4 Beliefs About Time Management That Are Holding You Back: Time To Consider A Reset
May 16th, 2022
Ann Collins
If you’ve ever wondered why managing time is so difficult, you’re not alone! Feeling too busy, feeling overwhelmed and not feeling in control of our time are common feelings for many and stop leaders from sometimes even embarking on their biggest goals, for fear that they won’t have the time.
Maybe you feel that you don’t have enough time for yourself to think about your own leadership and career and to focus on the aspects of your life that are important to you? It’s very common to feel that we are on a bit of a hamster wheel with many competing demands and we’re left asking the question: where to start?
In my work with many busy senior leaders, I see that the first step is realising that you are not alone! Secondly, whilst it may feel counterintuitive, taking time to even think about this is necessary – in that sense there isn’t a magic wand or a shortcut to deciding to allocate time to reflecting on how you use time, but more importantly, what you believe about time.
Remember: what you believe and how you see the world is what determines your actions.
This article is going to examine five common beliefs around time that can stop leaders in their tracks from becoming the leader they want to be.
The good news is that this re-evaluation does not take much time! As you’re reading this article, simply ask yourself if these points apply to you and take note.
There are 4 core beliefs around time that hold leaders back:
1. Time is the problem: “I need to be more efficient/do more!”
2. Busy means successful
3. I “should”…
4. Downtime is a luxury
Belief no. 1: Time is the problem: I just need to be more efficient!
When we think we are “too busy”, we often understandably think that not having enough time is the problem! It is often the very first thing that leaders say to me: I don’t have enough time, I have too much to do, I’m exhausted and I can’t carry on like this, I’m not being efficient. Something needs to change, but efficiency is rarely the issue.
A belief in greater efficiency and timesaving takes leaders so far but doesn’t enable them to develop the higher-level key skills of a great leader. Frequently, leaders who are in this phase need to step back and take time to consider what they want to be as a leader and consider what leadership means to them as it may mean they need to shift gears in terms of what is required in their role.
In order to progress as a leader, the time spent “doing” generally becomes less – being an expert may well be less important and this is not always an easy adjustment for senior leaders. However, if you hold on to the role of expert as well as leading at a high level, often the job is overwhelming. Furthermore, there is a risk that we don’t fully empower those on our teams by allowing them to take responsibility.
More importantly is the ability to influence, inspire, support and facilitate the growth of others. Moving into and accepting that higher level of leadership requires a total shift in how leaders see their role, their purpose and in turn, their time.
Solutions to this rather complex problem are therefore very individual but starting with planning in time on a weekly basis without meetings, calls or emails, to reflect on the week and plan for the next week, bearing in mind the overarching priorities is, I find, an excellent and usually manageable place to start.
To conclude: revisiting what your role as leader needs to look like rather than seeking to cram more into each day is an important and ongoing exercise. Giving yourself time to do that is time well spent!
Belief no. 2: busy means successful
As a status symbol of success, being constantly busy has become synonymous with having a senior role, at least in Anglo-Saxon cultures. Interestingly, in my experience of living and working in France, being busy is generally not worn as a badge of honour and how liberating that is! I have embraced it fully! This cultural difference has highlighted to me the possibility that a culture of busyness is also possibly part of the problem.
It requires a deep change of belief around what success means to us and crucially, what it looks like for you. Can you be successful and not busy? What could replace this vision of success? Could success look different for you? Clarifying our vision of success is an important part of challenging this belief.
How does being busy serve you? What would serve you better?
Finally, watch what you say to others and yourself: how often do you say you are “too busy”? What could you say instead? “I’m really enjoying my work – it’s definitely stimulating!”, for example. If you’re doing what you love in the way you enjoy, it’s success! If you’re not, then being busy isn’t the problem, is it?
Belief no. 3: “I should spend more time doing…”
When we believe we “should” do something with time, alarm bells should ring. Do you WANT to do it? What are the consequences? Time spent in “should” mode is probably not time aligned to your purpose and so will hold you back from achieving your personal goals. Of course, organisational goals and other “obligations” may not always align with your personal goals, but enough of them need to align so that the “should” does not arise regularly and being attentive to any “should” talk is a great place to start to question this belief.
