No Flow?
How chopped up is your typical day? Can you dedicate meaningful blocks of time to your highest strategic priorities, or are you in non-stop firefighting mode?
Cognitive science tells us that “task switching” takes a real toll on our ability to get things done. It’s harder to bounce back and forth between things, rather than digging in and focusing on something in a dedicated way.
In the short-term, here are a couple things that might help you focus more of your precious time and energy on your highest priorities:
ISSUES LIST: On a whiteboard in your office, or in a virtual space like a Google document, start an Issues List. This is where you and your team can get Issues out of your brains and captured in a place where they will be dealt with soon - but at a time of your choosing, not through constant interruption. Yes, sometimes time-sensitive emergencies arise. But you can reduce interruptions by developing the habit of relying on an Issues List.
Block out one hour each week and tackle as many of the most important issues as you can. Resolving Issues is a central agenda item of the weekly L10 meeting run by companies who run on EOS. There is a simple rubric that they use that I’m happy to share with you.
DELEGATE & ELEVATE: Are you doing things that someone else on your team could be doing? Put differently, what percent of your day is spent doing things that only you can do? “Is this something only I can do?” is a great filter.
As a leader, your greatest contributions are made when you empower others to do things, and when you concentrate your energy into those things that only you can do.
Be thoughtful about this, and be willing to let others do things a little differently than you might - you’re still gaining leverage, even if it’s not exactly how you would do it.
In the long-term, going offsite four times each year for strategic planning and goal-setting will take your business to a much higher level. Companies that run on EOS hold three Quarterly meetings that are one day in duration, and also hold a two-day Annual meeting.
Think you can’t spare five days each year working on your business instead of always working in it? Consider this math: If your business is open Monday through Friday, 52 weeks per year, that’s a total of 260 operating days.
So the five days spent on Quarterly and Annual meetings “cost” you 1.92% of your year. How much more effective do you think you and your team could be with the other 98% of the year that remains?
The truth is that many teams could be working much more effectively if they embraced the simple tools and disciplines of EOS. I help companies do this all the time, and I can help you.