Time management is a hoax — 2021 is all about focus management

Have you ever had an incredibly busy day at work and finished feeling a rush of energy, excitement and a sense of purpose? On the flip side, have you ever had a day with little to do, yet you struggle to accomplish those few tasks and leave feeling totally drained?

Productivity gurus are likely to tell you to work on your time management. But I think people often have more time than they think. What is actually in more limited supply is our focus. Finding ways to increase our focus could be the key to getting more done.

Energizing vs Draining?
Think about an ordinary task. Does walking your dog give you that much needed burst of fresh air, or leave you feeling overwhelmed on an already hectic day? Now apply this to your workspace.

Some types of work leave us feeling energized and fulfilled, while some are just plain draining. These are different for all of us. I know some people who love a full day of meetings and interactions with their teams but would avoid anything related to a spreadsheet for as long as possible. On the flip side, there are some people who love to focus on one thing (maybe a spreadsheet) and feel completely satisfied when they are done.

Identifying the parts of our work that are energising vs draining can help you plan your days to be more focused and productive.

Motivating vs Leverage

I wish I could say that once you find the most motivating and energising parts of your job you should focus on those and forget everything else. Unfortunately, for most of us, this is not our reality. There are things we must do because they are important for the business no matter how we personally feel about them.

Mapping your work in terms of energy giving vs. how important they are to your business or team can help you figure out when to get things done and make the more draining tasks manageable.

I find that actually putting these tasks onto a quadrant can help me visualize my workload and plan accordingly. Take the following for example:

Quadrant 1
Tasks that fall into quadrant 1 are the holy grail of all tasks. The magic, sweet spots. Pair these tasks with those in quadrant 4. Either do one right before to give you the energy to drive through or right after to bring your focus back.

Quadrant 2
Time for a reality check. Are the tasks in quadrant 2 really essential? If they are driving your personal development, it might be wise to keep them. If not and you’re scrambling for a reason to keep them, it might be worth getting rid of these.

Quadrant 3
Why are we still hanging on to tasks in quadrant 3? You hate them and they don’t matter. Often when asked why they are still doing these tasks people answer, “because it has always been done this way”. Time to change it up. Get rid of these tasks!

Quadrant 4
These are the tricky ones and require a little more thought and planning. Pair them with tasks from quadrant 1 as we mentioned or do them when your energy level is highest — first thing in the morning for a lot of people. Getting them done as early in the day or week as possible also means you are not wasting energy dreading doing them later. Eliminate that energy drain!

Another way to tackle quadrant 4 tasks is to set a finite amount of time. Whether this is 5 minutes, 15 minutes or half an hour. Just do the draining task for that set period and move on afterwards. Trust us, you’ll feel better for it.

Can any of your draining, important tasks be automated? Take time to step away and think about your quadrant four tasks — is there a faster and more efficient way to do them? For example, as COO, it was my job to make sure the company was meeting our strategic goals but also make sure no small details were dropped such as making sure the team was never out of coffee! It used to take up so much of my headspace trying to stay on top of this, as no one wants a grouchy, caffeine definicent team right? Once I realised I could just automate reordering coffee, I stopped using up valuable headspace worrying how much stock we had left and could apply this energy to higher leverage tasks. Thanks, Amazon.

For a stretch activity. Think about the tasks that you find really draining. Are there reasons you find these tasks so energy zapping? Try to look for a theme across the tasks you are putting off — what is the reason you put them off? I used to religiously put off emailing a member of the senior team at work and felt nervous just thinking about it. It wasn’t until I stepped away I realised I was actually worried about sending out typo, ridden emails (thanks dyslexia), and not actually interacting with the senior staff members themselves. Once I was able to identify this, I was able to get someone to just proofread my emails to this person. The task became a lot more manageable and I stopped putting it off.

So, all in all, what have we learned? Taking time out to determine whether tasks are energising or draining, and planning our day around this can help to channel focus.