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The Path To Leadership
We podcast about strong leaders, loyal employees, avoiding burnout, and raising profits building strong cultures. Everyone is a leader, but the path isn't always easy. Developing critical skills to build stronger, more successful and profitable organizations.
The Path To Leadership
Strategic Time Management: Unleashing Your Leadership Potential with Dr. Katie
Can aligning your time management strategies with your personal and professional goals truly revolutionize your path to leadership? Join me, Dr. Katie, as we embark on a journey of self-discovery and strategic prioritization. In this episode, I explore the transformative power of conducting a personal SWOT analysis to identify the skills, certifications, and relationships necessary for your ambitions. Learn how a time audit can streamline your daily actions to reflect your larger aspirations, helping you say no to time-draining activities that don't contribute to your goals.
Navigate the essential skills of strategic time management to prevent burnout and stress. I share the importance of narrowing your focus through prioritization, illustrated with personal anecdotes like managing a shoe addiction with a one-in, one-out policy. Discover why saying no for now, not forever, is crucial and how taking on stretch assignments can offer growth opportunities. We'll also discuss scheduling downtime to prevent exhaustion and introduce JOMO—the joy of missing out—as a refreshing approach to managing your calendar and reclaiming your time.
Balance is key when juggling career commitments and personal relationships. I reflect on my early career and the early days of Catalyst Development, where overcommitting led to missed connections. This episode highlights the value of selective networking, effective time management, and finding the right organizational tools. Align your calendar with your core values and be open to reevaluating and removing goals that no longer resonate. Together, we'll uncover practical advice for creating a balanced and fulfilling life, honoring both personal and professional priorities on the Path to Leadership.
Follow Catalyst Development on LinkedIn @catalystdevelopment, @drkatieervin, @jennascott
www.cdleaders.com
Learn more about Supervisor 101 at www.cdleaders.com/supervisor101
Learn about LEADERs Institute at www.katieervin.com/leaders
Theme music by Emma Jo https://emmajo.rocks/
Hello and welcome back to the Path to Leadership. I am Dr Katie and I am so excited to have this conversation with you today. Today we are going to talk about time management, but not just how you manage your time, but I really want to talk about a time management philosophy. I was recently asked to speak to a group about time management and tips and tricks and things that we can do to manage our time better, when I was preparing for that session. There are so many different tips and tricks out there and things that you can do. Whether you block off time on your calendar that you know is for desk work, or whether you use different AIs to block off times to get things done. There's so many things out there that you can use to manage your time.
Speaker 1:The challenge when I find, with time management is what works for one person doesn't always work for another. And the other thing, too, is it ties to a time management philosophy, like what is your philosophy on life? What are you doing? What are your goals for the year? What are your values? What do you say is important to you? And then, are you living your time management through that? And I think when we flip the switch from a to-do task list whether I get everything checked off my list to really creating a philosophy of time management. It really starts with what are you focused on? What are your goals for the year, the quarter, the month? What are you really focused on? And so it takes that step, first to really sit and say you know, my five-year goal is to, you know, transition into this type of room. And then you say, okay, how do I get there in five years? Well, to get there in five years, I'm going to need to get this skill set, I'm going to need to get this certification, I'm going to need to get experience in these areas. And so you start doing a personal SWOT analysis of you know. What are the things that I need to learn or do, who are the people that I need to know, what are the relationships and connections that I need to make, what do I need to nurture to make this happen?
Speaker 1:And once you know all of those things, then you're able to sit down and say, okay, how am I going to squeeze that into my week? How am I going to squeeze that into my days? What do my days look like? And it's important for you to do that, both professionally and personally. You know, if I say, personally, I want to lose 15 pounds in the next six months, well, how am I going to do that? So, figure out what you're going to do, but then are you doing the things that you need to do to get it done? It's easy to say I want to lose the weight, but are you doing the meal prepping? Are you going to the classes? Are you going for a walk? What are you doing?
Speaker 1:And so, when you really have those goals in front of you and the tasks that you need to do to reach those goals, it takes that down into these bite-sized pieces where you can now say this is what's important to me, this is what I'm working on, this is the outcome that I want to have. Now let's schedule what we need to do around that, and it allows us to get some of the minutiae and some of the noise out of our calendar. If we say that we are working on these goals and then we look at all of the tasks and things that we're doing that are not helping us reach our goals, are you really working on that goal, are you really trying to get there, or you just have a pretty goal on a piece of paper, on a poster or, you know, on a performance review that you put out there, but you're not really doing the things you need to do to get there. And so the next step to your time management philosophy is look at how you're spending your time and really doing this time audit. You know, I say that these things are really important to me. It's this step in my career journey, it's this step in my health journey, it's this step in my relationships. These are the things that I'm going to focus on Now. What are the things that I can say no to? What are the things that I can remove from my calendars, from my expectations, that are not helping me reach those goals? Are we saying yes to too many things because we don't want to hurt people's feelings, or we don't want to hurt people's feelings, or we don't want to miss out, or you know what is the reason that we're saying yes to too many things?
