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You are here: Home / Archives for long term planning

What is the Something for Which You Have No Time?

October 4, 2017 By Dave Ferguson Leave a Comment

What is the Something for Which You Have No Time?

As an executive coach for leaders around the world, I have found one very common denominator when it comes to issues leaders face. That commonality is expressed as “lack of time.”

“There isn’t enough time to do all that must be done each day.”

“I don’t have time to exercise.”

“When do I have time to attend my child’s games?”

“I don’t have time for a date night with my spouse.”

“And I certainly don’t have time for planning and reflection.”

One of the most challenging aspects of business in this day and age is the “busyness” of it.

As one business owner recently stated, “If I worked 24 hours a day, every single day, it would not be enough.”

As a leader, you can burn yourself out and lose your health, family, and sense of self in trying to meet the relentless demands of today’s business world.

I know because I deal with this issue every single day as I work with clients.

As a coach, I am geared to ask, “Why?”

My clients have said I am an effective coach because I will ask “Why” relentlessly until I get to the real root of the issue.

Why?

Because getting to the root of the issue provides a point of actionable solution.

As I ask “Why” regarding this issue of lack of time, the conversation goes something like this.

“What’s the problem?”

“I don’t have time.”

“Why?”

“There are too many demands.”

“Why?”

At about this point, the lightbulb goes off…

“There are too many demands because I’m allowing something or someone else to determine how my time is used.”

The Real Issue

The real issue is not “lack of time” – we all have 24 hours in a day.

It’s not even “too many demands.”

The real, bottom-line issue is leadership. You are giving someone else authority over your most valuable commodity: your time.

How can you take back that authority?

  1. Set aside time for reflection and planning.

Just do it. Schedule it. Make it a firm commitment. If you catch yourself saying, “I don’t have time for that,” or “I will do that when I get these other things done,” break that pattern of thought. The fact is, taking time to recharge, reflect, and plan needs to be a first step, not an afterthought. I like to call it “Recess to Reassess.” This is about looking at your personal and professional life from a big picture vantage point, well above the day-to-day minutiae. It is a time for resetting the compass.

Taking time to recharge, reflect, and plan needs to be a first step, not an afterthought. – Dave Ferguson
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  1. Determine or re-affirm your priorities.

In coaching, we use the “Wheel of Life,” where we assess each area of life for balance. You know intuitively what areas are out of balance. Think about these areas, and assess them honestly.

Then determine what one thing you can do to move the ball forward in each area in the next 90 days. Put these objectives in writing.

If your wheel is extremely out of balance, ask yourself what one area, if addressed, would provide the most critical impact on other areas, and focus on that.

  1. Schedule your priorities.

In a previous article, we saw how the simple act of working out each morning positively affected one executive coaching client’s work productivity throughout the day. It directly impacted his health, while also improving his work, finances, and relationships with himself and others as he gained more self-respect, energy, and confidence.

I am often asked, “Dave, how do you run a successful business, but always find time to read on the beach or ride your bike several miles a day?”

The fact is, first I set aside time to read on the beach or ride my bike, and then I schedule my work around that time. Reading, exercising, and being out in nature are energizers for me. They give me the energy to do the work faster and more effectively.

Now, time being in limited supply, there are days where I take calls while doing these other activities. But these activities are a priority, so even on the busiest days, I make them happen.

As a coach, I often play the role of facilitator to “workaholics anonymous.” Just as working too little can be a bad habit, working too much can be an addiction. I can certainly help you kick these habits if you’re willing to get uncomfortable and take action.

  1. Declutter

Here is a key exercise. The next time you say, “I don’t have time” for something, take a scrutinizing look at that something.

Is it a priority? If so, then schedule it, or you will never “have time” for it. As they say, “Put your money where your mouth is.” If it’s a commitment, then act on it.

If it is not a priority, declutter it – delegate, defer, or delete. Yes, it’s that simple.

As I go through a decluttering exercise with coaching clients, I will ask, “Is this task worth (for example) $500 an hour?”

They often answer, “No.”

My response to them is, “Then why are YOU doing it?”

Whatever your rate per hour is, make sure your work is commensurate. Otherwise, you are short-changing your organization and yourself. If you have ever found yourself spending frustrating hours editing a Word document that an assistant could have done in 15 minutes, you are not offering the highest value to your organization. You have a talented team. They do things you can’t do well. Allocate resources accordingly, and stay focused on your priorities as they stay focused on theirs. There are compound benefits to this.

