7 Steps for Making the Most of Your Week
We’ve all heard the saying, “Don’t work harder, work smarter.” Easier said than done! Let’s face it, today’s leaders, and particularly entrepreneurs, are spread increasingly thin as we work to stay abreast of our fast-paced business-scape and often global time pressures. Many of the leaders I work with are now having to rethink their “work day” to accommodate virtual team members spread across three or more international time zones while balancing family life and their own personal goals for staying balanced and healthy. How do we ensure we make the most of our week? The same way we intend to get the most of out of our business; by being on purpose, setting a clear vision, developing a plan for getting there, making wise investments, anticipating and managing risks, monitoring our progress and continually improving along the way.
1. Revisit your “why” (purpose)
Are you working on purpose? If you’re not clear why you’re doing what you’re doing, it is far more difficult to get clear on what a “productive” use of your time looks like. What drives you? Who does your business serve … your customers, your employees, your partners, your stakeholders, your family? How does this purpose feed your own inner “achiever”? What is your ultimate measure of success? How will you know when you get there? Does this align to your original purpose? If not, how is it different? What makes it meaningful to you? How do you communicate this to others? Write it down and revisit it often.
2. Get clear on your “what” (vision)
Now that you’re clear on “why” you do what you do, let’s envision your ideal week. What are you inspired to do? Who are you with? What activities give you the most energy? What activities are the most depleting? How is your family involved? How do you feel at the end of your week? What are you most looking forward to next week? How will you know it has been a productive week? Write this down and keep it close as well.
3. Analyze the “who” (roles)
What roles do you currently play? Remember to include your family, friends, community and other involvements, along with the roles you play at your company. List them all and then consider what it would look like to play each at an “Academy Award” level. Now list them in order or priority based on the purpose and vision you outlined above. Although your roles and priorities will change over time, getting clear on what they are at this time in your life, what “award-winning” looks like to you and which are the most important for you to focus on will serve you in ensuring you are making the most of each one. Refine until complete.
4. Clarify “where” to focus your time and energy (investment)
Until someone figures out a way to get more than 24 hours out of a day and more than 168 hours in a week, we all have the same “allowance” to work with. However, it is how we use our time that makes all the difference. With your ideal week in mind, and considering the roles you outlined above, what percent of your time will you need to invest in each role in an average week to make your vision a reality? Remember to include the investment in your own “personal renewal” (sleep, eat, exercise, etc.) if you haven’t already included these somewhere in your purpose, vision or as a key role you play in growing and sustaining your #1 resource: YOU. Consider adding these to your above list, or create a pie chart or similar tool to help you envision your ideal investment.
5. Align “how” your activities will support your investment, vision and purpose (strategy)
Focusing on your “work” role investment(s) for this example, what are the key activities that are most likely to create the highest return on your investment (time, energy, focus, etc.)? Remember to consider what you wrote about your purpose, vision and roles. For example:
• Things you most enjoy doing (e.g. will continue to provide energy & satisfaction)
• Things that most align with your role, level of responsibility and “pay grade”
• The key, mission-critical “oversight” or “check-and-balance” activities required to keep an eye on the levers that drive your business success
Review and/or list these activities and align them with your role and investment lists. How well do they connect back to what you wrote about your vision and purpose?
6. Manage the “when” of overload and bottleneck risks (leverage & diversification)
When we’re just starting up we often don’t have the resources (money, time, focus, etc.) to consider how best to enlist others in fulfilling our vision – 100% of our focus is on getting our business up and running. However, it is important to avoid spreading ourselves so thin that we become the #1 roadblock to our own success. Therefore, the key is to anticipate this eventual need and to develop a plan in advance of needing the support. So far you have listed your purpose, vision, roles, priorities and strategy. What items fell out of the bottom of those lists? For example:
• What things do you least enjoy and/or are the least skilled at doing?
• What activities do not align well with your role (e.g. cost/benefit)?
• What activities are not mission-critical, oversight items but still need to get done?
• What things could reasonably be done by someone other than you?
Listing these items and then grouping them into “buckets” of similar activities (e.g. invoicing, running monthly accounting reports and preparing quarterly taxes), will often lead to an emerging pattern of the resource(s) you will most need to add to your team as you grow. In fact, setting a goal, such as a financial target (e.g. gross revenues) and/or a budget line item (e.g. planned expense), can be helpful indicators that it is time to apply leverage (e.g. delegation) or to diversify (e.g. outsource). Anticipating and planning for these needs in advance will ease the transition on multiple levels when the time comes, which may be sooner than you think!
7. Consistently measure, monitor and refine as needed (manage)
There is a saying, "What gets measured gets managed, what gets managed gets done.” Now that you have done the hard work of clarifying your purpose, vision, roles, priorities and strategies, it is important to monitor how well they are working for you. Just as companies develop management “dashboards” to monitor progress against key objectives and progress measures, it is important to have a personal dashboard to ensure you are on track with your own goals. Remember how you answered, “How will I know when I get there?” This is the place to put that answer to work.
Bonus: The above may sound good, but the primary challenge is often setting aside the time to do this in the first place. This is where executive coaching comes in. Part “accountability partner” and part “sounding board,” combined with extensive business and leadership experience and a professional coaching presence, a certified executive coach can make all the difference in your personal productivity. © 2008 Coach Kelly, LLC
7 Steps for Making the Most of Your Week - To learn more about this author, visit Kelly Holm's Website.
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