Graduating from Busy-ness to Impact: A CEO's Guide to Taking Control of Your Time and Future

When I ask my clients why they haven’t gotten to where they want to be yet, I often hear:

‘I feel like I’m always behind.’

‘I can never catch up.’

‘I don’t have enough time to focus on my business/priorities/my future.’

Take out the list of your highest priorities (not the to-do list). Then, open your calendar and look for where those priorities appear next week.

Have you blocked off time for each of them on your calendar?

If you have not carved time for your priorities ahead of time, then you don’t have space for them = always behind/never caught up.

You may get an adrenaline rush from checking off multiple tasks each day, answering notifications, and racing from one meeting to the next, but are you making progress or burying yourself in busy-ness?

It’s not about managing time; it’s about desiring your future more. It’s about desiring what you want more over the to-dos, tasks for the day, and Slack messages.

I just read that the more time we spend giving energy to things that choke our momentum, the less time we have to make real progress.

I work with clients to help them shift from being directed by a relentless to-do list and cluttered calendar to crafting their work week toward a future that they want.

Always feeling behind or not getting to what you want is a signal that it’s time to graduate.

To graduate to the leader you want to become who ruthlessly decides to take back their time, calendar, and their plans for the future.

Graduate from Low-Value Work to High-Value Work

All work is not created equal.

We throw ourselves from email to Slack to meeting to Slack to email to Slack to meeting, leaving little space for deep work. The high-value work is the 20% of work that has 80% of the impact (Pareto Principle).

Work still needs to get done, but it does not, and maybe should not, be done in the same way.

What work do you do each week that keeps you from doing the work you want to do?

The bad habits that are keeping you behind and busy. The work on default, not by design.

Like that weekly 1:1 you show up for because it is what you’ve always done.

• Is it 60 minutes, which could be 30 minutes?

• Is it weekly when every other would be as effective?

• Is it 1:1 when it could be a team meeting?

• Is it producing, or is it a catch-up that can be done by email?

Being intentionally ruthless about your time has you setting new standards and processes. Before any meeting can be booked on your calendar, ask for an agenda and ask what they’ve tried already or solved before coming to you. Being a leader is not being a fixer or solutions generator. Getting your team to think on their own will help them grow and feel more empowered.

My clients say they don’t want to disappoint people, and worse, they don’t want their people to think they aren't doing anything. Not wanting to disappoint others leaves YOU disappointed = always behind/never caught up.

Delegation is hard, but as you graduate to the leader you want to become, you are also helping others graduate to their next level.

When you change your thoughts about the low-value work, you take new actions = new results.

Delegation + new operating procedures = more time for deep, high-value work.

When in doubt, check in with yourself and pick quality over quantity.

The quality of your work and the time you spend on quality work will be the 20% that creates 80% of your impact.

Graduate to a New Calendar

Allowing the meetings of the day to become the day’s organizing system is like swimming to the horizon. It never ends.

When the calendar controls you, you always feel behind.

Graduating to a new calendar operating system requires you to build your calendar a full week or two or more ahead of time. Determine what’s most important and calendar it before the week ahead. I like time blocking and days dedicated to one key focus: marketing and 1:1s.

Graduate to a New To-Do List

I'm not a fan of the traditional to-do list.

Does your to-do list reflect what is most important to you – your future ambitions – or is it simply a list of things to get done? Does it reflect>>

• What do you want to create?

• Who do you want to become?

• What do you want to achieve?

• Is it a list of things that are investments in you and your future?

If not, you need to re-write the To-Do list.

What if before you even made your to-do list, you wrote your ‘To-MY FUTURE’ list?

As part of my morning routine, I write down three priorities for the day. Those three things must support my future ambitions and must be done that day. I give priority to creating my future with these three things, and when I accomplish them, I will have invested in my future = impact.

When you prioritize your future list over your To-Do list, it has a compounding effect, creating momentum and motivation.

When I prioritize my future, it is not forgotten. Research says we spend more time planning our vacations than we do planning our futures.

What’s your biggest takeaway?

Please shoot me an email and let me know. This will allow me to get to know you better and determine what’s most needed for future posts.