3 time management mistakes that budding executives should avoid

by Janice Allen
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Co-founder and co-owner of Guessability Group.

Professionals new to leadership positions may struggle to adapt to the additional responsibilities on their plate. Time management is thus a valuable skill to perfect. While workouts, coaches, and books teach you how to be productive and stay focused, their advice often does the opposite. By following the rules and advice of others, novice leaders do not consider their own abilities.

If you’re a new executive, here are three common mistakes to avoid so you don’t fall victim to chronic overwork and burnout.

Mistake 1: Keeping too much on your plate

Too many leaders believe that they have to handle management tasks all by themselves. However, this approach overloads the workday, which is extremely unproductive. In fact, according to research by John PencavelIf someone works more than 50 hours a week, their productivity per hour drops drastically.

The way out is delegation. By assigning a few tasks to your team members, you can build a system in which your team feels trusted and empowered, and you have the bandwidth to focus on larger items.

It is possible to delegate:

• Routine work, such as checklist items or anything that can be done according to clear instructions.

• Auxiliary tasks or preparatory work, such as preliminary competitive analysis.

• Non-urgent tasks.

• Highly specialized tasks when a subordinate is more of an expert.

Delegating saves you time, increases employee autonomy and ideally improves the efficiency of the entire organization. Trusting team members with delegated tasks can help them develop new skills and feel more responsible. However, it is important to think carefully about who you choose for the job. Don’t just pick the person who is nearby at the time.

In addition, you have to do more than just assign a task to an employee. Make sure the task and your expectations are specific and clear. Then confirm that the employee has understood the task before they get started. By answering one of their follow-up questions, the person can build a series of inferences that lead to the necessary conclusions.

Mistake 2: Following someone else’s script

There are many time management professionals out there with advice on how much time to allocate and create to-do lists and other strategies. However, none of these can automatically take into account your individual characteristics, such as your biorhythm – the alternating periods of activity and passivity processes that affect performance.

If the system suggested by someone else is not comfortable for you, you don’t have to force yourself to follow it. Listen to yourself and determine your activity cycles to find the right time for productive work. For example, some people work best when they engage in analytical activities in the morning, routine activities in the middle of the day, and creative activities closer to night.

Mistake 3: Not adjusting your free time

Recreation is necessary for productivity; This is a fact. For example, while many time management strategies suggest dedicating a specific, regular portion of your day or week to recreation, not everyone can alternate 90-minute activities with 20-minute coffee breaks or relaxation therapy.

Nevertheless, prioritizing recreation is a skill worth acquiring. How often breaks should be taken and how they will take place are decisions that are unique to everyone. For example, Warren Buffett recovers by playing the Hawaiian guitar, Anna Wintour prefers active recreation, and the late Steve Jobs liked to perform simple tasks, which he said helped him maintain inner harmony.

Time management has become a challenge in personal effectiveness. The paradox is that the more conditions that must be met in order to track productivity, create a different kind of busyness. When every minute is planned, there is no time to think on a bigger scale. To really master time management, you need to adapt the rules to your needs.


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