One of the biggest challenges my career transition clients face is a crazy-busy schedule. Nearly every client I work with is in the same boat—ready to make a change in direction, but completely buried under 70+ hour workweeks.
As their coach, my primary aim is to support them in creating both a successful career and a successful, satisfying life. And we both know that can’t happen if they stay burdened and drained by their current job. So I always start with this essential question:
Are you busy or productive?
I find it difficult to believe that anyone can be productive 70-80 hours a week. My guess is a lot of that time is wasted on busy work (and mind you my guess is based on 14 years spent in corporate life and 4 years coaching those who work there).
Busy work includes: meaningless meetings, email distractions, drop-in meetings, instant messaging, phone calls that drag on, and any number of distractions from your actual ‘productive’ work.
Traditional time management techniques tend to fail in business and so I’ve played around trying to find the remedy that works best.
And I’ve discovered that it all starts with a few subtle shifts that can make a huge difference. Here is a 4 step plan to regain control of your calendar and reclaim 10% of your workweek:
1. Get clear about your true priorities.
What are the top objectives you have at work? What are your top personal goals and priorities? When all is said and done, what really matters?
These are your priorities and should be the drivers behind how you spend your days, weeks and months. It’s time to get ruthless about how you spend your time.
2.Now, do a quick ‘gut check’ time assessment.
Estimate how much time you’re spending on average each week directly working on each of your top priorities? If exercise or health is important, how much time are you giving it each week? If developing your team is a top priority, how much time are you giving that goal? If making a career change is what matters, how much time are you spending on it?
Now, for the moment of truth: How much time are you spending each week on activities that are not directly linked to a top priority? That’s busy work.
The truth is, it’s easy to get caught up in the habit of accepting meeting requests just because the time is open on your calendar. Or answering phone calls and email as they come in while you’re working at your desk. Or letting others co-opt your time and focus by dropping in whenever they want to chat, update you or dump their problems on your desk.
All of this contributes to long, busy hours that feel really unproductive.
3.Create your desired time budget.
Just like a financial budget, your time budget sets targets for how you’d like to spend your time. Get clear on what you’d like your ideal workweek to be. If you are working 70 hours or more now, maybe a 60 hour workweek sounds like a dream. Plan out how you can make that happen in your budget:
What percentage of your workweek will you spend on administrative tasks, like answering routine emails, returning routine phone calls, filing, paperwork and such?
What percentage of your workweek will you spend on each of your top projects and priorities?
What percentage of your workweek will you spend in informational meetings (getting or giving information and updates)?
What percentage of your workweek will you set aside as ‘uninterruptable’ work time to just get things done?
4.Create supportive policies and habits.
Now that you know what you’d like your week to look like, how will you make it happen? What policies, practices and habits can you put in place to help you make the most of your time?
For example, one client decided to block out time in his calendar for key projects. He marked them as ‘do not schedule’ in order to protect the time. And, he didn’t answer his phone or email during those 3 time blocks each week.
Another blocked an hour after every key meeting to do the ‘after meeting’ follow up that was a regular part of her week.
One busy client set up an email policy where she only answers emails 3 times a day—10 am, 1 pm and 4 pm. She clearly puts her email policy in her signature line so everyone knows how she works.
One particularly overworked executive informed her staff that her office was now a problem free zone—she would evaluate solutions, but not take on problems. It took a few weeks of consistently enforcing this new policy, but it freed up hours every week because she was no longer bogged down by helping her team brainstorm solutions.
Working long hours feels different when they are actually productive and you feel in control. This 4 step plan works. You just have to be willing to put it into action. Nothing will change until you make changes in your relationship with time. I’d love to hear your best time mastery tips. Share them on my blog at www.shawndriscoll.com
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