In this article published on inc.com, Tommy Mello describes the art of ‘time blocking’ where a leader or entrepreneur takes control of their calendar and sets specific blocks of time on their calendar to focus on the one main thing that will create the most value. He references how Musk and Gates do something similar, but how did they get to the place to even do this?
When I hear the phrases control your calendar or block off time to focus, for some reason I think of the classic Seinfeld episode ‘The Contest‘. It is probably due to my juvenile male sense of humor, but being the master of your professional domain takes two other essentials.
This article does a great job of calling out the two dependencies for any leader that wants to try time blocking.
- People – the right people to enable you as a leader and that will make the systems better for you. Without you having to supervise their decisions, they have a great handle on the expectations and make things move and improve without you there every minute.
- Systems that scale – Systems that bring out the best results for 10 people should also work for 100s of people. Some of these systems might be a simple project management program with automation or a simple checklist everyone uses.
If a leader does not have the right people and then those people aren’t working in and helping to make the systems better, then time blocking will be a fool’s errand. Giving the right leaders space is also called delegation.
Delegation is a skill that can be learned, especially if you are working with the right people. It is a combination of setting outcome-based expectations and then setting the leader free to find the outcome within the system, making adjustments on the way, and you as their leader building in checks or verification points to coach.
So, find people that will invest in you, and the company systems, and can be trusted to produce outcomes, then time block away with checks and verification built in. Easy. Right?
Do you or others struggle with time management?
Are leaders delegating to the right people?
Do you have simple and repeatable business systems?
If any of those or other management issues ring true, send me an email, and let’s talk…
Jason
jab@jasbelt.com
Jason A. Belt 