Why time management isn’t the problem
Almost every single leader I've coached one on one has come with the goal of improving their time management.
And in almost every single case, their challenge wasn't actually a time management problem at all.
Take Twyla*. She's a senior HR leader in a large corporation. She has a BIG job. She's traveling all the time to check in on different regions. Her phone is like an emergency hotline for her twelve or so direct reports, ringing off the hook all day long. I don't even want to know how many emails she gets in a day.
She tells me: "I really want to work on my time management so that I can be more on top of things. I always feel behind, like I'm in frantic mode."
So I tell her a story. I just classed up my guest bathroom so that when my dad visits, he feels welcome and comfortable. Along with new towels and a fresh bath mat, I got some of those refillable shampoo and conditioner bottles that adhere to the shower wall, like at an AirBnb.
They came with a collapsable blue silicone funnel so I can fill up the bottles without making a huge mess. And I get started pouring liquids from one bottle to another like a mad scientist.
The shampoo is having some trouble. I'm pouring it through the funnel but it's not really flowing through because it's so thick. So I do what any reasonable human would do—pour more shampoo into the funnel, hoping it'll push it all down.
The funnel is doing its job. It's moving the shampoo into the bottle in an orderly way, as quickly as physics will allow it.
The problem is not with the funnel. The problem is that I'm overloading the funnel—I'm pouring way too much shampoo into the funnel all at once and now it's spilling over the sides.
This is a funny way of saying that your time management problem isn't actually a time management problem, but it cuts through for Twyla.
Twyla wants to solve her problem by developing better time management habits (fixing the funnel). But the funnel is not broken! The problem is the sheer volume of work that Twyla is meant to move through every single day.
It's not a funnel problem. It's a shampoo problem.
Sure, we can probably find some little tweaks that Twyla can make in how she manages her emails. But that's not going to make a measurable difference in her experience of work, her productivity, or her impact.
What WILL make a meaningful difference is managing the flow of work.
Advocating to hire an assistant to coordinate her travel and schedule.
Empowering her team to confidently solve their own problems rather than run every solution by her.
Delegating projects off of her plate that can also serve as great stretch assignments to help her direct reports grow.
And here's the big one: honing the organizational strategy so that instead of doing all the things they are focusing on a few key things that will move the dial on their goals.
Perhaps you're in the same pickle. If so, maybe it's time to stop focusing on how you can improve your time management and instead turn your attention to advocating for a more strategic flow of work.
Strategy is always about winnowing down and making trade-offs. It's about this but not that. It's about stopping that in order to start this. It is not that and this and also that other thing too. That's just way too much shampoo.
*Fun fact: I always change my clients' names and identifying details to protect their confidentiality, and I always choose their pseudonym as the name of the protagonist in whatever book I'm currently reading.
