“No pain, no gain,” the saying goes. That’s true in most situations. But Steve McClatchy, author of the new book Decide: Work Smarter, Reduce Your Stress, and Lead by Example, says that most of us are spending too much time on pain and not enough on gain.
He explains that every decision we make is one that either prevents pain or helps us gain something. Too often, deciding to tackle what McClatchy calls a “Prevent Pain” task trumps doing a less urgent “Gain” task. Doing this, says McClatchy, steals away the time we need to achieve the goals that matter most—those tasks that propel us forward in our careers and in our lives.
For instance, here are some examples of “Gain” tasks versus “Prevent Pain” tasks:
• Gain task: Weekly meeting to identify new target clients to help move your business forward.
• Prevent Pain task: Weekly meeting to go over protocols and talk about employee lateness or inventory status that simply keeps you from falling behind.
• Gain task: Making a profitable investment or increasing your savings.
• Prevent Pain task: Buying insurance, clipping coupons, refinancing your mortgage.
• Gain task: Reading a white paper about how to increase your audience engagement via your social media channels.
• Prevent Pain task: Analyzing your weekly metrics for your social media channels to determine if your eng a g eme n t with your audience is losing momentum.
If you concentrate primarily on preventing pain, you’ll eventually start to feel like you are out of balance, which leads to burnout. In his book, McClatchy shows you a new way to prioritize your tasks in relation to results, allowing you to get more done in less time.
In addition, you’ll learn that, “The reason so many people fail to achieve their Gain tasks and goals is because they have not committed to defending a time in which they will work on their goals,” says McClatchy. After you’ve decided to make Gain tasks a part of your life, you then must commit to getting these tasks done through three levels of planning: monthly, weekly and daily.
You’ll also learn how to prioritize, plan and execute your plan at work and at home, and how your improved decisionmaking habits can yield a lifetime of accomplishments.
Most important, you’ll learn Nash Aguas (center) and Gimme 5 how to identify your Prevent Pain tasks and Gain tasks so you can properly prioritize and decide when and how to tackle each of them.
Although Mc- Clatchy weaves in the concept that this new way of making decisions will also make you a better leader, this book is for everyone, whether or not you are in a leadership role. (By Eric Jacobson. Excerpted from cw.iabc.com)
