I am a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. (My Editor complains I write about this every year – I know but I think it’s important!) It isn’t just that they help you achieve something you might not otherwise; they make you review the last year and form a wish list for the next.
In the “good old days” we had more time. First thing you wandered around and made sure everything was running well. The post arrived at 11 so time to sit down and respond before lunch. You could start work on that long term project straight after lunch.
Doesn’t describe a typical working day in 2021 does it?
It is a good thing that we are more connected with what is going on. We are on the “front-line” much more of the day. The blessing of email means that every fifteen minutes there may be something important buried in the “CC” mail, so you have to check don’t you.
How many of us manage to set aside a block of three hours to work on something significant? It isn’t easy. We leave the important until it becomes both important and urgent.
Maybe that should be your #1 Resolution – manage your time better.
As for #2 how about delegating more? That may just help with your time management.
Having made a little time, why not spend it on finding out about managing motivation and, that much debased concept, engagement?
Done properly your people will bring you solutions instead of problems. More than that when you go and talk to them about a problem, they explain how they fixed it yesterday! Then go on to list the other problems they solved you haven’t heard about yet!
So, #3 is to find out about motivation management. It saves time and boosts operational capacity. That should help you when you have your next review with your Boss.
#4 would usefully be to use this rescued time to look ahead and do a strategic review of your unit. What is coming might come or should come?
Now you can go to your Boss when asked about a problem she has, and you can say you did this last month and this and this too!
#5 just must be about people. Do you know the names of all your people, their significant others, children, pets and so on? Are you present in their lives enough, but not too much?
Not to forget your own family and friends who deserve to share in the bounty of relaxed time you have now.
Please write them down.
Copy and paste them.
- Resolution One – Manage my time more effectively
- Resolution Two – Delegate more
- Resolution Three – Research motivation management
- Resolution Four – Offer your Boss solutions to problems she doesn’t know she has yet
- Resolution Five – Be present in the lives of all the people you contact everyday
Break the big ones up into chunks that match the free time you have now.
Remember, what did or didn’t happen yesterday that you can’t change.
Today is the first day of the rest of your life – make it count!
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