A client of mine was recently explaining to me how he structured his week. It was pretty loose and fast, a do what felt good kind of methodology. I offered him a homework assignment: create your ideal work week. I was first introduced to this concept by Michael Hyatt, a productivity expert who you have heard me reference before. The tool is as simple as it sounds—you sit down and build a calendar around your ideal working style. It asks questions like, when are you your freshest and need to be doing work that requires more brain power? When do you like to be home and will not do any travel? What are the most important things that need to go in your calendar before any others? What are the most important appointments you choose to keep in your life—date night, family dinner, vacation, etc.?
My client accepted the assignment and sent me a draft at our agreed upon deadline. I reviewed it and was immediately struck by two things:
- There weren’t any breaks built in. I mean literally none. He scheduled his day for 8-9 hours with a one hour lunch in there, which he had as likely to be spent with others. Not one second to pull back, breathe deeply, and recharge. I understand that what I’m pointing out here flies in the face of what our hustler culture says we need to do to be successful. While my client’s calendar may look great as a post on Instagram, I know that it would not be conducive to him creating his best work. Why? Because science has proven that micro breaks have a calming and resetting effect. And when we are fresh and not anxious, we produce our best work. It’s just that simple. Why work against science? There is no award for stubbornness. Persistence, yes, but not stubbornness.
- The second thing that I observed was that there was no flow to his calendar. He would work on a project and then shift to another one and then another one. Given the little time that was calendared for each of these items, it was going to be really difficult for him to do any “deep work.” Cal Newport coined this phrase and used it as a title for his book. Deep work is putting in effort on meaningful projects without distraction. It’s things like time blocking, avoiding social media, having your phone on Do Not Disturb all the time (you’ll thank me later, and before you judge—aren’t you glad that when you are talking to me you have my undivided attention?). By avoiding these distractions we can work—without interruption—on the most critical things in our lives and organizations.
What prompted me to share that story and this topic for my newsletter is that time management is one of the topics that I am being asked about on a near daily basis right now. I don’t find it a surprising request as we have come into February and are seeking to keep the momentum of the new year’s resolution going. In avoiding National Quitter’s Day, individuals are wondering how they can maintain the torrid pace they kept in January. I want to devote the rest of this email to giving you, my friends, some practical tips on how to live a life of clarity, peace, and freedom when everyone around you thinks the only answer to every question is to try harder.
- Identify and schedule your rocks first. Perhaps you aren’t familiar with this terminology. Think of filling a bucket with rocks and sand. In order to make sure that the rocks fit, we would put them in first and then the sand fills in around the rocks. Otherwise, if we fill it with sand and try to force the rocks in there, well, seems a bit harder than it needs to be, doesn’t it?
So what are your rocks? Is it your family, your physical health, your spiritual disciplines, your time spent with friends enjoying a hobby, doing one-to-ones with your direct reports, strategic planning, or anything else? Are the rocks you identified aligned with your vision, mission, and values? Only you get to decide that. No one else gets to determine your rocks. Read those last two sentences again. People only get to take control of our lives and schedules when we give it to them.
- Create and maintain boundaries on time and access. Are you willing to take evening meetings? Are you willing to meet with anyone who wants to meet with you, even if they don’t share why? One of the things that I see often in working with leaders whose calendars get out of sorts is that their boundaries are not well defined. They set some parameters, but treat them as suggestions rather than boundaries. The reason that this happens: urgency. I’ve written about the urgent and important quadrant before, so I won’t revisit it here. What I will say, however, is that urgency is created. Very few items fall in the category of actually being urgent (i.e. life or death for an individual or a business). When we allow the urgency someone else has created to become our own, it’s a choice. We fail to maintain our boundaries at that moment and so we think that we have to take this meeting or they will go to another company. If that is the case, is that the type of client that you want?
- Create margin. Have you ever had a friend call you and ask if you wanted to grab a drink, join them for a cigar, or meet at a local restaurant for an impromptu dinner? Those spontaneous moments are often so fun. What makes them possible is space on our calendars and energy to enjoy them. Much like using science to recognize that breaks are restorative, we also need to pay attention to the ways that we manage our energy. Do we have time to get outside during the day? How about taking a walk? No, it’s not crazy, it’s scientific. Do you have the margin to be your best?
- Do, schedule, delegate, or delete. This is an incredibly helpful hack that I learned from Chelsea Pottenger, author of The Mindful High Performer. If something takes two minutes or less, just do it then. If something takes more than that amount of time, determine whether it is something you want to schedule or delegate to someone else. Speaking of scheduling, time blocking is incredibly helpful. It’s when we hold time on our calendar to work on a particular project. No more worrying about when something will get done because there is time set aside to see to it. Ever had that task that keeps getting delayed? Come on, you know the one. If it keeps getting delayed that often, it raises an interesting question: does it even need to get done at all? The answer is probably not, which leads to the last option: delete it. Yes, it’s OK to delete things from a task list. In fact, if it’s not something that is aligned with what you are trying to achieve it’s a great idea.
I had a follow up call with my client earlier this week. We were unpacking his homework assignment. He shared with me that he stuck with his ideal work week for 35% of his week last week.
I asked what he spent the rest of his time doing, “Small stuff that came up.” He went on, “I’m really wondering if I need to have more focus and intentionality in the way that I am doing this. Do I actually need to schedule everything?” While it may feel like “everything” to him, it’s only by comparison to what he is currently doing. We get to decide what we spend our time doing. Choose wisely.