Time Management Tips to Set You Up for Success!

Here's the deal. If you don't learn to master your time, you're going to always be playing catch-up and therefore being burned out, stressed out, and creating a lot of havoc in the workplace for you and your team members. You'll be feeling overwhelmed and leaving a lot of your best work undone, and you will eventually lose the best performing individuals at leadership levels and employee levels if something isn't done about it. Let's explore why this happens and more importantly, what you can do to combat it and break the cycle. Stay with us.

Welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms today's managers into tomorrow's powerhouse leaders. Your host, Bernadette Boas, executive coach and author, brings you into a world where the corporate grind meets personal growth and success in each and every episode. Let's do this.

Have you ever been asked, what keeps you up at night? Give it some real thought. Is it your to-do list, lack of productivity from your team, or could it be the tremendous pressure pushed down on you from the powers to be? Here's some appalling statistics every leader should be concerned about. Among a survey of 2,000 individuals, Approximately 35% identified their supervisor as the primary source of stress in the workplace. Work-related stress leads to burnout in 65% of leaders, impacting both their well-being and their performance. And only 27% of leaders feel adequately supported by their organization to effectively manage their stress. 44% of exhausted business executives expect to switch companies for career growth. And lastly, 71% of managers expect their top-performing and engaged employees to depart from the organization because of severe burnout. There were definitely times in my corporate career and over the last 16 years of my entrepreneurial business where I just was going 20 hours a day. Just feverishly working through my to-do list and to the point where I would either get home or be at home and just crash on the couch, just absolutely exhausted and burned out from just going and wondering, am I really making a difference? Am I adding value? Am I impacting anything? And so both the actual work exhaustion weighed me down, but also just that stress and that mental fatigue of feeling as if I am just robotically going through my day and checking off the work that I'm doing and not really adding any significant benefit or value to my team or to the company. And it can be absolutely daunting, exhausting, and just overall draining for any individual, no matter how productive, no matter how energized and energetic someone might be. So we have to get a handle on it and bring this home even stronger. I wanna throw some more statistics out at you. Because the key is going to be acknowledging that what and how you might be doing things today is not working, not for you and not for your team and not for the overall business. So according to Market Splash, as published on flarehr.com, 66% of participants confessed to suffering from sleep deprivation or sleep disturbances. As a result of work-related stress, and an overwhelming 94% of leaders undergo high levels of stress, and nearly half of them witnessed an escalation in stress in recent years. Now, I know some managers and leaders and companies who simply wanna brush it off as, well, that's the way business is nowadays. However, I have to say to you, that's BS. It's the responsibility of the companies and the leaders within those companies to really ensure that every individual, every employee at every level of the organization are able to perform their job and get the work done in a much more healthy and stress-free way, despite the workload, despite the pressures, despite what might be going on around them. So I want to talk about the causes that even you are putting on yourself when it comes to being exhausted, burned out, stressed, overwhelmed. There's self-inflicted causes for it. And then there's obviously solutions to help you manage through it and to change the way you're going about things, as well as passing that down to your team members. So then everyone is finding job satisfaction, fulfillment, and a work-life blend that really makes them high-performing, valuable, and important individuals to the business. In the 16 years of my coaching everyone from middle managers to senior executives, there are some common themes when it comes to what is creating a lot of the overwhelm, what is keeping them up at night. And again, as I mentioned, a lot of it is self-afflicting, and then others are things that if they can't control it, they need to at least manage the response to it. So let's walk through a few of those. One is many believe that they can multitask and they can do it very effectively and very productively and very efficiently. And I'm here to tell you, you can't. Multitasking actually, and other than maybe walking and chewing gum at the same time, it's a myth. It's something that we try to tell ourselves to feel good about being able to massively produce and generate a lot of activity and a lot of results. But we are kind of creating more of an issue for ourselves thinking that we could do multiple things at once and do both of them or all of them well. And more importantly, to get any of it done. Most of the observations I have from my clients and others when it comes to multitasking is the fact that they get a little bit of a lot of things done, but nothing ever fully and completely gets done. And if it does, it's taking a lot more energy, a lot more time, and a lot more resources. To