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There is a constant pull on a leader's time, making effective time management a must-have skill. Most leaders are spending each day fighting interruptions and distractions, sitting in ineffective meetings and reacting to the problems and issues that are constantly coming their way.
Have you ever worked a long day only to feel frustrated that you didn’t get any “real” work done? Perhaps you dealt with constant interruptions, emergencies and issues so you didn’t have time to make progress on your important tasks and projects.
Being selective and controlling your attention are key skills of an effective leader.
A few years ago, I conducted a survey of leaders and asked what their number one challenge was at work... The most frequent response was not having enough time to get everything done. Many leaders cited that they struggled finding time to proactively manage their team, let alone get any valuable work done.
The importance of time management in leadership
The ability to effectively plan and use your time efficiently are important skills for leaders. To be an exceptional leader, you must have time to focus on the most important areas of leadership like:
- coaching
- developing employees
- Providing timely and effective feedback
- building connections with your team
- getting results
This requires you to be as protective of your time as possible. In our modern society, we are constantly bombarded with information. Emails, text messages, marketing messages, blogs, social media and the internet all contribute to information overload. We feel so overwhelmed by what is in front of us that we don’t even know where to start.
Psychologists from Columbia and Stanford Universities published a study on how having too many choices impacts our decisions. They set up a display table at an upscale food market that had 24 varieties of jam. On another day, they set up the display table with six varieties of jam. Although more consumers stopped to sample jam at the display that had 24 choices, consumers who visited the display with six varieties were ten times more likely to purchase jam.
The same thing happens in organizations and for leaders everyday. We have so many things we can work on that we become overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. The excessive choices and demands of where to put our attention leave us feeling paralyzed, so we muddle through our day working on trivial tasks that fill up the time.
Focus is a critical leadership skill
Focus (controlling our attention) is a critical part of effective time management, and one of the most important skills for leaders today.
I have worked with many talented, strategic, and emotionally intelligent leaders who were not effective because they didn’t focus on the key areas that yield the best results. There are two key components for increasing efficiency (as a leader or in any role):
- Clarity—being absolutely clear about what you want to accomplish. Many leaders are very fuzzy or vague about what they should be doing.
- Focus—the ability to concentrate on the most important (high value) tasks and seeing it through to completion. It takes discipline to focus this intently.
To be effective, leaders need to be clear about their goals and objectives and what they should be doing on a daily basis. People who get things done faster have clarity around what needs to get done.
Learning to plan effectively leads to increased productivity, which will help you reach your goals faster and become a more successful leader. I’ve never met a leader who didn’t say they could benefit from massively increasing their productivity.
Productivity is the foundation of exceptional leadership.
All successful leaders understand the importance of time management and are able to leverage their time and resources effectively. If you can’t manage your priorities with clarity and develop focus for tasks, you will never have enough time to focus on important areas like coaching, developing and strategizing.
Being a leader today is more complex than it has ever been. We have more information coming at us in one day than our ancestors absorbed in a lifetime. More information has its benefits, and it can also be so overwhelming that we feel paralyzed into not taking action. All of our electronic devices can be great tools, yet for most people they are a source for great distraction. To be highly productive, we need to go back to the basics.
The No. 1 thing you can do today to increase your productivity is to simplify
To simplify means to cut through all the clutter, information, resources, goals, strategies and tasks and distill them to the most important areas of focus. To work at peak productivity, leaders need to be able to control their attention, so they can create great visions, implement great strategies, and execute.
One study revealed that people check email on average 40 times an hour—talk about needing to control attention!
You become effective by being selective.
Below are three simple yet powerful strategies for creating a foundation for peak productivity so you can focus and get the best results:
1. Slow down to speed up. When we feel overwhelmed, our natural response is to speed up so we can get more done. Perhaps we put in more hours by staying late or working on weekends. But that’s not an effective strategy.
The solution is typically not to increase effort. It’s to work differently. When you feel overwhelmed, the best thing to do is to pause, get clarity on what is most important and then put your effort towards the areas that will bring the best results. Feeling overwhelmed is often a sign that you lack clarity on where to focus in this moment.
When this happens, ask yourself this focusing question:
What is the most important thing I should be working on right now?
2. Plan your day the night before. Before you leave the office for the day, take five minutes to plan the next day. This habit will save you hours of wasted time and energy throughout the day. This practice is about analyzing and prioritizing your tasks so you can create clarity.
Pick your top two focus areas for the following day that relate to your most important results. Picking two priorities allows you to focus quickly on your most important tasks as soon as you start your day. Writing a to do list can be an effective way to get everything on paper, but most people miss the next step of prioritizing. Having more than two priorities increases overwhelm.
3. Schedule productivity sprints in your calendar. Productivity sprints are blocks of time for you to completely focus on one of your priorities. This is when you:
- close your door (or go to another location)
- eliminate all distractions (close email, put your phone on “do not disturb”)
- intensely focus on the project at hand.
It’s amazing how much you can get done when you focus completely on a project.
Multitasking has been proven in many studies not to be effective.
When you take charge of your time and completely focus on one important task, you will maximize your energy and effort, build momentum and get things done faster.
