Finding More Time, Part 1: Eliminating Activities

July 1st, 2008         Email This Post Email This Post       Print This Post Print This Post

Drop the Unimportant
Are you spending time on things you shouldn’t?
What YOU should spend your time on are things that only YOU can do. The parts of your business that you are good at, know very well, are well connected, etc. If you get paid $50/hr, don’t spend your time on a $10/hr task.
You probably know certain parts of your work simply aren’t things that you should spend your time doing.
Before you do any activity, ask yourself - is this a good use of my time? Is this something that generates results? Am I the best person to do this job? If it’s not, figure out how to cut it out of your schedule. Find who you can delegate it to, who you can hire to do it, or how to just stop doing it.

Saying “No”
I am not encouraging you to be mean or selfish. Rather, I am encouraging you to be realistic and honest about your commitments. Is this really something you can commit to doing? Do you actually have time for it?
A polite refusal would be “I am sorry, but I have already committed my time and attention to other projects. I wouldn’t be able to do this justice.”
Keep in mind that every “yes” is also a “no”. When you say yes to something, you are saying no to something else. If a new project will interfere with family time or one you already committed to, saying “yes” is probably irresponsible, rather than nice.
Don’t say yes just to be agreeable, because it will end up causing both people much distress. They will be expecting you to follow through, while you would rather not.

Meetings!
Lets face it - how productive are your meetings? Many people dread them or are just completely bored by them.
In general, meetings lack focus. To provide focus, you should have a rigidly planned meeting with short segments, and a defined end time. The shorter each speaker is, the more prepared they need to be - and the quicker they need to get to their main point. With a defined end time, people won’t get as antsy. Often, once people figure out exactly what the focus is, they realize they don’t really want a big group meeting.
If you are asked to attend a meeting, ask them: “Please send me the agenda so I can prepare. Thanks in advance!” When faced with a meeting I didn’t want, I asked for the agenda. That forced them to actually think about why they wanted the meeting. I followed up on each item by email, and we never had the meeting.
If you feel that you are at the mercy of meeting run by other people, tell your boss that you have a lot of work to do, “can I please, just this once, not come to the meeting? I won’t be able to concentrate well, I have a lot to do! I will find out what happened from someone there.” Make sure to appear more productive than the people in the meeting. Keep up the “just this once” act until its normal for you not to be there. If you have to give a presentation, ask the person who runs the meeting if you can go first because you have other pressing work.

Less Is More
If you keep dropping activities and turning down projects, in the end, you may not have very much left - but less is more! The fewer things you concentrate on, the more time and effort you can put into each one, and the better you will get at them.
On the flip side, the more things you are involved in, the more you have to deal with, the more things you are constantly worrying about that will interfere with all the others.
Spend your time on the few important things!

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Posted in Awareness, Leadership Project, Principles, Time Management