There may be activities that are important, but that we don’t enjoy much and that take a lot of time. For me, cooking the dinner every evening is a “should” at one level: we need to eat! However, when I go back to my purpose that having time with my family is important to me, I can reframe that as being the vehicle to having that time together when we sit down. The act of cooking becomes less of a “should”. A “should” is always a nudge to question something: reframe it, delete it, delegate it or delay it.
Belief no. 4: Downtime is a luxury
This was a personal block of mine that took some time to shift. I believed that downtime was to be essentially “earned” by achieving! This belief is often engrained from childhood and is especially prevalent amongst “good students”. At its worse, it can lead to someone being unable to rest and feeling guilty about taking time off to recharge and enjoy their life, which is often completely at odds with their purpose.
How can you change these beliefs?
Our beliefs show us our patterns of thinking, so to change our beliefs, we need to change our thinking.
When I started coaching, I noticed that the last belief that downtime is a “luxury” was coming up often for me! As a natural “do-er”, I was quite happy in my zone of doing, until it became overwhelming as a teacher and a coach with two businesses and a busy family life. As with many of my clients, I got to a point where I knew that something had to change as “doing” didn’t feel much like “living”.
Being more efficient or working harder were not options. When I started to notice my belief around downtime being “a luxury” and even a waste of time, I saw the real problem: I wasn’t valuing the need for rest and relaxation! In fact, I didn’t believe that I needed it! Furthermore, I didn’t believe that I could have both: rest and enough time to work.
I had to go back to my purpose to see that I needed rest to work well. This will sound so obvious to you reading this, but many of our beliefs that hold us back are obvious to everyone else!
Visualising what this shift would look like in practice was more challenging for me. Like many of my clients, I knew what I didn’t want, but I wasn’t sure what I did want! Taking different parts of the week to see how this could look helped me get a vivid picture of how that could translate into everyday life. I started by prioritising time to relax by putting it onto my calendar – if you want to a meeting on a Friday morning, I probably won’t be available, I’ll be on my bike in the hills!
It’s important to give ourselves compassion. Often these beliefs come from our past experiences and our education and as they are a part of us and “normal” for us, it’s not so easy to change them. It can take time to go through the process of identifying and challenging them and then deciding what you want to replace them with.
In my case, I wanted to believe that it was possible to have work and rest. I wanted to truly believe that both were necessary. I spent some time working on this – noticing, correcting and replacing my inner voice, and catching and challenging the old belief as it popped up.
At the same time, to help shift the belief permanently, I created new habits. In addition to my cycling, I stopped working on a Sunday and now, I’m extending that to Saturdays. You can imagine the impact of that, not only on the quality of family life, but also on my own energy and productivity. I’m a better and happier coach and a better and happier member of the family!
This is just one example of a small shift that through coaching has changed my life and that of my family. I hope also that it gives my children a positive role model for their possible future as parents juggling family life and work. I think it’s also important to say that this is still work in progress for me!
My 4-step process:
1. Recognise and challenge the beliefs that are holding you back
2. Visualise how you would prefer to be managing your time
3. Create new beliefs to replace unhelpful ones
4. Commit to stepping out of your comfort zone to live out those new beliefs
If you do ONE thing this week:
Find time to reflect by setting aside even 30 mins a week to prioritise, check in on your purpose, plan out your week by planning onto the calendar, this is a great way to increase self-awareness.
Listen to your inner voice or dialogue as you are planning out your time. What are you telling yourself? What beliefs are you reinforcing? Which are helpful or not?
As a leader, encourage your team to do the same by creating times that are, for example, “meeting free” or email free or protected time for planning for the next week. Give permission to everyone to build in time and energy to reset.
Changing beliefs is particularly challenging when the “norm” around you supports it!
Making a conscious decision to step out of the busyness circus has helped when going through this process of changing beliefs around time. When those around you are reinforcing beliefs around time that do not serve you, it is especially important to keep the “why” in mind: what is the purpose for you of stepping out of the busyness culture? For me, I want to use my energy differently so I refuse to channel any energy into “being busy” and I’m very mindful of using the word at all.
How we spend our time is how we live our lives
Discussions around time management can take us to the heart of many other issues because ultimately that is how we measure our life: how we spend our time! Each mini-decision is reinforcing our beliefs not only around time, but also about what we believe is important. Let’s be intentional!
Is it time for you to consider a reset?
Executive Coaching can be a very powerful process to address time management, high performance, and wellbeing in a holistic and efficient way.
If you’re interested in finding out if coaching could be a fit for you, do book a call.