10:00 AM Thursday December 22, 2011
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"Donner du temps au temps," the late French President François Mitterrand used to say. "Give time for time." The notion being that you need to make time in order to appreciate the ultimate gift we have been given: time on this earth. Every day, we make conscious and less conscious choices on time allocation. Some uses of our time are routine — dropping off kids, eating meals, or going for a daily run. In between those routines, we look to our agendas to see what we are meant to be doing, whom to meet, when and where to go next.
Most of us will spend more than one-third of our lives and more than half of our waking adult hours in our workplaces. A natural concern, and one worthy of a New Year's reflection and resolution, is how can we be better, more honest and more efficient with that time. Here are five gut-check questions to see if you are making the greatest impact with your work time:
1. Are you working towards a purpose? The foundation for a time allocation strategy starts with your personal purpose and passion. In my forthcoming book, Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck, my co-authors and I discuss the notion of being connected to the "Heart" of a business — to its root purpose and its "why" as opposed to its "what" and "how." It is almost always easier for someone to state what they do for work than explain why they do what they do. This should not be the case. The Heart-driven business-builder has little hesitation in explaining her "why" to you. She understands that her business has a purpose bigger than product, and that she is in pursuit of something more than just making money. Companies with a clear purpose include Patagonia, Ikea, Nike, and Southwest. In his McKinsey Award winning 2010 HBR Article, "How Will You Measure Your Life?" Clay Christensen writes, "Your decisions about allocating your personal time, energy, and talent ultimately shape your life's strategy." And, yet as he observes, too often people's allocation choices end up being different from their intentions.As we fast approach 2012, my New Year's resolution is to be disciplined with my time. It is too easy to just say yes to meetings. It is too easy to confuse working hard with progress. It is too easy to feel the need fill the white space on a calendar. Or, worse, to not know what to do during unscheduled time because you have not had the chance to think, or are too busy multi-tasking. For 2012, consider a change and work towards the goal of better time allocation. It is possible. Focus on the goal versus just using up time. Indeed, embrace the gift of unscheduled time. It's time to make time for time.
2. Are you running hard, but not getting ahead? Some people may get lucky, but most successful people I know work hard. However, one should not confuse hard work with progress. My business partner says: "The good news is that you are running hard and making great pace. The bad news is that you're lost." Why is that? It is easy to identify the things you want to accomplish in life — from making an impact on the lives of others to raising a great family. But as Christensen observes, we often default to short-term tasks even when many of them may not connect to our bigger goals. What can you do to ensure that you're not only running hard, but in the right direction? The next question is a good place to start.
3. Have you done a calendar audit lately? Do you have a real sense of where you spend your time? I have found it useful to calibrate where I think I spend my time (strategy planning, people and mentorship sessions) and where I actually spend my time (administrative planning, board meetings). Look back on the past month in your calendar and compare how you spent your time with your strategic priorities. Most often, we are not as aligned as well as we think. We end up doing the things that we are better at, simple things, things we enjoy, or things that seemingly just have to get done at that moment, instead of the things that are most meaningful and impactful. Identify your top five priorities for the calendar year and look at any given month to see how your time mapped to those priorities.
4. Are you booking sufficient think time? Don't fall into the trap of scheduling meetings and not scheduling "think time" to achieve what you want in those meetings. In a prior blog post, I spoke of the three purposes of meetings — to inform, get input, or get approval. Make sure to schedule time to think about what you want to accomplish in a meeting and do the necessary prep work. I have worked closely with my assistant to schedule preparation time for any meeting in my Outlook calendar. For most meetings there is at least a 1:2 ratio of prep time to meeting time, and it can go upwards of 20:1. If a meeting is an hour you probably need 30 minutes to prepare. For critical meetings you may need 20 hours of preparation for each hour. Know the type of meeting you are having and block sufficient prep time.
5. Are you multi-tasking your way to lower productivity? These days, almost everyone has a "second screen" to look at while they are working. The notion of the quiet time described above rarely exists. Even if you get good at booking time for meeting preparation, don't just be vigilant about keeping that time slot. You also need to shut off devices, hold off calls, and yes, close your Outlook (those email message alerts constantly popping up in a corner of your screen). These are distractions. Focus on the task at hand when you have scheduled the time to do so.
Anthony Tjan is CEO, Managing Partner and Founder of the venture capital firm Cue Ball and vice chairman of the advisory firm Parthenon.
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