No matter what it is you do, there are probably three core functions you can boil it all down to as a representation. For instance, my role in our professional conference is to find speakers, build audience, and grow awareness. If I do those three things, I’m doing what’s important to the business. Anything I’m doing that isn’t those three things is probably not as valuable to my organization. When I was a project manager, my three core things were: plot the course, inform the players, adjust the plan. When those three things were handled, the business was handled.
Three is a Magic Number
At the bookstore the other day, I saw a book promoting 20 new management techniques. How hard is it to memorize 20? I’ll tell you how hard. I can’t remember ONE technique from that book. Heck, I feel like I’m pushing it to remember all 7 Habits.
Three is a good number. It builds a triangle. It allows for an input, a process, and an output. Three accounts for two hands and a head, meaning engaging your brain as well as your body. So, that’s why I say three. You can pick 27 or 8 or 19. I think it’s easy to remember three.
Core Functions
One thing most of us fall into easily is distraction. The number one distraction: false urgency. When we get a phone call, we go off and do whatever the call instructed us to do. When we browse our email, we find actionable items everywhere. We can fill days with the minutiae of our job without really ever hitting the bullseye on what we do for business.
Our core functions are those things that accomplish the main goal we’ve set out for ourselves. If you’re a PR person, your core functions might be absorbing the media landscape, positioning your client, and seeking synergies (I have no idea- you’re the PR type- YOU tell me in the comments). If you’re a software developer, your core functions might be coding from specs, testing the code, and clearing bugs. Core functions are what NEEDS doing at the heart of it all.
Sets of Three
Perhaps there are sets of three. Maybe there are 3 core functions for what you do to make business, 3 core functions for how you grow new business, and 3 core functions for how you interact with your family. Maybe there are 3’s everywhere. But if that becomes true, it’s up to you to understand emphatically which three core functions you should be focusing on at a given time.
The Secret: Saying No
Discipline, and most especially learning how to say No, becomes the most important thing you can teach yourself. If you can’t push away or delegate or neglect the things that aren’t core to what it is you’re doing, you won’t achieve the results you seek. And believe me, if you’re doing the same thing and hoping for different results, there’s a wake up call with your name on it.
Your Three
Pick some aspect of your life and tell me what your three functions are. Does this change how you look at your day? If you didn’t manage from the perspective of time, but instead sought to keep the lion’s share of your work focused on your three core functions, how might that move your productivity along? How does it change your interest in what you get done?