Time Management: The Ideal Work Week

It’s Not an Ideal Work Week… 

As I was leaving, I turned to my wife and said, “Today is going to suck.”  Not the most empowering stance I know, but something that I had gotten used to saying, particularly of late.  She inquired, “Do you have a lot of meetings?” “Actually, no – I have NOTHING on my calendar – which means something is going to blow up.”

… just doing SOMETHING.  And as a leader, that is almost always a bad thing.  Assuming you have clarified the direction, have the right Team around you, they are busy actually doing it, leaving you with nothing to execute.  One of the greatest leaders I worked with said it best: “ Leadership is about being lazy.”  It has taken me – well, my whole life – to at least understand what that means – and still, I can’t execute it.

Executive Coaching had helped me realize my most important (life) Goal was to focus on developing leaders.  However, the “go-to” skills and rhythms of my previous “problem solver” melody was in the wrong key, wrong tempo, wrong instruments, even minor vs major.  And – notice this sentence is even still framed negatively.  15 years later – the “problem” focus of my Goal is still executing… on autopilot…

… unless you use your Calendar to “play offense”…

… and incrementally, better.  I know I can at least catch it easier, and faster than before, and I also understand how to use Goals better to help me.  It involves filling up my Calendar FIRST with what I want to achieve. You will also hear people refer to this as the “Big Rocks” theory – put those into your glass before letting all the little urgent things crowd out the important things.  It seems to align with the KISS principle for sure…

… except few of us really understand what those Big Rocks actually are – for US.  Others – easy.  Helping others execute goals is much simpler and gives you an additional dose of both adrenaline and endorphins.  And this leads us back to the chords for the music – what is the key you want to set for your team, the 3 chords that will drive you and your team towards success? And, how will those show up on the one thing that never lies about your Goals…

… your Calendar.  In one of my go-to instruments from Michael Hyatt, the Ideal Work Week establishes what you want to accomplish – for you.  Before you put everyone else on there, add your own Goals, your own wants, and priorities like family, friends, and fun.  Interestingly, these last 2 years FORCED me to practice doing that work, and start actually to do what I talk about with others.  Not Perfectly (that is covered in another post…), but better.  Incrementally, each year has gotten more balanced, more intentional as I have had to more carefully consider the key and chords.

… leveraging execute from empower… 

.. and this is where you come in.  One of the most important things that Teams do for each other is focused on “executing accountability”.  Not the negative “you didn’t” phrasing, but the major key tonality of “Wow I saw that you fully did this thing you had set out.  Well Done!”  Sadly, most of us then simply dismiss that – because our minor key voice starts up.  I constantly command people (not a gentle coaching stance) to say “Thank you for noticing,”… Which eventually starts to happen, first begrudgingly, then comically, and eventually naturally… mostly.

If you want to read more about how the Ideal Work Week works well with Goals, our sister site leadingWithMusic has 7 posts with one of the best reminders for good Time Management, built around the soundtrack – KISS – as in Keep it Simple Smiley.  The specific post about Time Management features their song about what you need to do to ensure that your calendar is working for you… Shout it Out Loud.