Success Tip - Time Management: Do What’s Not Asked of You

Posted: March 15, 2012

Leaders have the ability and the marketing know-how to put all of the pieces together and solve any objective.

You have many choices of how you can spend your time during the day. You can keep yourself busy with email, you can jump into new projects, you can finish the existing ones, or you can actively pursue the infinite other activities until the day is over.

One concept that a former mentor taught me relates to how to spend your time and most importantly how to build a great reputation. A quick note, if you are in a position where you are your own boss, you can think of your “boss” as your customers.

The concept goes like this…

spend 70% of your time on projects/tasks that are important to your boss but haven’t been asked of you yet.

The exact percentages are insignificant as long as you get the point that the majority of your time should be spend on thinking, innovation, and getting things done. Not only getting things done, but getting things done that in some cases no one has even thought of yet.

Many employees spend their day going through the regular motions completing X then Y then Z, and then clocking out. The true innovators and leaders continually ask themselves… “How can I do this better?” “What if I tried doing this a different way?” “What is the real reason we are doing this?” Asking those questions can give you great insight into where to begin.

The 30% of time should be focused on things you need to get done. Don’t subscribe to the concept and then let your required work to fall off. Get that done first and then think “What else can I do to add value?”

This was a game changing concept that if you accept into your work habits, pretty soon people will start seeing you as a leader and you can choose the directions to go.

How do you prioritize your time?

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