TLDR: Calendar audits and the Eisenhower Matrix—a quick workshop you can run for yourself or others
It’s Antler’s US Investment Committee is this week. 120 founders. 65 companies. Back-to-back pitches all week.
That’s leaving me feeling a little too busy to post anything thoughtful or have any time to move big things forward, and it reminded me of a session I’ve done with team members in the past.
I call it a calendar audit, and It works like this:
Ask the individual how they would coach a top performer or new hire to spend their time. Most people have the answers, they just don’t take the time to advise themselves.
Map out the hours by activity on a whiteboard or spreadsheet. Keep going until you’ve filled up a 50+ hour work week. Most top performers I know work off-hours, so don’t stop at 40.
Next, have the person open up their calendar and map out how they actually spend their time. It’s important to do these steps in order. In my experience, not knowing the personal reflection is coming improves the quality of the delta & the following conversation.
Each time I’ve done this with an employee, we end up with a massive chunk of time missing. This is where the conversation gets interesting. Where is the rest of the time going?
Typically what people find is that they are spending an inordinate amount of time on Slack, email, socializing, or just generally reading or not working. Slack & email really does feel like work, and it leaves most people feeling like “there’s just not enough time in the day.”
The second thing people usually find is that they’re simply not putting enough time into the parts of their jobs that they don’t like doing. They haven’t found a way to do that work efficiently or in a way that’s fun.
There are two pieces of advice here that I’ve found to illuminate people’s ability to manage their time.
The first is an open invitation to say no and to ignore things.
You don’t have to do everything. You don’t have to respond to every email. In fact, knowing what to focus on and what to prioritize is in itself a key differentiator between average and top performers. For example, if sales enablement is hounding you to do a training—ignore it until the deadline. Or maybe your colleagues are asking you for advice, and you say yes to everyone and your coffee chats are totaling 5-10 hours a week. That’s a lot of extra coffee and not a lot of extra work. Learn to say no.
The second is to show them the Eisenhower Matrix.
The Eisenhower Matrix is a 2x2 comparing Urgency & Importance. Draw it on a board, give the individual a lens with which they can organize and prioritize their work. Pretty simple, and you’ll have a great discussion about expectations vs. reality, and the ways to be successful.
It’s a super simple workshop that you can execute in 30-60 minutes, and I’ve found it to be one of the most impactful you can do either for yourself or with team members—particularly with people earlier in their careers. Hope it helps!
See you Monday.