We live in meetings, and our
productivity dies in them.
If I’m not careful, I can spend
three-quarters of my week in meetings and have only a few hours left over for
writing messages and leading what matters most.
Meetings expand to fill the time you’ve
set aside for them. So just set aside less time.
Hack: Schedule less time for meetings. Hold
them less frequently.
3. Inefficient email
In my view, email is a necessary
evil. But I obsess on the evil part. I really can’t stand it and it takes
up far too much time.
If that isn’t enough, here’s one more
old-fashioned hack.
Hack: Stop emailing people if it can
wait. Write down your questions and save them for a face-to-face meeting. This
can make a huge difference!
4. Conversations without a purpose
Conversations can waste tons of time.
Sometimes you feel trapped in one.
What do you do when someone corners you?
Hack: Be pleasant and move on. You’ve got
work to do. Turn that 20-minute conversation into a two-minute conversation. Be
pleasant, thank them and, if need be, tell them you were on your way to get
something done. Then go do it.
5. An open schedule
Chances are you only write appointments
with others and meetings in your schedule, right?
Big mistake.
Make appointments with yourself. Write
in writing time, thinking time, date nights with your spouse, family
time—everything you need to get done.
Why?
Then when someone asks to meet, you can
say you have a commitment. If it’s truly important, schedule them in during
your next available slot.
Hack: Book appointments with yourself
for what you need to get done.
6. Being unclear on who you need to meet
with and why
When someone asks to meet with you, my
guess is your default is to say yes.
So is mine.
But I would spend all week, every week,
meeting with people, many of whom didn’t really need to meet, or to meet with
me.
Deciding who you need to meet with in
advance helps. My priorities are (in order) our senior staff leaders, our
elders, our staff team … and a few key people beyond that. That’s it.
Most leaders waste time meeting with
people who don't need to meet with them.
Do I meet with other people? Yes, but
only after those key people have the time they need and after my other
priorities are done, which means I do say no a lot (I still hate that, but it’s
necessary).
Hack: Decide on the kinds of people you’ll
meet with in advance and why.
7. Too much blending of personal/work
time
Life online and flexible work hours mean
a lot of leaders blend personal and work time.
Because you feel busy, it’s easy to
assume you’ve worked 50 hours when, in fact, you’ve worked 35 and spent 15
hours running personal errands or wasting time on social media etc. I’m not
saying that’s always true.
It’s a good idea to keep mental (or
physical) track of what’s work and what’s not. Or, adopt the hack.
Hack. Work when you work, play when you play.
8. Not getting enough sleep
You would think that getting more sleep
would waste time.
Just the opposite. It makes you more
productive.
The first thing you’ll cut when you're
busy is your sleep. Big mistake. Sleep more. You’ll get more done.
Sleeping more doesn't waste time; it
makes you more productive.
Hack: Pick a prescribed bedtime and stick to
it.
9. Having no idea what your real
priorities are
You ever spend a day only to think back
and say, “What did I actually do today?” Yep, that’s a bad day.
You have priorities, but do you
have dailyto-dos that become your first priority?
If you put the big rocks in first … the
rest fits in as well.
Hack: Set a key task-list of one to three
things you simply have to get done every day, and do them first.
10. Not pausing regularly to
self-assess your time and priority management
Most of us just rush from one week into
another, never pausing long enough to ask why we’re not accomplishing more.
I have learned I have to regularly pause
and ask what’s working, what’s not and why. Then I recalibrate my calendar and
life to try to accomplish what needs to be accomplished.
That’s something you can do weekly,
quarterly and annually.
Hack: Pause weekly, quarterly and annually
to assess your time and priority management.
So those are the top 10 time-wasters I
see in myself and others, and the top 10 hacks.
What do you see? What’s helped
you?
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