6 - We Know Time is Precious and We Never Procrastinate

~ We Know Time is Precious and We Never Procrastinate ~

Our time is precious. Its running. Right now it’s running. And there is so much to do.

This big universe we cover. There is a lot of work to do. We are also going places as a team. To get there we have meticulous systems of working, the mechanics of which will bring us to success. But we must also use these mechanics.

So we have time, and we have our way of working. And there is a TON TO DO. All that is left is to consistently place our attention on what matters every moment of our work day. There is no time to waste. We cannot fall victim to procrastination. We know that bad feeling all too well. Audit work is delayed. Evidence is delayed. Reports are not issued on time. There are lots of overdue issues. Issues in our queue. All of these delays. Because we thought we had time. We thought we had plenty of time, and thus procrastinated. And as that backlog builds up, all of our future plans and progress are put at risk for delay, or cancellation. This mindset can no longer be tolerated. We have no time. We will not procrastinate.

We are loaded with projects. In our mindsets, we must remain aware of HOW MUCH THERE IS TO DO. We must spend some thought cycles on all of it throughout our days. Awareness of this load of work pushes us to continuously move towards their completion. We cannot fall victim to the assumption that we have time. We do not have time. There is a lot to do. There is also other work that will need to be done, we just are not yet aware of it. New needs, new risks that have come to light and which require our expertise. Work will need to be re-worked. New initiatives will come up that we need to take on to improve how we work.

Then our calendars must be booked to continuously tackle the work. Everyone must have a daily plan, and must be disciplined to stick to it with little room for exception. A daily plan that, if executed, results simply in our relishing in our professional capabilities, providing us all with the feeling that we performed an Ideal Day. It feels good to execute our work days with discipline. The days fly. Good progress is made. The professional bar of our team is high, and getting higher. It feels bad to slack off. It feels bad to procrastinate. We know we are falling behind. We know we are letting our team down, our function down, the institution down. So we fill up those calendars. We set out to accomplish a lot each and every day. We know that so much can be done in a day. A prior issue can be tested. A stakeholder can be made aware of a project that will impact them next month. A junior member of the team can be taught an important skill, and can be lit up with a new level of motivation. A new issue can be cleared. A blueprint for an audit can be defined. A request list can be determined and shared. All of this can be done in one work day. And that is a lot of work, a lot of progress, and a lot of value.

Everyone must also know what they will be accomplishing this week, month, quarter, and even year. Just look ahead. Look at our functional and team goals for the year. We are loaded with projects. We must complete them. In our mindsets, we must remain aware of HOW MUCH THERE IS TO DO. We must spend some thought cycles on all of it throughout our days. Awareness of it pushes us to continuously move towards the plans completion, and to begin solving them mentally. Think. Think ahead. Start thinking about next weeks challenges. Start thinking about how to tackle next months projects efficiently and effectively. We slowly get the ball rolling. We get those planes ready for takeoff. We anticipate those blockers, and remove them ahead of their materialization. We begin to clear out the brush, and lay down the pavement towards those future successes. So our calendars should not just be focused on our imminent deliverables. We must also include time to plan next weeks work, next months work, next quarters work. Again, don’t be fooled that we have time for these future things. We don’t. So we must start on them now.

We are professionals. We have immense knowledge. We have a craft. We have systems of how we work. We follow them meticulously. And we are professionals. We execute our days as professionals. We don’t meander. We don’t procrastinate. We know what we need to do. We plan our days accordingly, and we execute on it. This discipline is powerful. It makes us the best at what we do. It makes us amazing individual performers. It makes us the best at what we do collectively.

We will not settle for anything less.