complete it. So when it comes to multitasking, what I prefer you to do is really just cull it down. And we'll talk about this in the, with the tips and strategies, but cull it down to focusing on one thing at a time, even if it is in little bursts, but one thing at a time and getting it to a point of completion. And if not completion to a milestone. That indicates value, indicates an impact to, toward the goal of completing that task. The other reason or challenge that individuals have is that their calendars are just way too full. And I have this conversation probably on a daily basis with my clients. I'll ask how much white space they have on their calendars and they just laugh at me. And one of their first responses is, I have no control over my calendar. And I have to call BS to that as well. Sure, there are obligated meetings, obligated appointments that you have to have on your calendar. But I would challenge you that if I had 5 minutes of access to your calendar and you, I can probably wipe out about 25 to 30% of what's on your calendar. That you're automatically putting on there and automatically showing up for and automatically consuming your time simply because of your fear or your need to be there, to understand what's happening, to control, to micromanage. You can continue with the reasonings, but at the same time, if you're doing your part as a leader, then again, you can pull that calendar down and create that white space that you need for sanity, for breath, for more strategic things, or just simply for a break that will reenergize you. Another reasoning is there is definitely a tremendous amount of distraction created by our technologies. I was looking for my phone, but for technologies, you can even look at yourself when it comes to sitting on the couch at night. Do you actually sit on the couch? Do you actually have conversations? Do you actually watch TV or listen to the radio or one of your apps without the distraction of the flurry of emails, the flurry of Instagram posts, the flurry of Facebook posts? TikTok videos, whatever the case might be. How many of you, or how often do you just sit and be still and have conversations, get work done, enjoy a TV show without multiple digital distractions around you? I would challenge you to purposely and intentionally put it aside. Whatever that might be, the TV, the computer, the laptop, the iPad, whatever the case might be, put it aside and just be. And your energy level, your sanity, and your productivity will increase tremendously. And then of course, all of this creates mental fatigue, both dealing with people. I get that a lot when it comes to leaders in a company. Stating that the most challenging and exhausting part of their job is when it comes to managing people, the development of them, the critical feedback part of it, the accountability part of it, the delegation part of it, the prioritization side of it. Yes, dealing with people can be exhausting, and that can create mental fatigue for you and for those around you. And therefore, what can you be doing to minimize that fatigue? Of course, I mentioned the to-do list, the massive to-do list that many of you have, which should be much smaller than it is if you are really looking at it from an overall productivity, prioritization, and time management aspect. And we'll get into that when we talk tips and strategies. And a lot of times. A very long to-do list creates paralysis, creates overwhelm, creates procrastination. And so the next thing you know, when you start all of a sudden procrastinating on addressing that to-do list, because it is overwhelming, it is stressing you out, it is creating mental fatigue. A lot of times people just ignore it. People just find ways to distract themselves with other things as opposed to diving in and taking care of their list. And the next thing you know, that list is growing and growing, creating more and more stress, burnout, exhaustion, and just mental disaster. This last one actually brings us to our conversation around time management, which is there's often a lack of efficient processes, documented processes in place in order for team members and managers to be as productive, as effective, and as efficient as possible. And that includes productivity and time management processes, procedures, structures. And we're gonna talk through some of those that you could be putting into place in order for you to become as efficient as possible. So what's the impact of all of this to you, to the team, and to the business? First off, You're definitely going to get a degradation of performance. When someone's overwhelmed, not clear on the expectations or what it is that they need to be doing, the goals, the objectives for the work that they're doing, that laundry list, they really don't understand how that's going to contribute to the overall success of the team and the business, then their performance is just reduced. They become stagnated. They become paralyzed. They become stressed out and fatigued over it. And therefore they might even create that procrastination we talked about, or that paralysis of not doing anything because of the fact that they just are sitting there very stressed and burned out. And overwhelmed. So your job is to give them the tools and the processes and the strategies for overcoming that. The next one would be, there will be a lot of career stagnation from you and team members when all of a sudden they're not managing their time. They're not prioritizing. They're not purposely and intentionally planning what it is and why it is they're doing their work. They're doing