  1. Recalibrate

Like tires on a vehicle, the wheel of life can get out alignment. Flat spots develop due to excessive wear in a certain spot. It happens.

This is why it is essential to cycle through these steps on a regular basis, and I recommend a monthly time for refocusing on the big picture of your life and business. This helps you to recalibrate and realign your life in terms of priorities and not demands.

There will always be demands. You can spend your life chasing them, or you can determine your priorities…and lead. The choice is yours. The results and rewards are also yours if you choose well.


Dave Ferguson is “The Leaders’ Coach”, an internationally recognized executive leadership coach, speaker, facilitator, and author. Are you interested in talking to Dave about coaching or having Dave speak to inspire and motivate your team? “ASK COACH DAVE” at 704-907-0171 or at Dave@AskCoachDave.com.

12 Habits for Effective Use of Your Time

May 3, 2017 By Dave Ferguson Leave a Comment

 12 Habits for Effective Use of Your Time

Habits. Good ones got you to where you are as a leader, and bad ones may be keeping you from going further.

From the time we get up in the morning to the way we treat people, each of us has the choice – on a daily basis – to practice bad habits or to practice effective and thriving habits.

Good leaders practice effective and thriving habits. This requires actively managing the use of their time for those habits. This comes down to being proactive versus being reactive. When we do not proactively plan our schedule, we find ourselves in reactive mode, reacting to circumstances, issues, and the plans of others.

If you adopt the proactive habits outlined in this article, you will find yourself:

  • Eliminating procrastination
  • Making quicker decisions
  • Experiencing higher productivity for yourself and your team
  • Increasing your free time (remember what that was?)
  • Getting better results

What are these proactive habits?

1. Make “to-do” lists, and complete the tasks on the list, by priority.

Rate each item on the list by giving it a priority number. If you mix business and personal items, code them and prioritize them separately. If you’re doing the right things, you’re being more effective. You know this as a leader…but do you actively practice the habit? Do you have a centralized “to-do” list? Is it prioritized?

2. Make “not to-do” lists, and don’t do anything on the list.

I call these things clutter. This is all the “stuff” that we have the habit of doing that does absolutely nothing for anyone. Watching TV is one of my favorite “not-to-do’s.” As an executive, there is merit to keeping up with the news of the day and sports, for example, in order to be informed and relatable. But if you are wasting your entire weekend watching TV while your personal relationships are neglected, this is an indicator that TV may need to be on your “not-to-do” list – or at least curtailed to certain shows and timeframes. Some meetings should be on your “not-to-do” list. If you have a certain meeting just for the sake of meeting, you should add that to your list. If you are involved in outside organizations that no longer fit your scope and mission, add them to your “not-to-do” list.

3. Use downtime for planning, and you can save time in the long run.

Some people say, “Always be selling.”

I say, “Always be planning.”

Work on your game plan whenever you have downtime. Those who know me know I move fast. I get things done, and I don’t waste time. But a perusal of my social media pages would show that I do have intentional downtime. It is during these times that I re-charge and plan. This helps me get more done during the actively engaged times. Never underestimate the power of a plan.

In the corporate world, planning saves time, costs, and even lawsuits. Think it through, then act. But think it through first.

4. Reward yourself when you really deserve it.

This is not about rewarding yourself just because you worked a long day. It is about setting goals that stretch you, and then celebrating when you have reached each one.

This is a powerful motivator and energizer for a team as well. As leaders, we are often guilty of moving from major initiative to major initiative without taking a brief time to enjoy the victories along the way. You need this. Your team needs this. Risk and reward. Goals and reward. Rewards recharge us for the next goal. Not taking the time to celebrate completion of goals can result in burnout for you and your team, and burnout will have a negative impact on results. If you want great results, make room for rewards between goal sets.

5. Concentrate on one task at a time, and chances are, you’ll complete more of your tasks.

Today, we brag about multi-tasking like it is really effective. This is especially true amongst executives, who conduct teleconferences while checking email, drive while texting, and read the news when they are supposed to be having a conversation with their family and friends. Most of the time, multi-tasking is inefficient and not effective, not to mention rude. While we may feel like we’re getting more accomplished, what message are we sending to our customers, team members, friends, and family…and what important details are we missing by dividing our attention?

