If you want to be an effective leader, you need to develop a healthy relationship with time management. Leadership Effectiveness is constrained by poor use of time. A ‘To Do’ list can be your best friend if used well – or your worst enemy if used poorly – particularly on a Monday!
A good ‘To Do’ list gets all of your ideas and actions out of your brain (a good thing), and can help provide some logical order and priorities of what should get done first and by when – for obvious benefits (not missing anything, work completed on time, not cluttering up your brain etc).
They can be even more effective if used in conjunction with time boxing, and the volume of work is spread across your week, ensuring that the most important things are completed first, and the largest tasks are given the time they require. Sounds good right? Only if it is used well.
A poor To Do list strategy can actually make things worse! Write every task that you can think of in your head, get it all down on paper (or other list) and start frantically working your way through it (I am ignoring the behaviour of starting the list, seeing that it is getting too big, and just doing whatever you can – important or otherwise – to get the list down, just so you can feel active).
This large list of tasks not only looks enormous, it feels it as well – and starts to look like the grey in the picture. That list is overwhelming,a nd without planning and prioritising, can actually how us back from effectively managing our day rather than helping it.
Ever get to the end of the day – after working hard for hours – and feel like you have achieved nothing at all? You most likely have, but if you are working on grey box completed rather than blue, you probably only end up doing the yellow – and feel shitty because of it.
Good time and task management focuses on the blue box – and ensured you are as efficient and effective in that time as possible. The result is greater satisfaction in what you are doing, greater satisfaction in what you get accomplished in the day, along with more tasks completed when they are needed.
What is your task strategy?
⬇️ Have your list in your head?
⬇️ Have no list at all?
⬇️ Have a crazy huge list of tasks to complete?
⬇️ Have a short list of only today’s tasks?
⬆️ Have a prioritised list of tasks?
⬆️ Have tasks (and times) matched to days / due dates?
Whatever your strategy – be mindful of the grey box on a Monday – no one needs to start their week overwhelmed.
#timemanagement#timemanagementtips#developingleaders#leaders#leadershipcoaching
Need To Develop Your Leadership Through Time Management?
Time and task management are just two of the things that we can help develop in your leadership skills through Executive Leadership Coaching. Following a thorough assessment of your current skills through our Velocity Leadership checkPoint, coaching can help leaders better manage their time, their inboxes and their teams. If you would rather take control of your time than have your time take control of you, reach out and book a Discovery Call – one of our skilled executive leadership coaches can help you find what you need.