5 Steps to Get the Strategic Time You Need
Is this you…
You’re a leader in your organization and your time is your most precious commodity.
You look at your calendar each morning and see back to back to back to back meetings from dusk til dawn (ok, maybe 9-6, but you get the point!).
You view your calendar and even think, “When on this green Earth will I get to pee?” Let alone have lunch.
You’re a leader and your core responsibilities include:
Strategic thinking and planning
Development of your people and organization
Delivering results
Did you just read “Strategic thinking and planning” and think to yourself, “yeah, must be nice!”?
Here’s my question to you:
Are your meetings managing you or are you managing your meetings?
Said differently - is your time at the complete mercy of others? Are you craving quality “think” time? Are you in need of actual time to do actual work?
If you’re feeling seen right now, I have a few recommendations for you. And if now your mind is saying, “well, I couldn’t possibly because…”, do me a favor and quiet that voice for a hot second.
#1 - Evaluate What You Need
When do you do your best work? When does your brain fire on all cylinders? What would make a difference in the quality of your strategic execution?
Are you needing 2 mornings a week without distraction? Are you needing to stare out the window for 30 minutes and let your brain run wild?
If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your daily schedule?
Great. Now let’s do it.
#2 - Communicate Your Needs
Inform those around you of the changes you intend to make.
Ex. “I’m noticing I’m not getting enough strategic execution time in the week to be able to drive this org and our business goals as effectively as I could. I’m going to make a shift in my calendar to have 2 mornings a week where I take 90 minutes to really focus, plan, and drive execution.”
If you told your director, your VP, or even your CEO that you’re noticing an area where you can drive greater impact, what are the chances they’ll say no? Exactly.
Also communicate this with your stakeholders and your own team. What are the chances they’ll feel empowered to make similar decisions? Leader set the tone. What tone do you want to set?
#3 - Block Your Calendar
Y’all are familiar with this, however, most leaders don’t get this to work for them as well as it could.
Do you block your calendar with “Unavailable” or “Work Block” and people still book over it?
Two things to do here: 1) rename your block and 2) don’t allow the bookings (more on that in a moment).
You’re blocking your time to have a meeting with yourself. Name the event for what you’re doing. Ex. Q3 OKRs, Onboarding Project Evaluation, CRM Deep Dive.
This serves a dual purpose: 1) it looks like an actual meeting and people are less likely to double book you, and 2) you’re more likely to stay on task vs simply tackling Slacks and emails.
#4 - A Yes is Also A No
When you’re saying Yes to your priorities, it means you need to say No elsewhere.
When someone sends you an invite that conflicts with your planned strategic time, ask them to reschedule.
What if you sent a response back like, “Hey! I’m very much looking forward to connecting on XYZ. I already have a commitment at that time, could we meet at ___ time instead? I really appreciate it!”
Of course some discretion needs to come in. If it’s a meeting of 10 people and you pull up calendars and the only feasible time is over your work time, book new work time for yourself.
#5 - Understand Your Role
Do a sweep of your calendar - what’s your role in each meeting? Are you there as a decision maker? Are you necessary for input? Is the meeting an FYI? What’s the reason for your inclusion and do you HAVE to be there?
Challenge yourself here.
Could you leverage some of these meetings as development and exposure opportunities for the directors or managers reporting to you?
There’s only one of you. Time is a non-renewable resource.
Will you step into managing your meetings rather than your meetings managing you?
