Is a publishing professional with more than twenty years of

anOTher SUBJeCTiVe meThOD FOr Trimming The aCTiViTY LiST
Go through your activity list twice more. On the first pass through, 
assign a number from 1 to 10 for each on the enjoyment scale, 10 
being “highly pleasurable,” and 1 being “pure drudgery.” Then go 
through again, assigning a number from 1 to 10 on the importance 
scale, 10 being “crucial to the survival of the human race” (well, 
maybe not quite that important), 1 being “nobody really cares.”
Our hypothetical list of activities might look like this:
activity 
ENjoymENt 
importaNcE
Coach a Y basketball team 
9 
7
Chair the workplace expectations
 
committee at the office 
2 
4
Coordinate United Way fundraising
 
in the department 
1 
8
Serve as recording secretary for the
 
church council 
5 
5
Just looking at the numbers, it seems we’ve got ourselves a bas-
ketball coach here. If you give it a 9 on the enjoyment scale, you’re 
probably  also  good  at  doing  it.  (That  correlation  doesn’t  always 
work,  but  it’s  an  awfully  strong  indicator.)  If  you  like  it,  you’re 
good at it, 
and
 you think it’s important, do it!
Want something to trim? I think it’s time the workplace expec-
tations committee found itself a new chair, don’t you?
The  United  Way  job  is  tougher  to  call.  It  may  be  extremely 
important, but you may not be the person to do it. The cold truth 
is,  someone  else  who  enjoys  coordinating  and  fundraising  will 
probably do a much better job than you will.

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