(From 12/13/04) – Zero-Based Activities -- Looking out at the trees in Southern California today, you notice that many of them shed all of their leaves in the winter -- not half, not 70%, all of the leaves. In the spring the trees are ready for new leaves and the limbs become full again. A big drain on our personal and business productivity is doing things that don’t matter (or things that used to matter, but don’t matter so much now). We often try to prune activities from our lives, but we rarely cut out everything and start over. If I eliminate all of the business reports that I create and receive now, which ones would I keep if I had to start all over? If I didn’t have any hobbies, which ones would I start? Would it be the same ones or different ones? We only have so much time to do things. Try this zero-based budgeting on your activities and you’ll see that you not only have more time to accomplish things, but you’ll spend that time on the things that are really important.