In busy work environments, it is easy to become reactive to things that call for attention like an email from a business customer or a request from another department, a frustrated team member who feels undervalued or an escalation of an issue for which a resolution had been postponed a couple of times. This sets the pace which pulls our workdays along. At the end of the week, it might feel like a lot has been done. Except that little has been accomplished.
The reason often lies in letting external events control our day-to-day activities. For many office workers, the email inbox has become a measuring device for how busy they are. The more emails they are responding to the more accomplished they hope to feel. The trap is in the sense of control one gets by dealing with emails. Incoming emails, responses and even meetings can be measured with actual numbers. While high numbers of emails and meetings portray a high level of busyness the core work often gets left behind. And then the feeling of not having enough time to get everything done creeps up, pushing us to work even harder and longer or excuse ourselves due to the business we already experience.
It all starts with awareness. Taking stock of what activities happen during a work day and how aligned this is with core responsibilities and priorities gives insight into actual work effectiveness. Before looking at your team, however, you want to start this exercise with yourself.
Here is an idea of how you could go about it:
1. Observation
For a week, just observe how you spend your time during the day. Then reflect on the following questions:
What activities are you doing?
What do they help you achieve or avoid?
How are these connected to your work priorities, objectives and responsibilities?
For example, Tom attends a weekly project meeting for which his attendance is optional. He knows this project has been sponsored by his boss who is particularly interested in the progress and always attends. Upon reflection, Tom realises that he attends the meeting only because he’s afraid that his boss might think he’s not as dedicated if he doesn’t. However, the meeting attendance is neither connected to any of Tom’s work priorities nor his objectives.
2. Adjust
Once you become aware of activities that don’t help you achieve objectives or aren’t related to priorities, you want to adjust what you focus on during your work days. You could take the following steps at least once a week:
Identify key priorities and tasks required to reach (long-term) objectives. Set three focus goals for the week, i.e. review contract draft, collect input from other departments regarding proposed process change, and share inputs from reports for board pack.
Schedule blocks of time to work on those either with or without the team. Allow time in your calendar for emails and admin tasks, catch-ups and ad hoc items.
For meeting invites that are not related to your priorities, objectives or responsibilities, check with the organiser to understand why your attendance is required. Perhaps, you can send a delegate from your team.
3. Assess
Once you have adjusted some of your activities, you want to assess how what you have done helped you accomplish or progress on your objectives. The following questions can help you quickly identify your effectiveness and identify the focus areas for the following week.
Did you achieve all three focus goals?
What other key tasks have you completed?
What objective didn’t you allocate enough time this week?
What are the three focus goals for next week?
If you answered the first question with ‘yes’ and listed some items on the back of the second question, you are effectively progressing on your objectives and key priorities. The last two questions help you reflect and adapt your approach for the following week.
Conclusion
Under pressure, chances are high that errors occur, leading to emails being responded to half-read and the subsequent email trail becomes a testament to numerous misunderstandings of a simple question. Setting time aside for emails can help cut a lot of those misunderstandings, and soon one feels a lot less busy but highly accomplished.
In addition, skipping meetings for which our attendance is not required helps to free up space to spend focused time on key priorities. Often a slight adjustment and clarity about priorities in our week can help to lift us out of a feeling of constant firefighting. That way, we are more in control of what we need to do and also more satisfied at the end of the work week.