Maximizing Your Time: A Prioritization Kit for Executive Leaders

As an executive leader, it often feels like there’s never enough time in the day to accomplish everything with the urgency you desire. This prioritization kit serves as a weekly or monthly guide to help you clarify your priorities, manage the demands of reality, and establish predictable patterns of behavior. By doing so, you can reduce unnecessary friction in your work+life and create more harmony for those who depend on you. Let’s get started.

1:  People

Who are the people that are at the highest priority in your life?  These are the people who rely upon you in a significant way, there should be names and roles associated with each of these people. Some of these people from your home life, and some of these people from your work life.

For each of these individual humans, identify their role in your life, and the role that you have in their life. These are the people that you over communicate with, never miss or show up late for a commitment, and truly prioritize a high level of responsiveness with.

These are your people.

2: Tasks

There are standard operating procedures that are required to be successful and fulfilling the requirements for your level of responsibility. Some of these things only you can do. Again, there are things at home that only you can do, and there are things at work that only you could do.

Identify the top 5 to 10 tasks that only you can do which should include one on ones with direct reports, particular presentations, and even decision-making on some of these things. 

3:  Time

There’s no such thing as multitasking. You might attempt to do many things at the same time, and likely you’re not doing them very well (or with the attention that they deserve). An executive leader needs to stop the practice of trying to multitask immediately. Some of your high-level tasks, that you just identified, require the value of your full presence. Let’s get honest.

For each of the items above, assign a time value. Realistically, indentify how much time will it take you to accomplish each of these things. 

4:  Anticipation

Because you have serious and significant responsibilities to others, to your organization, to yourself, your challenge now is to look at the week ahead, the month ahead, the quarter, in the year.  

In the space below, make a list of projects, significant happenings, and things that need to be on your radar for the week ahead, month ahead, upcoming quarter, and the year. By listing these things out, you are now anticipating demands on your time and attention, and areas where you need to either delegate, do, or dismiss. 

5:  Plan

At this level, you are likely managing commitments by your calendar. That’s not a bad thing, it means that you have the discipline to plan and make time for those things which require your attention and full presence. 

If you are not utilizing your calendar and scheduling things, it’s time to start. This part of your planning requires decision-making, not procrastination or multitasking. 

Review items two, four, and five, and put time in your calendar on a regular basis to attend to each of these items. Remember, some things are non-negotiable. Especially as they relate to the areas in life where only YOU can fill a role. 

The things that are on your item to list are essential. The requests in time allotted for the people in your number one list are also non-negotiable. Those are high priority items that need to go into your calendar first.

Make this a regular thing…

As you build the discipline to regularly review the needs of the coming week, month, quarter, or year, you should be putting check points on your calendar so that you can delay distress and avoid multitasking. By planning check points, and communicating them with associated parties, you are also avoiding asking unnecessary “pressure-filled” questions to those who report to you. 

By having planned check-in and status update updates on your calendar, you will be better able to communicate clear expectations to those who lead and offer the power of your full presence for the things within your domain.

I know this might seem like a heavy task to do once a month, but I assure you, if you want to make the most of the narrow spaces between work in life, this discipline of planning is absolutely essential. So often, senior leaders short change themselves on nurturing those most essential relationships AND the satisfaction that comes from a job well done. With discipline and planning, you don’t have to choose between the two.

Stop living for a moment to moment, feeling stretched by many outside factors, and start living in the freedom of the life you deserve: one that is governed by your values, and holding a discipline of time and communication. 

Need some help? Sometimes a couple of months of accountability can build the muscle and momentum to keep it going. Schedule a 15-minute discovery session with me today to explore how the NarrowSpaces might support your goals. Start here.

Download this Executive Leaders Planning Guide and start working through your own NarrowSpaces of work+life today.

NarrowSpaces Executive Prioritization Tool Kit.pdf

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