It’s About Time!

It’s a recurring theme, rather crisis. In the past, I’ve tended to dismiss this as an issue. There have been so many outstanding books. There are endless tools/technologies to help us. Endless hints/tips, expert advice. I didn’t realize how constant this challenge is.

But the issue persists! It’s an issue with everyone, from individual contributors to top leaders. It crosses all performance categories–low performers are impacted by this, but may not care that much. High performers struggle with this, as to all others. And the problem seems to be getting worse.

It’s about time!

That’s it, it’s about how we invest our time, what we produce from those things in which we invest time. Time management doesn’t quite capture the issue. We have endless tips on calendaring, time blocking, and so forth. As helpful and critical as these are, they don’t solve the problem.

It’s probably not about freeing up time and hours in the day. The reality is we will always fill every hour in every day, as we choose. We won’t magically be able to reduce the number of hours we spend doing things–we have 7×24, and each of those hours will always be occupied with doing something.

And for those, probably most of us, who say, “I don’t have enough time……” We will never get more.

The issue is, are we getting what we want out of our time? For each of our 7/24, are we getting what we want out of that time?

Let’s spend a few minutes on how we spend our work days/hours/weeks/months/years.

There are the basics of time management:

Perhaps, the starting point is effective calendaring, time blocking for the week. This includes religiously blocking time for critical activities–emails, prospecting, research/prep, coaching meetings, workouts, meals, reading, on and on. As fundamental as it is, few people actually do it, allowing their calendars to be filled with what others think is important.

For those that do block their time, too often, they fail to stick to these carefully thought time blocks. Something comes up, an email, text, phone call. Phones vibrate in our pockets, we are distracted. We react, responding to the the call/message, dropping that which we had carefully blocked. A customer calls…… A manager has asks for something…… A colleague interrupts us. We see the alert counts on our apps and are compelled to take a look.

As carefully as we may have blocked our time, we are constantly interrupted. We put what we had been doing to the side, responding to the email or note. The customer says, “I need an answer….” Our manager says, “I need an answer….” Others say, “I need an answer…..” So we set everything aside to develop an answer. We never ask, “Do you need a response immediately?” Or, “Could I get back to you with the answer in two days?”

But the problem grows. Since we have scheduled our time back to back, these diversions force us to rework our calendars. What do we push? How do we rearrange things? Perhaps we send a note to someone, “I’m going to be delayed…..” Then they have to start rearranging their calendars. The ripple effect of interruptions, of our prioritization of “reacting,” spreads.

Interruptions are a problem. Both self inflicted (which are probably the majority) and those inflicted by others. Alerts, pop-ups, incoming email/message alarms, have a huge impact, just hearing the alert distracts us, taking 23 seconds to recover our attention.

Interruptions that we actually divert our attention and respond to, seldom get our best responses. Usually, it’s a quick reaction. We haven’t had the time to reflect on the best response. Or we may have to take the time to research and prepare for a response, which further impacts us. Ironically, few of these “crises” demand an immediate response. It’s often better to defer them, providing a much more thoughtful response, after you have taken the time to study.

For those things that we block and adhere to diligently, too often we don’t leverage that time for greatest impact. Do we have clear objectives for how we spend the time? Are we prepared to make best use of that time? If we are meeting with others, are they prepared so that we can accomplish our shared goals? Then at the end of that meeting, have we agreed to next steps and the appropriate follow up? If not, we’ve probably wasted time.

Are we being purposeful–even if the purpose of a block is just to relax and reflect?

And so many of the AI tools add to that distraction. My phone suggests summaries, overlaying a note or message, I have to take the time to dismiss those recommendations so I can see the note (it takes me less than 5 seconds to decide if I want to keep or spam something. And for those I keep, I want to understand.

We have marvelous tools that record, transcribe, suggest next steps. To be honest, most of this, I find useless. I have never reread a transcription. I keep a few notes, I document and annotate the next steps.

All these things that were supposed to free up time, seem to demand more of our time, distracting us.

So what do we do.

1. Minimize or eliminate all distractions. Turn off alerts, put your devices in a desk drawer, focus on the thing which you have allocated your time to.
2. Eliminate your react/respond mechanism (unless you are in EMS/firefighter/law enforcement). Very few things require an immediate response. Deferring these will enable you to respond in a much better way. This also enables you to group similar issues, focusing on all of them at once, rather than one at a time.
3. Make sure you are prepared to do whatever occupies the next time block so you get the most out of the meeting. If others are participating, make sure they are prepared, as well. At the end of the meeting, agree on specific next steps, responsibility, and target completion.
4. Stay true to your strategic priorities. If something doesn’t contribute to at least one of your top 3 strategic priorities, you probably shouldn’t invest time in it.

Ultimately, everything is always about time. Our focus needs to be less on how much we are doing, rather on how much are we accomplishing.

It’s about time.

 

Afterword:  Here is the AI generated discussion of this post. Enjoy!