I meet so many leaders who tend to feel overwhelmed every day and just don’t know how to get on top of their tasks. It is unfortunately true there is always more work to do than there are hours in a day, or in a week. There are two basic approaches to addressing the workload issue – 1) learn how to delegate work effectively and 2) how to better understand and manage your time. This content is about the second approach
Many years ago, I developed a technique to help me understand how much work I was taking on and how it impacts my time. I share that technique here in hopes it will be helpful to you. It’s actually pretty simple and should be repeated every so often to help you train yourself in how to think about your time.
Step 1 – Think it terms of weekly time. Make a list of all the actions and tasks you have to complete in a normal week. Include everything such as sleep, eating meals, bathe and dress in the morning (or before work), devotion or meditation time, and so on.
Step 2 – After making that list, estimate how much time in a week that action requires. Examples are – I sleep 7 hours a night so for 7 days I would note 49 total hours, I eat 3 meals a day at 1/2 hour each or 1.5 hours a day and 10.5 hours a week. Don’t use any time less than 0.25 hours or 15 minutes since this is just intended to be an estimate.
Step 3 – Add up all the time estimates to see how many hours a week you have on your plate. I’m a doer who tries to do everything myself so my initial results totaled between 225 and 250 hours in a week.
Unfortunately, we only have 168 physical hours in a week (24 hours a day times 7 days). So, when I saw my “planned” time far exceeded reality it helped me realize a few things. I tended to skip task or activities that would actually build me up such as missing work-outs, working while eating, no quiet or meditation time, and so on. We sacrifice the things which are easiest and the easy ones are usually those we need the most for ourselves and our health.
When I see an outcome like the one above, it makes me realize I have to prioritize to stay withing our reality, at least until I discover time travel. One priority which I still struggle to retain is taking care of myself through regular exercise, quiet walks, devotion and meditation, date night with my wife, time with my adult children, and so on. I now work to prioritize my personal needs over work for the most part. I allow myself certain hours and days in a week to be my work time and then prioritize what will fit within that time. It isn’t always perfect and at times I have to violate those constraints, but I don’t let that go on for too long.
Prioritizing and planning does mean some things you take on may have to be scheduled in future weeks, declined outright, or delegated to lessen your direct workload. I suggest this effort is critical for your own health both physical and mental. It will help you strengthen your personal relationships, too.