We all struggle at times with managing our focus. This is the reality of living in a connected, busy and complex world. As a leader, you have the biggest impact on how your day goes. Highly successful leaders understand that no one will create time for them, so one of our most important responsibilities is to take charge of our focus and energy in order to effectively manage our time and facilitate the best results.
What will you do today to take charge of your time, energy, and focus? Leave a comment to let me know!
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Whenever I have a work project that I keep putting off - I think about delegating that project to someone else - which accomplishes 2 things- it gets the project done and frees us my brain space thinking about it.
Good morning. I loved this read. Thank you so much for sharing. Sincerely, Melissa :)
Thank you for this blog Laurie. I liked most part and specially "As organizations have become more complex, there is a tendency to require employees to do more with less. This is a slippery slope, and often can result in employees feeling overwhelmed and burnt out. One of the biggest contributors to this is not evaluating resources during the strategic planning process." I will use this practice "A best practice is to do what I call Priority Planning—putting important practices on your calendar ahead of time so they become a priority in your day. Examples of activities to Priority Plan include scheduling recurring coaching sessions with each team member, time for strategic thinking and planning, vacations, doctor appointments, important children’s events, and blocks of time for focused work on projects." To be more effective, I will get a good rest so I can have enough energy in the morning. I will read the blog again along with the other links on employee evaluation. Thank you so much Laurie. Best wishes to you and your family.
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I love the feedback on the more than 50 hours of work. AND filling time. So true. Unfortunately, showing that you work longer hours is still seen as being a "hard worker" - not sure how to change that though.
I enjoyed the read. I concur that transitioning from technical skills to delegating results was a task within itself. I did not realize I was almost trying to do the same thing from my previous position, and it was not working. However, I am seeing the results of how delegating daily tasks makes my job and workload easier. Thank you, Laurie.
Thank you for sharing information about your trip Laurie! All 3 things resonate with me - probably #1 being the biggest. I know when I'm gone for a week, I'm still thinking about work and need a vacation when I get back because I did not relax enough. I think your idea of a longer vacation is definitely in my future!!
Hey Laurie, My take on your list - 1 - everyone has a story - listen 2- social media causes interpersonal problems 5- generational differences create hurdles / earn it you aren't entitled / we should help them get there not give it to them 6 AMEN some leaders I would have followed thru Hell, some I wish - well, you know 7- true BUT be as good as your word and 14- Hopefully we leave some good from our efforts, I know the good leaders I have had have. Seen a lot in my career but it really comes down to treat others the way you want to be treated, fair, honest, and straight forward. Good read. Take care
I love this so much and thank you so much for sharing! I really just love realizing that enjoying the simple things sometimes is the best! Also recognizing that what is important and fun to you may not be everyone else's fun on the on the trip. “Do we get to keep these toiletries?” was my favorite!!!! :):) Glad you had a great time and got to spend it with your family!
I very much resonate with lesson no 3! Thank you Laurie
I think the part that you might have missed in their top 5 things, some of which were not "Italian" or even different from home, all of them happened with you, both of you. And i think that is what they will remember too. And you've got tons of photos that will remind them of what the Sistine Chapel looked like - then they might remember what it sounded like or smelled like. Oh- and i agree with you 100% about sleep!
LOTS of great take-aways from this post! Thank you for posting! I especially love "slow down to speed up". That's a keeper!
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the not getting enough rest to be at my best. definitely need to get more quality sleep and make that a priority
It really is hard to narrow down the 3 lessons into one because they are all so interconnected. You need to give your mind and body THE TIME to relax SO THAT you can enjoy the SIMPLE THINGS, including REST. I enjoyed that lesson as a whole. I will take that lesson with me on my next vacation (or staycation). As always, thank you Laurie for your candor and for sharing your own lessons with others so that we too can benefit.
Great information and reminders
Laurie, Thank you for sharing your trip and these nuggets. The lessons that resonate most with me are it does take time to relax and getting proper rest. When you devote 15 plus hours of your day for work, taking care of home and others; the 6-7 hours you lay down does not cut it! For me during this time I'm trying to unwind and find myself thinking fighting not to think about what I have to do tomorrow. Even after I create a to do list for the next day...I find things I need to add. Taking a day off here and there doesn't cut it as well because of all the plans you have for that day. I try to make sure my Mental Health Days remains just that.... time for me to laugh, cry, scream.... whatever I need to release the cares and stress!
Really enjoyed the article... and all very true!
Since I was already well aware of #1 (I'm in the same boat with taking a long time to relax), I think I'm resonating most with #3. I'm learning to prioritize sleep / rest and it's been wonderful. Love that you said "I love sleep.". :)
Welcome back from vacation. Well deserve! Action is the key to success. Shoulder to shoulder, coaching and delegating task to help other employees grow are very important. It is a sacrifice that one must do. Forget about yourself and be with your team day in and out to help them grow, is not always easy. On the long run, your team is stronger, and you can depend on them for the success of the organization. Thank you so much!
So many great tips here, thank you!
I am so impressed you're able to disconnect and these are great tips I'll be sure to try on my next trip!
Such a great post - so inspiring!