Helping Companies Rethink, Recover & Refocus on the Future

Being busy does not mean you are effective. The higher you are in an organization, the more demand exists for your time. If not disciplined, schedules expand like that “great-stuff” expanding foam to fill each day. A full calendar is not a sign of efficacy, but rather a lack of decision-making and effective delegation. Temporary activities and conditions may create periods that require more time. However, a chronic full calendar is a severe problem for most aspiring leaders. Sadly, too many people equate activity with success. 

Tim Ferriss, the author of the 4 Hour Workweek, has a thesis about work that is nearly impossible for most of us to comprehend, much less implement. But let’s be honest, are you genuinely effective in your job all day, every day? Or is it more likely that you spend large amounts of time on tasks that merely soak the time from your schedule? Do you spend time doing work because you enjoy the activity and feel comfortable in that space? As a leader, you have a choice. As a CEO or business owner, you have the power to choose how you spend your time.

The first step toward normalcy and success as leaders is a stop doing list. Most people use a “to-do” list daily. This tool is a paper or electronic list of things you check off as completed. The problem is that these lists become so large that you never get them all done, and you resign yourself to never feeling like the work never gets completed. I advocate having a list of things to do in a given period. I recommend that this list be limited to more than today and the next day. My ADD and poor memory need such a list. “Stop doing” lists are powerful because you honestly look at activities that you can or should stop doing. For example, stop doing work that you already pay someone else to do. Stop getting involved in a position that others on your team are responsible for completing in your absence. Stop writing a report that no one reads. Stop filing a paper copy of documents backed up to the cloud on your computer every night. You get the point. We are all guilty of doing work that adds no value to our business.

The second step toward doing nothing is...

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