Are You Productive, or Simply Active?
Most days, I feel very busy.
With three kids, an old house, two dogs and, not least of all, running my own business, there’s always something that needs doing. At this point, I’ve learned that it’s simply not possible to ever finish everything on my list.
And yet, as I mentioned to my husband John last night at dinner, despite all my running around, I sometimes sit back at the end of the day with a sense that I have not accomplished very much.
I know from talking with clients and colleagues that I am not alone in feeling this way. Working lots of hours does not necessarily correlate with having a lot to show for it.
Not All Activity Is of Equal Value
For those who strive to tackle important things, it can be discouraging when we get sidetracked. After all, we know what we want to accomplish; why do other things keep getting in the way?
Often, it’s because the big and important things feel, well, big and important.
For example, It can be hard to get your arms around starting a big project. Where do you begin and, since it is so critical, how do you know you are even approaching it in the right way? It’s so much easier to hide behind our old friend “checking email.” That doesn’t involve anyone else and it sort of, kind of, feels productive. In reality, of course, it’s anything but.
These kinds of urgent but not important tasks have a way of hogging our time and attention, whether that’s email, checking LinkedIn, researching things on the Internet, or reading our favorite news source.
The fact is, we tend to procrastinate when projects feel too large or too unpleasant. This is despite knowing these are the very things that would have the greatest impact on our success. Things like…
Making changes on our team
Providing important feedback
Holding development discussions with staff
Having a difficult conversation
Starting an important project
The solution? As usual, we need to take a few steps back, reflect, and calibrate. Some things to consider…
How is success in your role measured?
If I asked your boss (or Board) this question, what would they say? What are they going to be looking at to evaluate your impact in three months, six months, or a year?
Put another way, if you could only do one thing in your role in the next 3-6 months, what would you do? What would be your top priority?
I don’t know what your particular answer would be, but I’m pretty sure it’s not “empty out my inbox.”
What are you actually doing every day?
During a recent leadership program, I asked everyone to track their time for an entire week (thank you Laura Vanderkam for this idea). At our next cohort meeting, I asked them to share their findings. As is usually the case, this “time-awareness” exercise led to some big surprises and remarkable insights.
For example, most of the group was spending less than 20% of their time on their self-identified “big thing.” That means 80% of the time was on things that were of lesser priority. Think how much more value each person could add by raising that 20% to 30% or even 50%.
Are you making room for what’s most important?
Once leaders get crystal clear on their top priorities, I ask them to consider how they can ensure these things get done:
1. Think in terms of “blocks.” Getting significant things done requires large chunks of dedicated time (an hour or more). Spending 10 minutes here and there isn’t going to work.
2. Protect that time! Those project blocks aren’t optional; they need to be prioritized, just like all the meetings and events throughout the work day that we schedule and never postpone or opt out of.
3. Minimize distractions. In his thought-provoking book, Deep Work, Cal Newport suggests taking deliberate steps such as quitting social media for 30 days (at least consider taking it off your phone).
4. Set a timer. An “external force” such as a timer helps us maintain commitments and tackle things we may be avoiding, whether that’s estate planning in our personal lives or planning the curriculum for a new program in our professional work. (Thank you Amanda Jefferson for this suggestion).
Get Started
There is strength and motivation in progress. Remember how difficult term papers were? (Are those even still a thing?) Once you began, it practically wrote itself. It’s that first step that is the hardest and most unpleasant.
As a leader, you can’t afford to waste precious and scarce time and resources on low priority things. The day will never come when you don’t have a lot to accomplish or are not pulled in many competing directions
Decide where your attention can be put to best use and take deliberate steps to focus there.