I often work with leaders who struggle with their time management. 

‘Too much work’ is cited as the most common cause, but it can also occur:

  • In transition phases, such as moving up to the next role level and accountabilities and still doing most of what you used to do;
  • When you’re trying to learn new skills or information, or
  • Because delegation isn’t working as effectively as it could.

Although it may seem counter-intuitive, one useful way to get on top of your time is to step back and schedule ‘time-out’. This isn’t about stepping away from what’s in front of us, it’s about setting aside thinking time.

 

Thinking time is useful because it:

  • Allows space to get out of the weeds and see everything that is going on
  • Helps to show linkages between the different parts and how one thing might affect another
  • Provides time to review what’s happened to date and how things worked
  • Provides time to consider emerging priorities and how you might tackle them, and
  • Provides a space for your brain to generate insight – whether this is about how you could do things more effectively or differently or, sometimes, not at all.

You could start by setting aside half an hour on a Friday afternoon to review the week that’s been, including: what worked well, what didn’t work well, what you might have done differently or could do differently next time, and what issues are outstanding and their level of importance. Then consider the coming week: what is emerging and, given all that’s on your list, what are the priorities.

At the start of the next week, spend another half hour reviewing your notes and reconfirming priorities before you start work.

One of the benefits of this process is that you think deeply about the week in your Friday review, then you have downtime over the weekend where you are not thinking about work. This allows your brain relaxed space to process your thinking at an unconscious level, to make connections (and therefore insights) and to help replenish its energy ahead of a new week.

Don’t get caught in the trap of just being ‘busy’.

Being ‘busy’ is not necessarily a sign of productivity.

Setting aside time for thinking work helps you to stop spinning your wheels, it gives the brain time and space to replenish, it helps to generate insight, and it helps you to more effectively consider priorities, what needs to be done and how things can be done most efficiently.