Have you read the introduction? If not, read that first and then come back.
If you want to go for a light version of the system, don’t apply this role exercise and go to Step 2 directly. I however highly recommend doing Step 1.
Me, myself, I and the other me’s: your roles
Everyone is different persons in 1 body, as explained by Stephen Covey in his excellent book ‘7 habits of highly effective people’. It is what we call ‘roles’. Think about it, you can be:
- ‘sales person’ in your job
- ‘social media responsible’ for a local association in your village
- ‘volunteer’ for a non-profit
- ‘spouse’ at home
- ‘parent’ at home
- …
All of them are quite different, but all of them are essential for you and you want to give them the necessary attention. I am the CEO of a startup. However, given the early stage of the business, I am also a business developer, project engineer, sales person, marketing responsible and partly doing admin tasks. I am also a father of three children, husband, friend and just myself. And yes, these ‘roles’ compete! They all want and need your attention, including the ‘myself’ (think about the ‘I need time for myself’). Roles evolve over time and for example I should reduce my roles as the business grows.
Step 1 for you: write down your roles
Start with writing down all your roles (parent, project engineer, volunteer, event organiser, …). Don’t worry if you identify only 1 or 2. It will help in the next steps of setting up the system and will make you realise where you spend your time on*.
Why Step 1?
Only by identifying your roles you can start balancing and planning your personal life and give you1, you2, you3, … the necessary attention at the right time (here prioritization comes into the picture).
(*) if you want to take it a step further, ask ‘why’ with each role. Might be that some roles conflict with your life goals
Curious about your roles! Comment below 👇👇👇