Maximizing Your Time: Proven Strategies for Swamped Leaders
There is a universal constant that I always uncover when I work with leaders:
They do not have enough time to do everything they have to do. But even more important, their employees often fail to make the progress that is required because they do not have enough time to execute the activities that they are coached on.
If this sounds like you, then you may be finding yourself increasingly frustrated and even downright depressed as you feverishly attempt to motivate your people to focus on the critical pieces of their job that really matter and improve business results.
In this blog post I will offer you a clear framework that change the way you look at time and help you accomplish more with less stress.
Send me the Special Report now!
The Big Lie: I Don’t Have Enough Time
The reason we call this Big Lie is because this whopper is so prevalent. It is the reason given by all of us whenever anyone asks us why something did not happen as they thought it should have. Now I am not saying that you do have enough time to do everything that is on your plate: You absolutely do not – unless of course you truly are not working very hard to begin with. I’m going to step out on a limb here and assume that if you are reading this post then that is NOT the case with you. No, this is the Big Lie because it absolves us of addressing the real problem of why we are not making the progress we truly desire.
As Henry David Thoreau put it, “It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?”
Have you ever stepped on an ant pile? They are industrious little creatures. Here in the South we have particularily hateful variety called fire ants. They are vicious little stinging critters whose one mission in life is to sting you until you leave their precious mound alone. So perhaps Thoreau was wrong – they are absolutely busy AND they have a mission – the difference is that we don’t think their mission is particularily helpful to us enjoying the great outdoors.
What Thoreau was getting at is that we do not really have a time problem. We have an activity problem. In fact we almost always judge the value of time spent this way. Think about it: Here are two situations that we would view completely differently:
- You spend 3 hours in a highly productive meeting with five of your peers. Everyone is clearly engaged and motivated to make the process a success.
- You spend 3 hours in a planning meeting with five of your peers. People are multitasking and only pay full attention when it is their turn to speak. The meeting concluded with a plan to meet again in ywo weeks to assess progress. There are few clear indications that any progress will be made in those two weeks.
Here is the truth about time: We feel better about our use of time when we enjoyed the activity we were involved in and/or we feel that we made progress on a desired results.
That is both the promise that keeps our hope alive and the paradox that keeps us frustrated about how our days seem to spin out of control.
In what ways are you most frustrated as a leader? What would you change about both your personal and your professional life if you had the time? What would be different with your employees if you could help them solve the time management challenge? How would your bsuiness results improve?
My original plan was to stuff everything that I have learned about how to maximize your productivity into this one blog post. Then I realized that would be a mistake. This is a big challenge for leaders and it deserves to be handled as such.
So here is my offer for you: Click here or on the link below and you will receive a FREE three part Special Report on how to get more control over your time and your life. This Special Report contains specific and immediate strategies that you can take to shift your business into high gear – ultimately putting you in the driver’s seat when it comes to your time.
So click here to get the FREE three part Special Report or on the offer below.
Henry Ford once said “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t you’re right.” Make a decision that you can stop telling the Big Lie – then help others to do the same.
Cheers!
Andrew
