How do you break through the clutter of daily emails and tasks—and focus instead on the work that matters most?

Author and workplace expert Michael Bungay Stanier joined us on Wednesday for a web seminar in Rypple’s Leadership Series to share his strategies for how to spend more of your work life doing what he calls “Great Work” — the stuff that gets you out of bed in the morning.

You can watch the recording and see the slides from the webinar below.

Michael shared a few simple, valuable exercises to help you define what great work means to you, and to determine what actions you can take to make your work more meaningful.

1. Map out which tasks mean the most using the I Care They Care matrix

Instructions:

Think about how you spent the last two weeks of work, and what specific tasks you were working on. Start with 10 specific tasks.

Break those tasks into the following boxes: things my boss cares about but I don’t; things both my boss and I care about; things neither my boss nor I care about; and things I care about that my boss doesn’t get excited about.

Look at this matrix and think about the things you want to do versus the things you need to do. Then find the tensions between what you care about and what your bosses care about. Doing the “Great Work” that matters most to you means finding a sweet spot where these two quadrants overlap.

Here is an example from the perspective of a software developer who loves leading and designing but would love to spend less of his time on manual tasks:

Lesson: Don’t short-change yourself by only doing what matters to your manager and not what matters to you.

Next Step : Use the first matrix above to map out a plan of action so this exercise isn’t TBU (true but useless).

2. Put more care into your work and make decisions using the Scale of Courage

Instructions:

Name a specific challenge that you are facing at work. On a scale of 1-10, how courageous is your solution to this challenge?

If your solution is below an eight on the courage scale, think to yourself: what is the MOST courageous solution to my problem? What action can I take to move forward with courage?

Lesson: We usually default to a 3-4/10 solution on the courage scale when it comes to work. Being more courageous will allow you to spend more time focusing on the work that really matters to you.

3. Change your environment and get the juices flowing

“New ideas are more likely to come out of those serendipitous discoveries that happen in the margins of your attention.” Steven Berlin Johnson

Working in a different place and at a difference pace will help get your creative juices flowing so you can focus on great, creative new ideas.

To hear more valuable insights from Michael…

Watch the video:

Review the slides