Get really good at one thing before you pile on something else. Focus on one thing at a time. You can do more than one thing if one is an automatic physical action and the other is a thinking matter. For instance, you can read or listen to podcasts while running on a treadmill. But you cannot reasonably accommodate two thinking-type tasks at once without each of them suffering to some degree from divided focus.

As a leader, be very careful not to overload your team with too many goals at a time. As they set out to reach them all at once, they will reach none due to lack of laser focus. Work together on one major goal at a time. You will likely be amazed at the results you receive with that kind of focus.

6. Avoid procrastination at all costs.

This is a tough one, I know. We have all heard the saying, “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”

If it is a task based on priorities and goals, it needs to be done, and if not, it should not be on your list. If it is something you don’t enjoy doing, either do it first to get it done or delegate it to someone who does enjoy doing it. But keep it moving. And that’s the key. Avoiding procrastination is really just a matter of keeping things moving. This creates progress toward your goals.

7. Set personal deadlines that hold you accountable.

Deadlines are essential. If you are playing golf with fellow business leaders and you say, “We need to get together sometime to discuss that initiative,” I can assure you, it is not likely to happen.

But if you say, “Let’s make an appointment for next Thursday at 10:30 a.m. to talk about that initiative,” you are almost guaranteed to get it done.

This is accountability in action.

It is about defining a goal, setting a deadline, marking it on your calendar, and making yourself accountable to yourself, your calendar, and the other person to make it happen.

8. Delegate, delegate, delegate.

Trying to do everything yourself is, number one, impossible; and number two, unnecessary. As a leader, you know this. But you may often find yourself neglecting to practice it. You may think, “I’ll just do this one thing myself. It won’t take long.” And you may find yourself four hours later still struggling with formatting in a Word document that your assistant could have completed in 15 minutes.

Always keep your eye on the big goals and ensure that your time is used to the highest level for you and that the work is being done by each team member at the highest level for them. The greater your responsibilities as a leader, the more you need to practice delegation. You have created a trusted team – trust them to do what they do best.

9. Use a “time-blocking” system to create greater efficiencies and effectiveness.

Block out time in your schedule for specific projects, and don’t let anything get in the way during those times. Turn off notifications for your phone and email, and close your office door. Protect those time blocks for the projects noted. Remove any distractions and focus. And – this is important – give your team members the same privilege.

According to Fast Company, “82 percent of all interrupted work is resumed on the same day. But here’s the bad news — it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task.”

If you and your team are not getting things done during the day, check your interruption rate.

10. Be a team player and win!

As noted, these habits apply to you as a leader, but they also apply to your team members. Work together to establish these good habits that result in high achievements. Work with your family to create good habits together at home as well.

11. Use long-term planning for long-term success.

“If you’re failing to plan, you’re planning to fail.”

The most effective leaders think in extended timelines. While they are effective each day, they are planning far into the future. This planning ahead determines the direction you take each day. If you take each day as it comes, there is no guarantee of where you will be in the long-term. But if you actively plan where you want to be as an individual and as an organization in five years and ten years, you are exponentially more likely to be successful.

12. Avoid burnout.

Executive and business leader burnout is an issue for many who contact me for coaching. Leadership takes energy. To be at your best in your work, you must be at your best mentally and physically. The greater your responsibilities, the more important this becomes.

Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger said it well:

“Over the years, I made many deposits into my accounts of knowledge and experience. Because of those many deposits, I was able to make a substantial withdrawal on January 15, 2009.”

Are you making daily deposits into your energy account so that you are prepared for substantial withdrawals?

Create a recharge list of activities that give you energy. Proper sleep, eating right, exercise, vacations, long weekends, walks in nature, volunteer work, reading, spending time with family and friends, and hobbies. List those activities now before you need them.

Then tap into that list on a regular basis. You spend long periods of time giving your energy to your work, your team, and others. You need to intentionally make time to restore your energy.

Having balance in your life is critical. If you don’t have it, sooner or later, you will be in critical (burnout) condition. For a leader, that is a dangerous and vulnerable point.

If you are intentional about planning and using your time well, you stand to get better results in business and gain more from everyday life.


Dave Ferguson is “The Leaders’ Coach”, an internationally recognized executive leadership coach, speaker, facilitator, and author. For help in recovering from executive burnout, “ASK COACH DAVE” at 704-907-0171 or at Dave@AskCoachDave.com.

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