Speaker 1:And I find this happens so often with people that say I am so overwhelmed, I have so much going on, and it's like, well, let's look at what you've got going on. Let's look at what you're doing at work. Are you doing the things that are your job? Are you doing things that are outside of the scope of your job? Are they duties that are assigned to you? Are you just picking them up because you don't want to disappoint people? Or you've had this martyr syndrome where you're like, well, if I don't do it, who's going to do it? Martyr syndrome where you're like, well, if I don't do it, who's going to do it? And sometimes it's okay to not pick everything up, and I know that's really hard for some people.
Speaker 1:There's been some things that I have done in the past that I enjoy doing, but I just don't have the time in my schedule to do them this year because of other priorities and other things going on, and so what I have said to those people is I am passionate about what you're doing and I love and support it. I don't have the five hours a week right now to devote to it, so it's not a no forever, it's a no for right now because I've got to take care of these other things, and I really think of a time management philosophy as spinning plates. You know there's people that stand on stage and spin all the plates all the time, and how many plates can you spin and you kind of go down the line and when you get the seventh plate spinning, the first plate starts wobbling and you've got to run back to the other to get it spinning. And so then you spin all of them just a little more and it's like are you really getting a good spin on any of them? Or are you getting a good spin at the beginning because you're so excited and energized and engaged but then you're like, oh shoot, that plate is wobbling because I haven't had enough time to go back to it. So I'm going to go, I'm going to give it one really good spin because I care about it, I don't want to see it fall. But I'm not really going to give it everything I got. I'm just going to run over real quick, make a spin and then come back to the other things.
Speaker 1:And I think when we think about our time management that way, it helps us narrow down. It doesn't mean the things we say no to we don't care about. It means that we can't give it our full attention, our full energy. Again, it doesn't have to be a no forever. It can be a no for right now that we come back to. It can be a no for right now that we come back to and I think that is one of the things that we're often afraid to do and we really need to lean into that. And why are we picking things up? It's okay to pick up tasks at work or maybe on a committee or something like that, where it's like, well, it's not in the scope of my work but it's a stretch assignment. It's going to give me connections to people for that next role, that next opportunity. It's going to give me opportunity to reach the goal that I want to teach. That is okay to say yes to those kind of things. The important thing is when what needs to drop off.
Speaker 1:Early in my marriage I had a shoe addiction problem. I still do. I just can afford it a little more than I could back then. But my husband would always tease me that you know, we live in a little apartment, we just don't have room for all these shoes. So we had this one in, one out philosophy when I brought in a new pair of shoes, I had to donate. Now I say have to? That's very extreme, but I committed to then donating a pair out. You know how do we make room for the things that we want to bring in.
Speaker 1:We've got to get something out, and so I really want you to think about that when you think about your calendars, when you think about the things you need to do and you've got to build in time for you to do things that you really enjoy. I love please don't judge me, I love just crap reality TV. It's mindless, I don't have to think very much. It allows me to decompress after a long day, and so I schedule that time. I allow myself that time I don't necessarily schedule it in my calendar, but I allow myself that time to just sit and do nothing or sit and just decompress and relax, and so make sure that you're not going so hard all the time that you're getting exhausted just looking at your calendar. We talk all the time about working genius and the type of tasks that you do that you get energy from, and so how you get energy from the type of task you do allow you to schedule more tasks.
Speaker 1:Now, the other side of not just getting energy from the task but there is that burnout we talk about so much mental, physical, even emotional. We get to the point where we are so overwhelmed that we cannot handle everything we've committed to, we cannot handle everything we're responsible for, and we start breaking down and that, to me, is the point where you know it's just so unhealthy. It's the point where your body's going to start breaking down. You're going to get sick, you're not going to feel well, you may get anxiety or depression. It's the point where you've got to really say it's too much. And hopefully, after you listen to this, you won't get to that point. You will take the time to slow down and to really say okay, I'm going to take this week to really look at my calendar and I'm going to make some decisions and say yes to no. I heard recently you know there's the FOMO, the fear of missing out but I've also heard a lot lately JOMO, the joy of missing out. But I've also heard a lot lately Jomo, the joy of missing out, the joy of saying no, the joy of saying you know what? I don't have the capacity to do that and so thank you for the invitation, but I'm a no thank you.
Speaker 1:And there is some joy in being able to take time for yourself or your closest relationships. You don't want to say yes to so much that any of your relationships suffer because you can't nurture any of them. I see so often people, especially younger, in career. I know I did this early in my career where I said yes to everything because I thought I was supposed to. I thought that I would disappoint people if I said no. I thought I would miss an opportunity if I said no. I just didn't want to not be in the middle of it all. But the problem is, when you're trying to be in the middle of it all, you know, are you nurturing your marriage or whatever relationships you have? Do you have young kids or older kids, other family type dynamics, friends? Are you not reaching out and connecting with your closest friends? We want to make sure that we are having enough time for all of that stuff.
