Happy Saturday! I wanted to share some insights from a time management experiment I started in September.
It got started when I saw that to be the leader I want to be – a leader who can serve her mission, her team, and her community at the highest level – I needed to be present, connected, and deeply energized.
I started paying attention to the things that sucked up my energy but did not replenish it.
One of the big things that drains energy for me is TASK SWITCHING. Doing too many types of things in a single day.
I am a deep-focus person. I like to think deeply and have low tolerance for distractions.
I noticed that when I had a day with lots of task switching, really high-value activities – like a podcast interview, for instance – felt like distractions because my brain was tired.
I observed that for me and the way I am wired, switching from a 1:1 coaching call, to a group call, to a team 1:1, to writing a blog post, to talking over webinar planning – all in the same day – was draining.
In fact, I was so drained that my 30% open time (a critical element of the Jewel Business Model) would sometimes become recovery time.
The intention for 30% open time as a founder is that you approach that time in a calm energized state, which is what allows for the deeper thinking, relationship building, and future planning that is, you know, a big part of your job.
I talked it over with Jen, who is our client experience manager and my executive assistant. She advised me that, due to previously scheduled commitments I’d need to suck it up in the short term, but within 6-8 weeks, I should see improvement.
In the meantime, Jen started restructuring my calendar and availability – blocking times, adjusting meetings, etc – and I started mapping out in detail what I wanted my calendar to look like.
Here are some of the things I decided:
- I can only be engaged in service delivery (i.e. coaching, leading group calls) two days per week. These are Tuesdays and Thursdays. I currently average about 6 hours of service delivery per week.
- I can do one day of interviews for the podcast per month, and that’s it. We allocated one Wednesday per month to do podcast interviews. If a guest can’t make that date, we schedule her for the following month.
- I need a full week per month to do zero work IN the business and focus exclusively ON the business. We blocked off the first week of each month as DEEP FOCUS WEEK. These weeks are reserved for the future-oriented work that’s required in my role but is often relegated to 30-minute chunks here and there – especially for founders who are actively engaged in service delivery.
It took 3 months to completely implement the calendar changes I wanted to see. But WE DID IT (thanks Jen!!!).
I am only two weeks in, but here’s what I’m observing:
My brain has the capacity to be thinking much more strategically. Example: when I’m drained, I tend to do what’s easy.
For me, urgent, deadline-oriented work is “easy”. Write this email. Run this class. Show up for this meeting. Respond to this email.
The past few weeks I noticed that 20% of my time was invested in the “urgent” but 80% of it was invested in the important work that drives long-term results: coaching team members, creating assets, connecting with partners, creating assets. This is a big change and it feels great.
My 30% open time isn’t spent “in recovery” – doing idle tasks to allow my brain to recover from the inordinate amount of task and worry switching required when you are an owner-operator…
Rather, it has been spent having conversations and mapping out some of the bigger puzzle pieces required to fulfill our mission and intentions.
In closing, here are the takeaways I’d share on this:
- Be really clear about what you want your time to look like
- Take time to think through what your business REQUIRES from you at THIS stage of its development
- Get help from a team member
- Stick to your guns. Once you’ve mapped out what you want your schedule to look like, stick to that
- Don’t over-schedule – ensure there’s time in your calendar to accommodate overflow
I hope this was helpful. If you have questions, shoot them over.
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