week of January 2020, there were calls to ban travel from China. The President (Duterte) belittled the call, and his followers attacked the advocates as alarmists. There were calls to prepare for the possible pandemic but echoing Trump, Duterte said that the virus will disappear in April 2020. You know what happened after that. Duterte ignored experts and has shown no sense of urgency.
Emulate leaders who handled the crisis effectively. These leaders have shown a deeper sense of urgency.
Also, one who pursues personal growth and development is a person with a great sense of urgency.
I want to share proven ways to develop a sense of urgency.
Let me assume that you already know the most important things to you. Now, in its most unadorned beauty, you can do these steps:
Decide what you need to do given the amount of time that you have.
Did you get that? Need over time. Time management experts suggest that you create your list every day. List-making is worthwhile only when you know how much time you have.
It is easy to be overwhelmed when you have ten things to do but only have an hour left for a day. And one of those ten things needs more than an hour to finish.
In many organizations, those with supervisory and managerial jobs often spend their time in meetings. It is not uncommon for them to accumulate four hours of meeting each day.
And when they are done with the meetings, they are already too tired to work on other things.
If the meeting is not the most important thing you have to do for that day, it is okay to tell your boss. Maybe, your presence is not also important in that meeting. Maybe, you only need to know what has been agreed upon in that meeting.
So, even if you have ten things to do and only have two hours left, don’t panic.
Ask yourself which of the things you need to do are the most important, and which one will allow you to finish in an hour or less. Even if you can only do two things out of ten, you can still make yourself productive.
Act on it. Do it.
Do it your way. Some things take a long time to work on – discovering a cure for cancer, building teams, and earning millions – and some things can be done very quickly – writing an email, calling a client, and making millions.
The last one is not a misprint. Earning millions takes some time for others; it takes minutes for a few good souls.
It is important for us to be action oriented.
Great works are 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. We really have to do the work. And we need to do it immediately.
Adjust actions.
You can accelerate whatever you are doing by simplifying it. Eliminate the unnecessary to simplify it. Or you speed it up by improving your skills.
Evaluate your results.
To evaluate is to assess the value of what you’ve done. What have you done right? What have you done wrong? What can you do better next time? It should not take you minutes to answer these questions.
