Week 1 – The Need for Change
Lesson 3 How Do We Spend Our Time
"Don't be so busy mopping the floor that you forget to turn off the faucet."
It important to not get caught up in day-to-day tasks (mopping the floor) to the extent that you neglect the root cause of the problem (leaving the faucet running). While operational tasks are important, it's essential to make time for strategic planning to address underlying issues.
Brian Tracy says, “Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent return on energy!” One model suggests, as a manager, we should ideally spend our time as follows
10% of time would be spent looking back. This includes admin, timesheets, invoicing, and reporting.
70% of the time spent doing your role. Management guru Tom Peter’s says, for managers, a big part of the role is going to meetings and coaching the team to get the work done
20% of the time spent planning. This is about determining priorities and planning critical conversations. In a standard 5-day work week, this is 1-day per week of time
Activity In your Black Workbook on Page 6 write on the diagram The Case for Change Time & Focus
When thinking about your role, where do you think your percentage split is?
Often in this reflection, the weighting will be higher in looking back and doing the role. The challenge with this approach is that our work can quickly become reactive, tasks lists become overwhelming, and we lose sight of what we are really trying to achieve/the purpose of our work.
Return to your Black Workbook on Page 6 write in the answer box below
Based on the reflection above what is one of the three areas you would like to spend more time in?
What is one of your Top 5 CliftonStrengths themes that you think could help you?
How could this strength help you? Refer to your White Workbook on Page 6 and the report My Signature Themes Contributions and the two Contributions.
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