The point here is — to be smart, you need
to work on the right things. Work on important or strategic items that are going
to move the organization forward. And
you need an effective workflow system to support you to do this.
After I left my last job, the incumbent who
replaced me knew how to work smartly.
She made progress on a number of strategic fronts in a matter of one
year. It was obvious that she knew very
well how to push on the right things.
For me, I was using a highly reactionary
working style and I was very on top of my email all day long. As a result, I was responsive and service-oriented,
both of which are good qualities, but they are not strategic.
Today, using a much more effective working
style, I now schedule time for important work in my calendar and then, yes, I
actually do it. So the most important time
management tip I can provide anyone is the value of using your calendar to plan
your work.
This approach ensures you get important and
strategic work – and not just the urgent work – done.
Furthermore, utilizing your calendar to
organize your time has a few other benefits:
- Gives you a picture for how you
are spending your time
- Allows you to make an immediate
judgment call when someone comes and brings you a giant project: I was
going to work on Project X, but Project Y does seem more important, so I’ll
shift things around
- Allows you to “get real” about
what you can accomplish in a day or week
- Gives you a platform for negotiating with your manager when your
load is heavy – I don’t know how I can
fit anything else in this week, can we have a discussion about how we either
move some things off my plate or share the load, or re-prioritize everything I
have on my list?
- You don’t wake up at night feeling like you have to make lists of
items because it’s all captured between your stellar TO-DO list and now your
calendar.
- Finally, you actually make progress on strategic and important work
because you are intentional about it, you schedule it, and you do it.
Is your important and strategic work getting done?
Joanne