their job. And in that confusion, that uncertainty, that stress around how it is that they're contributing to the business, all of a sudden has them questioning whether or not they are contributing to the point of having future opportunities, better opportunities, different, bigger, newer opportunities as they move forward. And therefore they feel like all of a sudden they're stuck and they're stagnant in the work that they're doing. They're bored. Now, this all can lead to that work-life imbalance. I don't believe in balance. I believe in a blend, but the imbalance is created when all of a sudden that to-do list is causing them to work endless hours, causing you to work endless hours, or for you to work the weekends, not take vacations. I hear that a lot from my clients. And therefore, all of a sudden, everything goes outta kilter. Family, relationships, social life, all of that gets impacted as a result of someone not having a nice blend of both a work life and a home life as a result of the pressures and the stress that their work is putting on them. Now, from a business perspective, if all of a sudden individuals' performance is being degraded, if they feel that they're stuck and they're stagnant in the work that they're doing and they don't have a nice work-life blend, all of a sudden overall team performance and business performance will take a hit and that will drive down productivity, that will drive down profitability, and that will drive down people's success or people satisfaction, and therefore increase the probability of turnover, increase the probability of lost profitability, overall employee satisfaction and manager effectiveness. But overall, the business will take a hit. When it comes to the mental fatigue, the stress, and the overwhelm. Employees, especially your leaders who also then need to be inspiring, motivating, and growing their team members, it'll just put all of that at huge risk. Let alone, another impact is relations with external stakeholders. That could be Vendors, clients, strategic partners, all get impacted because if you have disgruntled employees, burned-out employees, fatigued employees showing up and coming face-to-face with any of those individuals, well, and all of a sudden they are not showing up in the best light. They are being disgruntled, complaining, putting the company's brand in a bad light. And/or they are acting out and projecting their frustration onto those individuals, that will create huge liability for the company in many ways: brand, reputation, credibility, revenue, and profitability. And then lastly, of course, you are putting high potential, high contributing individuals at risk. Of taking their high potential performance elsewhere. And that will just create more cost, more onboarding, more overall effort in having to replace those employees. When all you need to do is be providing them tools and processes and strategies for managing their stress, managing their workload, managing their response to even change and chaos that might go on in a business, and it will. And that is really all that is needed is to give them the tools, the processes, the training, the support in, and put it in place. So then everyone up and down the ladder throughout the organization has a very intentional, mindful approach to ensuring team health and team overall performance. So let's talk about some strategies and tips for you to master time management, but overall really keep your sanity by ensuring your mental health in managing your time. Managing your workload and managing the level of stress that you're dealing with day in and day out. And so no specific order, but at the same time, a few of these that I'm going to mention first are ones that in working with clients for the last 16 years, I have found through them have had the biggest positive impact to their productivity, to their performance, and ultimately to their career success. So the first one would be having goals attached to yourself on a day-in, day-out basis, and that you've passed them down to your team members in order for them to know what's expected of them as far as the overall goals. But at the same time, they're defining their own goals based on the overall team or company SMART goals. So SMART goals is a methodology for defining and crafting your goals And very simply, because we'll have a future episode specifically all around SMART goals, but SMART goals is an acronym for being specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound. Now you can always Google and search on SMART goals for that methodology, but we will have a future episode in the coming weeks around this. So stay tuned for that and be sure to subscribe to the show in order for you to become aware of that episode. The second one would be the Pareto principle, and that states that 80% of your results comes from 20% of your effort. Now, what that means is that huge to-do list that you have, only 20% of those are going to be important or valuable to you, you accomplishing your goals. And so that leads into even the Eisenhower Matrix, if you were to use that. And my interpretation of the Eisenhower Matrix is the fact that you have 4 categories of how you should take your to-do list and bucket them. So it would be those tasks that you will do, that you can delete, that you can delay, or that you can delegate. Okay, so it's do, delete, delay, or delegate. Now, the Eisenhower Matrix kind of puts them in a particular order because those that you can delete, you should automatically just cross off and not pay attention to them. And then those that you can