Hi,

I hope you are safe and well. Things are hectic as always here at Lambert Towers. I'm busy revamping the Communication Workshop content and turning it into a much more digestible format.

I also still need to finalise a few drawings for the Workshop Mastery book and then it will be published.

And I'm busy working on a little side project which should be a lot of fun. More on that in the next few weeks.

This week I'd like to explore why you only have ONE priority and how to use the HALT acronym for better thinking, communication and wellbeing.

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Priority Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and cultivating a bright future of work. 

** One Priority

In my line of work, I often work with Leaders who have 17 top priorities. Or they have 5 and all of them are the TOP priority.

We likely have this same challenge in our own work and lives; multiple competing priorities.

But we're wrong.

We only have one priority.

The word "priority" historically means to rank, to find a single item, a first. In Latin, and some languages still today, priority is a singular, to have a 1st, to have one.

And yet, in our lives, and work, we insist on having multiple priorities. But if everything is a priority, then technically nothing is a priority.

When I work with leaders and managers, I ask them to list out all of their priorities. We then "force rank" them in order of importance (or priority!).

1 to 10. Or 1 to 17 in one case.

Which initiative or piece of work is Number 1? Which is Number 2? and on.

It's insanely hard for people to do - even harder for teams to do this without steer and guidance from leadership.

With forced ranking, there can only be one top priority.

After a few hours of arguments and tears, we eventually get a list. Maybe not everyone agrees. They don't have to. But we have a list.

Now we need to focus almost all of our effort on the top priority. Sure, we may need to keep other things moving a little. We can't neglect the wide array of work that falls under the responsibilities of leadership. But we throw as much at the top priority as we can. We get it done.

It's better to have one thing done (that is our top priority) than 9 things partially started.

Once we've done the top one - we move to the next. It's logical to assume that what was priority Number 2 is now priority Number 1.

The same is true in our own lives. We only have one priority. We may feel like we have 3 or 4 but when we think like that, we scatter ourselves around.

Using the pillars of life we may find that the priority shifts and changes over time. I know it does for me, but not until I've completed the work needed for the top priority.

My top priority right now is my health. It has to be. It's dwindled and slipped in the pursuit of a career, then a family, then the grind of work. Without my health I am a shadow of myself in all aspects of life.

I may have 20 things on my goals list - but they are all a side project and lower priority, when ranked against health.

What's your priority? And are you focusing on it? Is it at the top of your to do list?

** Quote - Small Companies

“It’s good to be in a smaller company early because there’s less of an infrastructure to prevent early promotion”

-- The-Almanack-of-Naval-Ravikant - Eric Jorgenson

** HALT

"HALT" is a wonderful acronym to consider when communicating, doing high priority work and for looking at your wellbeing.

H is for Hungry

A is for Angry

L is for Lonely

T is for Tired

In the newly revamped Comms Superpower Course, I use this acronym as a guide for thinking about how effective your communication skills will be.

  • Will that talk go well if I'm hungry, angry, lonely or tired?
  • Will I listen well if I'm hungry, angry, lonely or tired?
  • Should I send this email if I'm hungry, angry, lonely or tired?

And if I feel lonely and tired all the time, should my highest priority be my health and wellbeing? Probably yes.

Hunger is easy to fix. Anger may take time to control, or maybe life is hard at the moment. Loneliness is not always so easy to fix. Tired may indicate the need for a break.

But I can guarantee that making decisions, communicating, creative work, family time and general high priority work are all much harder when any of the HALT elements are present.

One trick that seems to work for me when I am faced with HALT, is simply getting out into nature, or pottering on low value and low mental bandwidth work.

Alternatively, if you don't have time to take a break (like you're about to go into a high pressure meeting), consider some box breathing, meditation or watching a funny video. Even smiling insanely to yourself can delay the effect of HALT. And of course, hunger is the easiest to solve, so maybe grab a healthy snack.

** Quote - Critical Thinking

"We must integrate three dimensions of thought. We must be idealistic (and thus capable of imagining a better world). We must be realistic (and thus see things as they are). And we must be pragmatic (and thus adopt effective measures for moving toward our ideals)."

-- Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life - Richard W. Paul and Linda Elder

Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

  1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
  2. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
  3. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote

It means a lot. Thank you.

Until next time. Have a great week.

Rob..

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