Pinkcast 1.2: A simple trick for getting the right stuff done
LINKS AND FURTHER READING:
- Leo Babauta, founder of Zen Habits, seems to be the originator of the MIT concept. Read this post for his excellent explanation. You can check out a collection of his books on Amazon, BN.com, or IndieBound.
- If youâre interested in the other MIT, you can find more information on the schoolâs website. But learning about MIT probably shouldnât be todayâs MIT.
Love this one! And Leoâs work â especially âZen to Doneâ!
Good thing Pinkcast was my MIT today⊠now I move on to LIT. Thanks Dan.
Good timing â will put this tip to use right away and see how it changes my day. Thanks Dan!
Right on, Dan⊠Right on!
Excellent reminder! There are too many âgoodâ distractions that become the enemy to the best use of time. Thanks Dan!!
Nice pinkcast. Pure and simple. Will pay more attention to Zen Habits.
We live in a world of distractions. This will focus on the one and only thing that is critical now to get accomplished. I got a small white board on my desk and before I shut down for the evening, my MIT for the next day goes up1 THANKS for the tipâŠ
Superduper! This so simpel! Let find out of if iet works for me..
Nice!!! Love it â I manage sales ops and about a 1000 items hit my day. I write done 3 things for the day I must accomplish! But I like the MIT better!
Great tip, Dan! Love Leoâs ideas!
Proving once again itâs the little things (who are the big things in disguise) that matter most! Always good to get some âPinkâ advise, keepâem coming Dan!
I live by this concept. In fact, I even baked it into my new task management app called priorigami: the art of productivity (www.priorigami.com). This new to-do list app is like no other. While you can enter and track all of your tasks it reminds you to set your top three MITs for the day to help you make this a habit. Itâs available for FREE in the iTunes App Store: http://www.priorigami.com.
Thank you, again! Too often the time suck of email will establish my MIT but I will try to set the email triage aside and give this a try. Even if the email sort is the MIT of the day.
A similar concept is Eat That Frog, though I guess that only works if your MIT is a frog.
Absolutely agreed and this was said way back by Brian Tracy. I am surprised Daniel Pink hadnât heard of this and I believe Brian Tracy deserves the credit for this concept as Eat that frog has all the nuggets needed for productivity. Thanks Pink for the reminder but do read Brian Tracyâs book.
Yes this is a good suggestion and I think Brian Tracy nailed this concept in Eat that Frog which is a great primer to get things done.
Thanks, Dan. I always list my top three priorities every day, but with the press of distractions even that short list is sometimes unchecked at end of day. Iâm going to try JUST ONE THING and see if that improves my track record. Leave it to Zen to remind us that simplicity really is powerful.
Thank you for another simple â yet effective â tip, Dan. I especially appreciate the reference material; in this case, Leo Baubataâs 2007 post from Zen Habits. Having a valid answer to the âwhyâ question helps nudge the resistant side of me. Iâm putting this tip to work right now!
Great take away to use immediately! Simple, easy and most effective! Thank you for raising awareness.
Great stuff Dan, as alwaysâŠ. In the âalways getting betterâ department, how about a link (or archive) to your past Pinkcast episodes at the bottom of the page? For those finding you for the first time, it would be nice if there was an easy way for them to access past episodes. Keep doing the good stuff! Cheers, Cheryl
Love it! I call this eating the frog. I even keep a frog figurine on my desk to remind me each morning. Thanks, Dan!
Love it! Thank you!
MIT for today: Create PowerPoint for workshop on workplace conflict
NMIT (Next Most Important Thing) for today: prepare for telephone conference with client
LMIT (Least Most Important Thing) forever: worry
Thank you, Dan!!
Debra
P.S. Based on your recent post, I read âGrit: The Power of Passion and Perseveranceâ by Angela Duckworth â excellent! It continues to stretch the parameters of how I see the world. Thanks!
My MIT is to thank you, mention how important this is to me (as a serial procrastinator), and commit to practicing every day.
Love ides to help me prioritize!! AgreedâŠwill help me keep the main thing the main thing!!
Another great Pinkcast.
Great tip, same idea as WIG (wildly important goal) from The 4 Disciplines of Execution. Thank you.