delegate require some thoughtful, intentional planning as far as, all right, these are items I can delegate. To whom I should I delegate them? Who's gonna be the best individual on my team to get these type of tasks done? Now, this requires trust that you could trust your team members to get the work done. But that's a huge leadership attribute of which you absolutely need to trust your people, cuz that's why they're there. And then delay. Too many times we actually have on our to-do list the things that are easy, the things that are fun, the things that we like to do, and yet they're not priority and they don't have an urgency to them, or they don't have a value that's great toward accomplishing your goal. And therefore you should just simply delay it. But then there's those that rise to the top in priority, have the biggest impact, and therefore should be done. And those dos are those, since you're not delegating them, they are the ones that you're going to do. So it's a way for you to really organize and prioritize that massive to-do list. Now, I take it one step further and I would tell you that once you have your dos, because you've either delegated, you've deleted, or you're delaying. Once you have your dos, then you want to look at and intentionally plan out what is the impact or the value toward accomplishing the overall goal. And what is that due date that I need to be getting them done? And then you can reprioritize them in what's the most important based on the deadline. What's the most important based on that value that it's going to have to us overall. Accomplishing this goal. So that would be the next tip and strategy to take is once you've bucketed them, then work through the scheduling, the prioritization of them based on your overall goal. The next one would be time blocking. Now, this is the one that has had the greatest impact for my clients. And the reason for it is, as I mentioned earlier, one of the biggest challenges and causes for stress and burnout is overloaded calendars. And therefore, time blocking ensures proactively that you are prioritizing your calendar to where you're building into your calendar time for breaks, time for strategic thinking. You're building into your calendar those mandatory must-attend meetings, but then you're looking at and even using the do, delegate, delete or delay process for saying, do I really need to be attending this meeting? Because I have delegated this meeting and this work to team members. So do I have to be there or am I just showing up from a control perspective, from an I need to know perspective, from a micromanaging perspective? One of the biggest reasons for burnout and stress that I have found over the last 16 years is someone will tell me I have to be at those meetings. And my job is to press and ask questions. And eventually we'll discover that, you know what, I don't have to be at 20, 30% of the meetings I'm putting on my schedule. And therefore I am taking them off and I am time blocking other activities there, activities that are more strategic. That create more sanity and that are more people-focused, such as I need to spend time with my people one-on-one or in a group. So time blocking is one of those tools that has significant impact on your productivity and performance. And then of course, there's a strategy of the 2-minute rule, which means do things in small bursts, do things in small times where you're just going to go at something until 2 minutes is up, 5 minutes is up, 15 minutes is up, whatever you designate. But do small bursts of activities because again, there's no really such thing as multitasking. You can only focus and do one thing at a time. You might have 3 things in front of you, At the same time, you're not working on those 3 things at the same time. You're working on one thing, even if it's for 30 seconds, and then you're getting distracted and you come over here and then you come over here and it's squirrel. Instead of being all over the place, thinking you're multitasking, acting like a squirrel, intentionally say, I'm gonna work on this one thing for 5 minutes. I'm gonna then move over to here, work on this for 10. I'm gonna move over here and work on this for 10, but have a plan. Be intentional. Now, one I'm gonna add right now, cuz it just came to me, is if you saw my desk right now, what's in front of me, all that's in front of me are my notes for this particular activity, this task. I don't have anything else. Yes, I have a glass of water and I have my microphone and I have some lights in front of me. But when it comes to anything else that might distract me, I took off my watch because I didn't want it buzzing. I moved my phone away. It's on silent and it's turned over, so I can't even see if anything's coming up. It, that would, that's the best way to eliminate distractions. Just eliminate anything around you and just focus on what it is that you need to get done. Okay. Now we talked about learn to be still, learn to be quiet, learn to, like I said, to move all those distractions away, get rid of all those digital intrusions so you can then be just totally alert and intentional. Probably second down in priority and in what really creates a lot of stress for my clients, other than that overloaded calendar is the fact that they don't say no very easily, and they need to. You need to say no. You need to set boundaries. Yes, it's nice if the boss asks you to do something to, uh, and you automatically say yes. You think you're getting kudos for it, but oftentimes they are actually turning into yes people, or they have already turned