Is today a success if you don’t complete your to-do list? This is the wrong question built on a bad set of beliefs about work. It implies everything on your to-do list is equally important. What if accomplishing only two items radically accelerates progress toward your goals?
I’m a fan of checklists, but these lists aren’t necessarily designed to solve our biggest problems or pursue our greatest opportunities. All-time great John Wooden reminded us to “Never mistake activity for achievement.” Don’t let completing your to-do list become the goal!
Time management is a system. If you aren’t getting the results you want then it’s time to change your systems. In Atomic Habits, James Clear tells us, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
In my 22 years of work in higher education I observed, and participated in, several common system malfunctions including:
- Busyness is informally rewarded.
- Meetings are the answer to most problems (COVID-19 exacerbated this).
- If invited to a meeting, you must attend or you may miss out. Or worse, you could be viewed as a non-team player.
- Priorities are set by individuals or specific departments and it is up to each person to navigate the personal and collective dissonance.
- Deep work rarely happens from 8 am to 5 pm.
All of these issues take time and emotional energy. Time is the most limited resource you have. For colleges to solve a growing set of challenges, we can’t mistake activity for accomplishment and need to redesign our systems.
To do this, leaders need clear priorities that are aligned across the organization. Greg McKeown, in Essentialism, aptly writes, “If you don’t prioritize your time, someone else will.” Do you ever see this in your work?
Leaders must model a different route forward. Here are several ways you can get off this unhealthy hamster wheel and start changing your results:
- Believe you can change the systems in your work. If you don’t believe it then it won’t happen.
- Be clear on your keystone goals. Some things matter more than others. In admissions this might be increasing the number of visitors instead of focusing on inquiry volume.
- Evaluate your time honestly. Use an urgent vs. important (or Eisenhower) matrix to map your time and drop or delegate things that are low value for your keystone goals.
- Reduce your meetings and eliminate attendance redundancy. Review the meetings you have and eliminate ones that can be achieved in a different way. Relationships are important but meeting for meetings sake isn’t. Also, look around the room at the next meeting you are in and if you are there along with one or two of your direct reports then this might be attendance redundancy. Train and trust your people to do good work.
- Chunk your time and protect space each week for deep work. Proactively protect slots on your calendar for deep thinking away from your email. If you block time for reflection or creative thinking, don’t schedule over the top of it.
The beauty of these habits is they will not only change your work life, they will also show a different way for the people you are leading. It is one of the greatest gifts you can give those you lead!
–Ryan Dougherty is the Principal Partner at TG Three with over 20 years experience building successful enrollment leaders, teams and strategies. He helps people get clarity, focus and alignment.
TG Three is a strategy company that helps Christian colleges grow their people and their enrollments through hiring, strategy, and coaching.
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