Love the MIT productivity tip. Another quick tip Pinkcast. BTW, my 13 year old daughter wants to know where you bought your white board. We liked it.
Hereâs the link: http://www.chat-board.dk/products/magnetic-glass-boards/. Theyâre a bit pricey, but worth it.
Great tip. Reminds me a bit of the Franklin-Covey time management method. All tasks get categorized into A, B, and C, then sub-prioritized into 1, 2, and 3âŠetc. So your MIT would be your A1 task. Donât move on until you finish A1!
To paraphrase Peter Sellersâ presidential character in Dr. Strangelove, âPut everything youâve got into [that] sector and you canât miss!â
Eat the frog first!
Everything else after that is a piece of cake â so to speak. (Tx to M. Twain)
For further reading on what your MIT should be read First Things First by Stephen Covey.
Dan another great pinkcast. Thank you, please keep them coming.
Love the Pinkcasts, Dan. MIT is a great tip, although in my experience what gets many people stuck is not the concept of it but the execution: deciding what is the MIT.
Iâve seen this challenge manifest in 2 ways:
(1) confusing urgent and important â many people fall victim to the illusion of importance when the task is merely urgent. (I combat this by staying offline until after Iâve worked on at least one important project).
(2) competing tasks of equal importance â this is what traps me often. Balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders (clients, self, family) often results in tension between multiple tasks that truly are important and not urgent.
I really love these Pinkcasts. They are short but make me think a lot!
Great strategy!
Dan, thereâs a Google Chrome extension called âMomentumâ that basically turns every ânew tabâ into a page with a beautiful background photo and a spot for you to write your MIT nice and big for the day. Thereâs also a spot for the rest of your to-do list for the day.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/momentum/laookkfknpbbblfpciffpaejjkokdgca?hl=en
ThomâI love Momentum. I hate lists, but this chrome extension has seriously helped me focus my time and energy on what my key tasks are for the day.
Great tip! I make a âTo Doâ list every day but have never thought if doing this, thank you again for taking the time to record this.
Yep, love this idea. I have 3 MITs per day but same principle. If nothing else gets done but these do⊠All is good.
Right when I needed it. Thanks, Dan.
Thank you. So funny, you crack me up!
LOL, did my MIT before I checked my email and watched the video.
Awesome! Great explanation â love seeing your example (on paper and the whiteboard).
Thank you for this wonderful Pincast: short and right to the point⊠No long introes, no âhave you ever wondered or asked yourself whyâŠâ no âstay 5 seconds more and I will tell you the secret ofâŠâ
I wouldnât mind to receive it weekly!
Perfect! Thank you.Once again I will show to my students.
Great, but this is not boss-proof!
Love it â very simple and easy. If you like this, you would like Stephen Coveyâs Big Rocks concept too! Here is one of the original videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CzQ6gZ4FoY) about putting first things first â oldie but a goodie. This looks at MIT from a more holistic level but the big rocks concept can also be taken to the more daily/weekly time management level.
For those that loved this tip (like me) I greatly recommend reading âEat that Frogâ by Brian Tracy. An easy read but contains some fabulously practical time management and productivity tips.
I was about to click the link to read more, maybe even hop on Amazon and order the book, and then realizedâI already know what my MIT is today! So, I guess that can wait âtil I break for lunch. lol. Thanks, Dan!
This one continues to resonate and I hear it in my head frequently! Thank you both (Dan Pink and Leo Babauta)!
come on! you are killing all the fun of finding new and creative excuses for procratinating!
just kidding, simple great advice, it will stick to my mind!
GREAT idea! Thank you!!!
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the simple yet great advice. Thumbs up!
Makes me think of Peter Drucker and âdoing the right thing vs. doing the thing right.â Itâs good to check that the Most Important Thing is a right thing to doâŠand then do it right.
The real trick is knowing which one of so many competing priorities is the Most Important. Ironically, the task you choose to do first in is actually the second task of your day as determining what it will be is necessarily the first. Efficiently & effectively choosing the MIT while avoiding analysis paralysis is essential and the skill I and perhaps many others need to improve.