Lately I have noticed a number of executives experiencing increasing demands on where they need to be when. As demands increase, not only do you have to be ruthless, in a thoughtful way, about which requests for your time, presence, or brainpower you say yes to, but once you have made your decision, you need to not second guess yourself and keep your brain and body in the same place.
When working with my executive clients as an advisor I ask them:
What would be your ideal allocation of work by percentage (e.g., 10% board relationships, 20% team management, 20% product reviews, etc.)
Now look back on your calendar for the last three months and what has your actual percentage been?
This is what needs to solely drive what goes on your calendar, and where your time and energy is focused. This is one of the questions on my Thoughtfully Ruthless® Executive Assessment which you can download here.
Don’t get caught in any of the three ways you can excessively worry about your calendar:
Pre-worry:
Not: “I am double and triple booked this week and have no idea how to prioritize” but “I was ruthless in prioritizing based on my goals."
Parallel-worry:
Not: “I know of three other places I should be right now; I hope I made the right choice,” but —SILENCE! no parallel thinking— Bring your focus to your current meeting or piece of work.
Post-worry:
Not:” I should have gone to that other meeting, I made the wrong choice,” but instead —analyze the patterns, ask yourself are you regularly making the right calls about where to spend your time and energy based on what you are delivering for your business? —Address that —not individual choices.
The same applies to your personal calendar. Look ahead to all of your holiday commitments and ask if you are spending the most time with people who energize and inspire you? If not, change your commitments, proactively manage the demands on your social calendar and that of your family and be ruthless, in a thoughtful way, with where you spend your time and energy over this upcoming holiday season.
To your continued success,
Val