Speaker 1:I also found when I started Catalyst Development, I was saying yes to every networking opportunity. I was saying yes to every coffee, every lunch. I was running all over town all the time and it was really great as I was starting the company and I was trying to get to know people that were kind of out of my immediate sphere and I was trying to build new relationships. But there's a point too, even in business, where you have to ask yourself does this make sense? Is this a networking opportunity that makes sense for business? Is this a group of people that I just really enjoy hanging out with?
Speaker 1:So maybe you don't do these formalized networking events where there may be a lot of people, it may be more transactional. Maybe you just set up small lunches or coffees or happy hours where it's more intimate and you can have deeper conversations. It's not as chaotic, there's not as much going on. I know for me at networking events, because I'm a galvanizer and because I'm an extrovert, I love to chat with everybody and I feel like so often in these really large networking events I'm just kind of bouncing around and getting cards, which is great to have those connections of bouncing around and getting cards, which is great to have those connections, but then having to go back and make sure that I'm not missing the connection, making sure that I'm scheduling follow-ups, doing those kinds of things. Because if you're not taking that next step of relationship building, from getting those cards, from meeting those people, then you have just spent a whole lot of time in a networking event with maybe no so what of it, no outcome of it.
Speaker 1:So I really challenge you as you think of you know how you're managing your time, how you're managing your calendar, how you're getting things done, how do you do it in the most efficient and effective way? One, how do you do it in the most efficient and effective way? And once you figure that out, then figure out what platform works for you. Is it an electronic calendar? Is it a paper calendar? Is it a combination of both? I will tell you for me, if it's not in my phone calendar, I am likely going to miss it, and it's not intentional, I just rely so heavily on it, and so we want to make sure that, whatever our system is, that it's the system we stick with.
Speaker 1:You can try other things, or maybe other things that we're not aware of that work for other people, and I think it's great to explore those. But if those don't work for you, don't force yourself to do it. Too often we're like well, this is the new hot thing, but if the new hot thing doesn't work for you, don't do it. It's only new and hot and effective if it works for you. So figure out what that is and use it and then, with your teams, with your family, with your friends, whoever you have joint calendars with, make sure that you're linking those together or figuring those out. I know for our family I have a 20 and 22 year old, and then my husband, and so everybody has Google calendars. Everybody has Google calendars, and so I will make sure that, whether it be a doctor's appointment or a round of golf or whatever I put it on everybody's calendar, and so then that way we're all on the same page as to what's going on.
Speaker 1:So find the system that works for you, that aligns with your goals and aligns with who you say you are. If you say your personal values, your guiding principles, are, you know, family, business and lifelong learning, are you putting those into your time management philosophy? Are you setting aside time to do personal and professional development? If you say that that is important to you. And so make sure that you're aligning all of that, because if not, again it's just pretty posters and at the end of every year or the end of every little cycle then we're like, oh shoot, I still didn't get that done, I'm still working on that.
Speaker 1:Don't put things on there if it doesn't align. And I think so often we have things that sit on our wish list or to do list, or things that are there for six months, maybe six years, and it's like it's never going to align. So take it off. It's okay to do that if it doesn't align. And sometimes we think that we are on a trajectory. If we say in five years I want to do this and we start working towards it. It's okay if at some point you say you know what I figured out, I don't want to do that. There is great power in realizing you don't want to do that. That is okay. So then remove those type of things.
Speaker 1:If you say, I want to learn how to play golf and you've joined, you know a golf league and you get to the point and you're out there and you're like, gosh, I'm not having fun with this. When the league is over for the season, don't sign up again and you might say but I really like the people that I play with. Well, just meet them for happy hour later, just schedule other times to be with them. You don't have to do things that you don't enjoy doing and make sure that it all aligns with who you are. So just some thoughts around time management and how I like to ask people to think about it. I think it puts a little different spin on just. You know what are your big rocks and how are you stacking the rocks around and how are you blocking times off your calendar. You're still going to do those things, but at first you got to figure out what should I even be putting on my calendar? What makes sense, and share that with people. Share your time management philosophy.
Speaker 1:I tell people all the time if I'm asked to join a board or be in a volunteer organization or even join a social situation maybe it's a book club or maybe it's a pickleball league I will just say you know what. Thank you so much for the invitation. I don't have the capacity to do it right now and I want to make sure anything I say yes to I can give my full energy, and so I just appreciate you asking me, but I'm just going to have to turn it down at this time. Please feel free to ask me again in six months or a year, but right now I just don't have the capacity to do that. So practice saying no, practice scheduling in time to take care of yourself and ask yourself when you're scrolling through social media and I love to do that too I love that mindless time Does this align with the goals If I haven't gone and worked out for the day, which I'm so guilty of this.
Speaker 1:I say I want to lose weight and be healthier, but then I will sit and get just bogged down in social media or just watching TV. It's like you got to go do this. First go take a walk and then you can come back and sit on the couch and do these kinds of things. So make sure you're aligning and setting yourself up for success. Give yourself an opportunity to reach those goals by really leaning into your time management philosophy. So I hope this is helpful. I would love to hear how this is working for you. We would love to hear from you if you do something else, that something else makes sense for you. Please share it with me, because I would love to share it with our audience. I'll see you on the next time for the Path to Leadership. Have a great day.
