Want To Be Home For Supper? Stop Being So Reactive With Your Time

Nothing is more deflating than being really busy, but feeling like you are not making any progress. You might be giving it your all, yet work is seeping into your personal time, projects are taking forever, progress is coming too slowly or you are feeling stuck.

Over the past three years, I’ve discovered how to be more focused and strategic with my time, both in my corporate career and in my own business now, and have experienced huge benefits as a result.

But I recently fell into an old habit of meeting everyone else’s needs and not leaving enough space for my most important work to forward my business. I was shifting from one thing to the next each day, and felt like I was making little progress.

Once I noticed this, I changed my calendar to block a bigger chunk of focused time for this work every day and have more structure around when I met with clients. In only a week I am making real gains and I am more focused with my clients since not feeling scattered switching from one thing to the next.

Instead of being reactive with your time and getting caught up in all the noise and distraction during the day, or everyone else’s needs, how about being more strategic with your time instead so you can make real progress on what matters too?

That’s maybe been a goal of yours for awhile, yet you find you can easily get pulled into the fires of the day or all those emails or projects. I know that pull all too well.

But when you overcommit, or keep switching from one thing to the next during the day, you end up spread thin, losing focus and productivity. You might feel busy and you’re getting things done, but it actually slows you down.

Being strategic with your time is getting clear on what really matters in your work and personally, and then making sure you are being intentional with your time to make progress on what matters.

To be more strategic and focused, rather than reactive and scattered with your time – both in your thoughts and actions.

You can shift to where you run your day (rather than your day is running you) and create space, time and boundaries for what’s actually important – not all the things that are just noise and distraction.

Now, you might feel your boss or organization or team are to blame with all their demands and expectations. You might feel that there’s no way you can change the way thing are. But if you want to be more strategic and run your days, you, and you alone, hold this responsibility.

Ultimately, if you don’t prioritize your time, someone else will do it for you. You can choose to be more selective with what you do.

There are the basics, such as a good night sleep, feeling positive and productive, and having purpose in your work that all help you to have mental clarity and focus during the day so you can accomplish what you set out to do.

I won’t cover the basics in this post, because your biggest question is likely: how can I use my time to be more strategic?

First off, you must have the belief that there is a better way. It doesn’t need to be the way it is now (no matter what’s going on) and with some commitment and changes in your habits you can create a different outcome and still be successful.

You’ll also need to adopt a powerful mindset, such as your time is your most valuable resource and is extremely limited (even more than money). When you look at it through that lens, you’ll use your time more wisely (and waste it less on the things that don’t matter).

You can choose what to focus on, and think more your values, priorities, and consistent habits.

Here are some effective and proven habits you can put in place to be more strategic with your time.

Get clear on what’s actually most important at work.

While it can be tempting to do everything, or have ten “most important priorities”, you can adopt a more disciplined way to focus on what’s essential.

What’s your highest contribution you can make to your team or organization right now? And how can you create more time and space for that so you move forward on it every day?

By getting clear on what’s most important – and taking action every day to move forward on that one thing, creates motivation, momentum and real progress.

You can then make real trade-offs and tough decisions to focus your efforts rather than doing it all.

Create daily, regular time in your calendar for what’s most important.

It’s good to ask yourself in any given moment “are you being productive or just being active?” Real work is producing quality output that matters (not checking emails or attending meetings all day).

And if you already find yourself being reactive, you likely aren’t leaving enough space in your day for the real work.

Time-block at least two hours a day in your calendar for focused working and thinking time to forward your biggest contribution and most important work. Guard this time. As you get comfortable with this, work up to 50% of your day focused on the important tasks to forward your most important work.

And put your time-block earlier in the day or when you feel most productive and have more energy. Leave your easier tasks and meetings for the afternoon or when you are typically less productive.

Time blocking, translating to-do lists into calendar time, and scheduling time for e-mail and social media are some habits that can help you to create space to be more strategic and productive with your time.

Say no more, delegate or stop doing all together tasks that aren’t contributing to your highest value.

When you get too wrapped up in meeting other peoples’ needs, you don’t leave time for yourself or your priorities. A great practice to consider: If it’s a big YES, great. If it’s not, it’s a no. Or at the very least offer an alternative: “I can’t do now, but can do by X” or offer a trade-off such as “I can do X or Y.”

Apply the 80/20 rule, which is a well-known principle of productivity – 80% of your results come from 20% of your effort and time. Be intentional to focus on the 20% that will give you the bigger results, and delegate or stop doing what doesn’t.

Create stronger boundaries

And finally, create stronger boundaries between your work and personal time. Set a rule for yourself such as “I will be home for supper by X time each night”.

Creating stronger boundaries gives you limits to actually force you to tackle your real priorities during the day, and give yourself breaks, and re-charge and focus on what’s important at home.

You can then can then come back to work feeling rested and productive.

You don’t bring your kids to the office, so why let your work seep into your family time at home.

What Next?

We’ve been taught all our lives that more (and more) effort, being busy and sacrifice is what's necessary to be successful. This simply is NOT necessary.

I’ve transformed my thinking and habits over the past few years (even while I was in my demanding corporate career), and I’m still amazed by the difference it’s made, not only in my work but importantly with my husband and kids.

And, I see many others struggling – people who are brilliant, yet feeling overwhelmed, worried or frustrated, so not showing up as their best.

So, I’ve taken what I’ve discovered through my training, the biggest challenges my clients face and my own experience, and created a Be At Your Best Roadmap to guide you in being at your best and thriving no matter what's going on around you.

You can change your entire experience now . . . and not have to wait until you retire, the kids get older or wait for your company to change!

CLICK HERE to download your copy of the Be At Your Best Roadmap.

What Next?

You can sign up for Stacey's masterclass, The Confident "No" here.

Stacey L. Olson is a Leadership and Certified Positive Psychology Coach, has 15 years of corporate experience and has gone through her own transformational change from burning out to balanced in life while performing at a high level (both in her corporate career and own business). She works with professionals who want to work less, live more and be their best even with all the demands, high expectations and messiness of everyday life. Stacey is the founder of The Balanced Leader™ program and offers executive and leadership coaching, workshops, and speaking.