Time Management

Every professional should set priorities for their day and then develop the skills for finding and completing higher priority work each day.

Habits

• Set priorities for your day. (Primary: assign this if the issue is decision making)
• Pomodoro. (Secondary: assign this if the issue is focus)

Common Questions & Prompts

• What is your top priority?
• Did you get your priority done yesterday? Failure indicates the need for coaching on scoping and overcoming obstacles.
• Are you able to measure the impact of completing your priority? Building a sensitivity to this helps coach tenacity. Clients should aspire to do more than merely check-the-box on getting work done.

Mastery Characteristics

A client demonstrates mastery when:

• They know what their top priority is.
• Their top priority is consistent with priorities of their organization.
• Their priorities are scoped to complete within one day.
• They reserve sufficient time to complete each priority.
• They organize their day so that their top priority can be worked on without interruption.
• Their priorities do map to impact.
• They have systems for categorizing and filing new priorities that arrive during their day. (i.e. file a bug, add to a todo list, add to a calendar — just don’t multi-task)
• They recognize the arrival of a higher priority and adjust.
• They delegate, delay or cancel lesser priorities. In doing so, they clearly communicate status to other stakeholders. “George, I need to update you on your request for three-ply toilet paper in the bathrooms. I’m closing a $1M deal today and need to postpone the order for higher quality toilet paper until tomorrow.”