In a briefing of web metrics, the discussion turned to an exploratory question as to what metrics were important to watch. This briefing occurs every week for over a year now. Only now the reflective question of what’s important broke through.
The metrics shared are comprehensive with many common relationships heard in any marketing podcast or found in any book dealing with websites. It’s interesting how little I knew before. Feeling so good about everything I understood now. But I was unable to answer the question of what is important to look at amidst all of the fancy numbers given.
My team member astutely pointed out that we have not explored nor agreed on what our goals will be for our website. Because there is no clarity of direction, both nothing and everything seems important. When in reality they’re not.
My curiosity makes me an avid learner. The deception I create for myself often is when I gain knowledge in an area, I feel I have accomplished something. Because complexity doesn’t scare me. Looking at lots of numbers is fun.
Learning is not the most difficult thing we can do. Deciding what is important is. Not all things are important even when they capture a large voice in our day. Being busy is not the most difficult thing we can do. Figuring out why we do what we do is.
We are taught to be survivors, technicians or problem solvers. But little time is spent teaching us to reflect on how we spend our days. With little attention given to building the skills of map making, navigation, and creation for our own lives.
While we hear a lot about the value of goal setting, little is taught about the value of clarity in our lives or how to achieve it. Understanding why we do something in our day can be very powerful in finding what is important to do. Even if an outcome may or may not be realized in the end.
20% of anything produces 80% of the result. Pareto’s law holds true in so many situations. We tend to live our lives by filling our day with 100% of everything. Never stopping to find what 20% really matters and then focusing our efforts to bring us closer to outcomes we find meaningful or important.
This is the difficult work of understanding “doing”. Worthy of our time to explore by looking inside ourselves to sort through our many “whys”. Finding clarity in what goals or outcomes are most important for us to achieve.
Then using each goal or desired outcome not as an aspiration but rather as a tool to discover amidst everything we see what truly is important. Not to save time but rather to gain traction.