I had the recent pleasure of reading Simon Sinek’s fantastic book “Start With Why” (a must read, by the way). Check out Sinek’s TED Talk on the subject. The book essentially asks one fundamental question, “why” are some in business just more innovative, influential, and more profitable than others. But what got me to thinking about time and pressure was Sinek’s reference to Dwayne Honoré. Mr. Honoré owned a construction company owner in Baton Rouge, LA. He devised a brilliant system to reinforce his belief in work-life-balance. He required all of his employees to clock into work between 8:00 & 8:30 a.m. and to clock out of work between 5:00 & 5:30 p.m. Sinek’s point was that Honoré had an important value, “work-life-balance,” and he created a measurable way to instill that value into his company’s DNA.
Insufficient work-life balance leads to stress and self-imposed pressure that tears and gnaws away at our most important asset, our time. I for one, truly do understand that pressure and stress can cause a long, long list of problems. Not the least of which is prematurely ending your time on this earth. But, I’m not talking about the external pressure that can be so devastating, I’m talking about a good kind of pressure. A self-imposed kind of pressure. And this is a powerful tool that, I believe, can make us all so much more proficient at everything we do.
Let me share a story . . .
About a year ago, our family took a trip to Siesta Key for my beautiful niece’s wedding. It was a ten day affair, and we planned to have a crawfish boil for the wedding party at our rental house. This required a bit of planning. I had to get the crawfish flown into Siesta Key, and then plan for me to drive all the needed equipment and luggage, for our stay. Then make arrangements for my wife, kids, and mother in law, to fly, but balance this against my son’s somewhat unpredictable baseball tournament schedule.
On top of all that, was this little thing I call a job. We were closing three deals in the two weeks before we were to go on the trip. In addition to those we were chasing, and all the other daily tasks that constantly appeared on my calendar. Then, on the day the wedding trip ended, I was to fly to Los Angeles to complete the final week of Coldwell Banker Commercial’s EBT program. Which of course meant two and a half weeks out of the office. Obviously I had weeks and months to put this plan together. But the execution was going to be tricky, and needless to say, this could have been a complete disaster.
But you know what, it worked! It all just happened, and remarkably, “mostly” according to plan. In the waning days of the California portion of the trip, I had some time to go down to Huntington Beach and just walk a bit. (Beach walks are just the best, by the way). When thinking about how all of this just came together, I began to appreciate the method by which I accomplished all of this. Not that I am some kind of planning genius, or super human worker that needs only three hours sleep a night. It came together because of the power of the pressure.
Harnessing the Power of Pressure
The power behind all that pressure helped, motivated, forced (insert your favorite adjective here) me to push aside all of the extraneous “stuff” that fights and claws into my life, and just work on what I needed to work on to make it all happen. I didn’t have time for the quick cup of coffee with an old co-worker; I couldn’t take fifteen minutes when a colleague wandered into my office to talk “office gossip;” and I didn’t take on projects or tasks that did not make sense given my time constraints.
The real question here, however, is why does it take an extended trip away from the office to allow the power of pressure to work? Why do we do all those things, when the pressure is not “on,” that fill up our days and fritter away our most valuable resource, our time? Why indeed?
We have to harness the power of the pressure and allow it to work for us, to guide us, and to help preserve that ever depleting precious commodity, our time! How? Well, let me suggest five steps that you can take right now, that will put you on the path toward harnessing pressure to work for you.
Turn off the distractors!
I do not care what anyone tells you, we humans are lousy multitaskers. We just are. If nothing else, the studies about cell phone use while driving demonstrates this clearly! So, stop. Turn off the little email notification button on the bottom of your computer screen. Disable the Facebook and Twitter notifications on your phone. Hell, turn off the phone! And, for the love of God, stop going to meetings you do not need to be at. (Just because you are invited does not mean you have to be there).
I believe that for every minute you are distracted, it will take you another minute to get back to the level of focus you had on your task before the distraction occurred. So that three minute call turns into six minutes off-task, and that ten minute chat with a co-worker turns into a twenty minute loss of focused productivity.
Eliminate Opportunities for Distraction
I know that all of this stopping, and turning off, and unplugging is scary, and you are already shouting, “I can’t do that, all those things are important.” And I agree! But I urge that you can do it. Like my trip last year, though, it will take a bit of planning.
If you are going to shut your phone off, put something in your voice mail message that explains why? When you close your door to sharpen your focus, send an email to your co-workers. This will give them a heads up, and state a time when you will make yourself available. Or just hang a Do Not Disturb sign on your door. You can decide to only review and answer emails three times per day. But if you do, put a little explanation in your email footer that indicates this. My point, if you communicate this appropriately, no one is really going to complain.
Calendar Your Tasks
A critical step toward allowing the power of pressure to work for you is to apply that pressure through your own calendar. Like Mr. Honoré requiring work to be done between 8:00 and 5:00, do the same with your tasks. Think about how much time you really need to get a task done, then put it on the calendar. Then prioritize the calendar by moving the most critical work to the morning hours before lunch, when you are typically at your best. If you finish a task early, great, use the free time wisely, but stay true to your calendar! If you go over, then you know you are going to make it up somewhere else, so the pressure is “on” and you have to work to get it done.
Prioritize Your Calendar the Night Before
We all know that things come up, and priorities change, and that can turn a calendar upside down. I get it. Incorporate a bit of forethought. If you do, you may be able to prevent that from being a cataclysmic event in your day. I prefer to review my calendar the night before. I can move my tasks around then, when its peaceful and quiet, and I can thoughtfully plan my day. Spend fifteen minutes before bed. Adjusting and reviewing will make your day smoother, and you will probably sleep better too.
Pause & Reflect
Last, and probably the most important, is to take a breath. Set aside enough time for the task to truly pause and reflect on the work that you are doing. By this I mean to really think about the project, deal, or client. Bring to bear all of your education and experience and really reflect on what is needed. Try to spend undistracted time on this critical function. This is, in my opinion, the single greatest use of your time in any given day. And it applies to ALL tasks. Think about it, your education and experience, your emotions and morals, your beliefs and ambitions, are why clients hire you. And why your family loves you. They all deserve your best, so harness the pressure and deliver!
