Discipline is hard, but CINing is easy

Reading Todd Schnick’s recent post about Minimalist Marketing reminded me that once again I need to re-learn an old lesson.  Maybe it would be more accurate to say re-re-learn,  or even re-re-re-learn or…  In any case, my spin on Schnick’s main point is that it’s way too easy to get way too busy, but it’s not much of a challenge at all to be a CINer.

So take the easy route and become a CINer.

The beauty of the approach is that even though it might sound like it, it’s not the road to perdition and for once the easy route is actually the better way to go.  Start with a simple one-month experiment.  Prepare for it by thinking through your typical month, making a list of all the tasks you perform and sorting them out into three lists:

• Critical – 10% of the tasks you perform
• Important– 30% of the tasks you perform
• Necessary – 60% of the tasks you perform

OK, so I must admit that it will hurt a bit to “demote” some of what you do down to only Important.  Get over it and start the experiment.  For the next month invest 60% of your time in the small number of  Critical tasks, 30% of your time on the Important and 10% of your time on the Necessary.

I’m stunned with the spurt in my productivity every time I actually stick to it for a full month.  And even though I’m weak and fall out of my CINing ways, just having the prioritized list is HUGE.

Try it.  Let me know how it works out for you.