In our final article about “Creating a Better Normal at Work,” we’ll focus on what I think may be the hardest topic – how we spend our time. Time seems to move faster and faster. Before you know it, the week is gone, and then the month, and then the year. It’s hard to figure out effective tips for time management at work because our time doesn’t just belong to us. We have our to-do list, but so does everyone else at the company. Sometimes, things happen precisely according to our timeline, but probably not often. There’s also the issue of overwork, stress, and burnout impacting happiness and productivity. There’s a lot outside of our control, so we must start by focusing on what’s within our own control – our habits.
As we work to create a better future at work – a better “normal” – let’s recap what we’ve discussed so far. First, we established our Perspective that we have an enormous opportunity to intentionally create a better “future normal” rather than rushing back into the old normal, and we explored these questions:
- What have you learned about being a leader that can improve your leadership in the future?
- What have you learned about your team that can improve how your team operates in the future?
Second, we explored our Purpose and determined what matters, which is key to knowing where to focus your attention. We asked these questions:
- What do I want my legacy to be in this job?
- What do we want our team’s legacy to be?
Then, we explored Money and determined how to arrange our budgets so our finances reflect what matters with these questions:
- In light of what matters, what changes need to be made in my budget to prioritize those things?
- How should I arrange my budget so I can take care of my employees now and be prepared for future emergencies?
Now, we turn our attention to Time.
How can you focus yourself and your team to spend time on what matters?
Just as where we spend our money shows what we value, the same is true of time. Time is limited. It can feel fast or slow, but the clock moves at a consistent pace. We each get 24 hours in a day to use as we choose.
We often find ourselves using phrases like, “I have to” or “I got pulled into” like we don’t have a choice. If we’re being honest with ourselves (and I mean this gently as I’m telling myself the same thing), we choose how to spend our time. We decide to do something because it means something to us personally or it means something to someone else we value. It’s important to me, or to my boss, or to my spouse, etc., so therefore it’s important to me also.
Acknowledging our ability to choose how we spend our time is an important first step. It reminds us that we’re in control of our days and weeks. It also puts us in the right frame of mind to analyze if we’re happy with the decisions we’re making.
Overworking is another aspect of time that’s gaining more attention. For many employees, the idea of a 40-hour workweek is a distant memory. You as a leader can probably empathize. When was the last time you stopped working at 5:00? Or didn’t check emails during evenings or weekends? Or took an actual vacation without stressing about missing something or the pile of work waiting for you upon return?
There’s been a lot of research done on the negative effects of working too much and not getting enough sleep, and we know in our minds that it lessens our productivity and damages our health. We know we are overstressed, experiencing burnout, and not spending enough time with our family and friends (or taking care of ourselves). But we can’t seem to stop. For some, working overtime is the only way to make ends meet. For others, there’s pressure (from ourselves, others, or both) to always be available and responsive.
As the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports, the idea of moving to a 4-day workweek is becoming more popular as a way to save costs and boost productivity. Many employees who have been working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic have discovered that, not only were they able to do their jobs from home, they were able to do their jobs better. They were more productive, and they were happier with the flexibility it provided.
We want to be more productive. To get more done in less time. To “work smarter, not harder.” We want to feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment in our professional roles as well as our personal roles.
We also know that our days don’t just belong to us. It’s not as simple as coming up with our own ideal day and doing it. Other people will need things from us, sometimes when we expect it and other times out of the blue. There were times I had my whole day planned out and then got a call from a leader with an employee issue that needed to be investigated immediately. We’ll need to maintain some real-world flexibility and be able to adjust. So, where do we start?
- Write out your ideal schedule for a week. In light of what truly matters, how would you like to spend your time? Don’t worry about getting overly detailed or perfect. This is meant to give you something to go on, so keep it in simple time blocks (for example, 9:00 – 10:00 emails, 10:00-12:00 projects).
- Track how you spend your time for a week. Again, don’t get unhelpfully detailed. This could take hours if you let it. The goal is to give yourself enough information to know and understand an actual week. Use your calendar to enter what you spend your time on. Use minimum increments of 1 hour, and combine tasks if needed (for example, 9:00 – 10:00 emails / phone calls).
- Compare the two. Look for similarities where you spent time on items that align with your purpose. Then, look for differences where you spent little to no time on tasks you’ve identified as important. Take note of what time-suckers you can identify – meetings that are unnecessary or too long, projects and initiatives that don’t align with company goals, tasks that could be delegated to someone else, etc.
If this is a time management exercise you’ve done before, you know that things usually end here. You make a list of changes that you’d like to make, and maybe things get better for a few weeks, but before you know it, you’re right back where you started. We’re creatures of habit.
Our challenge, then, is to begin changing our habits. One by one, make small tweaks to see what happens and if they lead to the changes we are hoping for. This allows us to intentionally create different habits. The difficulty with this approach is that it takes time. Creating new habits is a process. It takes time to change time.
It’s tempting to try to take a lot of actions at once, but it’s that much harder to keep it up. Commit to just a single action, and see what happens. See what else ends up being affected. Then, step by step, you’ll know the next action to take.
Begin with these questions:
- What is one action I can take next week to make my use of time more meaningful?
- What is one action I can take next week to enable others to use their time more meaningfully?
As managers, the way you use your time is certainly important for you to accomplish your purpose. Equally as important is what you require of others. When you give your employees a task, you’re impacting the way they use their time. You’re affecting whether they’re spending their time on what truly matters.
Keep in mind that this doesn’t necessarily mean doing more. Effective time management at work is not about how much you can fit into a 24-hour period. It’s about being intentional about your use of time so that you accomplish the most important items. You may discover there are some good tasks that need to go in order for you to focus on the best tasks. This is where your role as a manager is so important in order to create an environment where your employees have the freedom to focus on what’s most important. There will always be some tasks that have to be done, but the majority of time will be spent on what’s truly important.
By taking the time to think about what truly matters and then align our money and habits accordingly, we’ll be able to make our purpose become a reality. We’ll find a unique sense of fulfillment as we are part of accomplishing something bigger than ourselves. It can be difficult to change dynamics at work, but it is possible. By starting within your realm of control, you can begin to create a better normal at work.
Photo credit: By Peshkova / Canva
