5 Ways to Create More Hours in Your Week
“I need more time with no extra hours,” a friend recently
told me. She consistently feels anxious going to work, gets to the end of the
day and feels like she hasn’t stopped to take a breath. Her regular rants include
“I don’t have enough time”! She feels scattered, unfocussed and
disorganised. The stress is building as
she runs around reacting to what is happening around her.
I think at some stage in our careers, we all have
experienced moments like this when we feel like a headless chook and seem unable
to get in front and on top of our workload and this often spills into other
aspects of our lives. For me, it was in
early 2003 – a couple of years after establishing a new business and giving it
my everything to get it off the ground.
The passion, excitement and determination to create something successful
was a driving force that also pushed me closer to the burnout zone.
I learnt that feeling like I had a lack of time, meant that
I had to prioritise to gain control over my day. Several things needed to change, some were
relatively small in concept and simple in application, but they made a significant
difference immediately.
Role definition – get a blank piece of paper and write at the top what is my job? What are the 5 major tasks to achieve this? What 5 things am I doing that I can delegate? And finally what steps can I take to delegate them? For me, such a simple exercise clearly showed me that I was spending nearly half my time on tasks that I could easily get someone else to do and I was too “hands-on” in the business managing rather than leading.
Role definition – get a blank piece of paper and write at the top what is my job? What are the 5 major tasks to achieve this? What 5 things am I doing that I can delegate? And finally what steps can I take to delegate them? For me, such a simple exercise clearly showed me that I was spending nearly half my time on tasks that I could easily get someone else to do and I was too “hands-on” in the business managing rather than leading.
Urgent vs important – any time management guru or text will explain that we spend too much of our day reacting to what appears urgent rather than on those activities that have a direct impact on outcomes. This became very clear to me as I proof read documents, approved invoices, accepted interruptions from other internal departments and got distracted by administrative processes.
The “to do list” – a non-negotiable,
essential tool that I have used every day for the past 15 years. It has become
legendary with every person who has worked for me and they will tell you that I
live and die by it. It numbers and lists
every task specifically that needs to be completed for the day. It has to be specific eg: call Tony Jones re:
ad approval or complete reference check on Mandy Smith. Grouping tasks or being generic such as do reference
checking or ring clients doesn’t get done because it isn’t exact or measureable. Once completed, ticked off, it becomes a
single document that lists all tasks – not using different systems such as outlook,
sticky notes and a notebook – one system, one list.
“Big rocks” – becoming clear on the “big
rocks” - that is typically between 3 – 5 of the most important priorities that
you do that deliver the outcomes you want to achieve. Figure out what they are and spend at least
70% of your week doing them. For me these highest payoff activities were
performance management, business development, coaching and sales training.
Empowering others to take responsibility
– when it’s your own business or where you have direct accountability for
specific outcomes for a division, it can be hard to let go. The moment I delegated authority, allowed
people to make decisions and learn for themselves, the confidence and trust
grew. The result for me was more time
and less stress, as I wasn’t holding sole responsibility for everything that
happened. A weight was lifted off my shoulders.
The secret to gaining more time
is through priortisation and focusing on those things that actually make a
difference to what you are trying to achieve.
In the words of productivity guru Timothy Ferriss,
“being busy is used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but
uncomfortable actions”. I couldn’t agree
more.
It is so easy to fill our days
with unimportant, seemingly urgent but irrelevant ‘busyness’. To my friend I say, “stop, revisit your
purpose, get clear on what tasks actually contribute to achieving your results
and don’t procrastinate by being ‘busy’”. You will never get more hours in the
day, but you can certainly control what you put into the hours that you have.
So does my friend need more time?
No! If that were a possibility, she would just fill it doing more of the same unproductive
stuff she is doing now and in essence be no more effective. Having more time doesn’t equate to greater effectiveness…but
being effective will create you more time.
Nicole Underwood understands what it takes to
create, build and grow a successful business. The essential ingredient is recruiting, engaging and retaining people.
Great people. Top talent. High performers. As a previous finalist in the
prestigious Telstra Business Women Awards, a regular blogger and entrepreneur,
Nicole works with organisations to improve through results through hiring and
keeping the right people.
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