into yes people, and therefore people are just taking advantage of that. People are just not even looking at it as a competitive advantage or a strategic advantage for themselves or in the eyes of other people. It's just taking for granted that this individual always says yes, never pushes back, will take it on and actually get it done. And therefore I can continue doing it. You have to learn how to set boundaries. You have to also coach and teach your team members to set boundaries. And the first person who says to me, I can't say no to my boss, I want you to reach out and I want you to schedule some time with me at coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall, because you can absolutely say no to your boss. And trust me when I say your boss wants you to say no. They may not respond to it. Like that when you first say no, but your boss also wants to see that you know how to set boundaries. You know how to prioritize. You know how to time manage yourself and your team members in order to be successful in accomplishing your goal. Now, another one that I hold dearly for myself, but also my clients, is reflection. Is spending time really understanding your overall showing up, your overall behavior, your overall performance. At the end of the day, take time to think about, okay, how did I go into the day? Was it in a very positive, uplifting, energetic, productive way? Or was I stressed and agitated and disgruntled, and therefore that affected my overall effectiveness throughout the day? Individually or even with my team members, but reflect on not only how you show up, but the work that you did, the impact that you had, the value that you brought, the support you provided. Spend time each day in the morning and at night reflecting so you can learn about yourself as far as what really energizes you or what stresses you out. What environments you work best in and which environments you do not, um, how you want to connect and engage and communicate with others and how you don't. You really getting an understanding of your own needs and wants is a huge game changer when it comes to your performance and productivity, because many of us don't know. We don't take the time to really sit and think about it. Think about who we are, what we need, and what we want. And so if you could learn to take 5 minutes in the morning and at night to reflect on how your day went, how you contributed, how you supported, you will be able to acknowledge your blind spots, acknowledge what's worked and what hasn't, and make changes so the next day is that much better. And lastly, you need to ensure that you're assessing your progress, you're assessing the performance of yourself and your team to ensure that you are working toward achieving that goal. And if not, making the changes necessary in order for you to not fall behind, not play catch-up, as I mentioned at the very beginning, and that you're successful in being as productive as possible. So make a note of these tips and strategies. SMART goals, Pareto principle, time blocking, the Eisenhower matrix, or in my way of thinking, it's either do, delegate, delete, or delay. Okay. The 2-minute rule, digital detoxing, setting boundaries, reflecting on your overall accomplishments and performance, and then lastly, really being consistent. And reviewing, just as we just did, your progress. All right. So a lot of different tools and strategies for you and your team members to use. Pick one or two of them to start working into your day in, day out, assessing it, re— tracking it, and seeing how they are shifting your overall performance, and you will be surprised at the energy that you find, the confidence you find, the overall sanity that you find. Time is the one resource that we can't get back once it's gone. And how we use it also defines our impact as professionals and leaders. Today we uncover the common time traps. That derail us, the serious consequences of poor time management, and actionable strategies to get you back in control of your sanity. So remember, productivity isn't about doing more. It's about doing the right things at the right time by the right individuals. If you have any questions or challenges yourself and you want some support in identifying which are the best strategies that would work for you based on the challenges that you're having, then don't hesitate to schedule some complimentary time with me. You can go to coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall and let's have a conversation about it. And let's be sure that we get you tips and strategies to keep you moving forward. Until next time, stay bold, stay focused, and keep shedding those corporate challenges and excuses so you can be the powerhouse leader you're meant to be. I'll look forward to having you for another episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Bye.

Thank you for tuning into today's episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Every journey taken together is another step towards unleashing the powerhouse leader within you. Don't miss any of our weekly episodes. Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you love to listen. And for those who thrive on visual content, catch us on our Shedding the Bitch YouTube channel. Wanna dive deeper with Bernadette on becoming a powerhouse leader? Visit balloffirecoaching.com. To learn more about how she helps professionals, HR executives, and team leaders elevate overall team performance. You've been listening to Shedding the Corporate Bitch with Bernadette Boas. Until next time, keep shedding, keep growing, and keep leading.