Too busy?
Jeanne Hecht
CEO, NED, Board Member & Chair | Strategist, entrepreneur, leader | Dedicated to capturing the growth in the life sciences industry and accelerating the delivery of innovative medicines to patients.
I often hear from people, ‘’I am so busy’’. It seems like these days we have created a competition on who is the most time poor. We are measuring ourselves on who has the craziest calendar, travel schedule, or perhaps most demanding pressures between work and life. Right? Wrong!
Years ago, I made a conscience decision that I was going to use my Friday afternoons for "thinking time". I was never the person who could spend 1 hour per day thinking like Jeffrey J Fox recommends in his book, "How to become CEO’". But, I am someone who can block off time in my calendar to dream, scheme, think, calculate, review goals, write down ideas and ponder problems like he recommends once per week. So, I block off Fridays from 2 pm onward. Sometimes when Friday comes I am bone tired or brain dead, my scheming and ideation on those days takes a back seat. But, I am always able to use this time to reflect. What went well? What went pear shaped? What did I learn? What didn’t I learn that I wanted to? And so on…
Marshall Goldsmith wrote in his book, "What Got You Here Won’t Get You There", about Habit 12: Making Excuses. He so eloquently stated that "...if we stop excusing ourselves, we can get better at almost anything we choose". I think this holds true for time management and setting aside the needed time to do just that, getting better. If we chose to collect the snippets of time we spend in meetings that are not meaningful, double checking work of our teams versus empowering them to represent their work, or perhaps doing work that should be delegated, we would have the needed time to heed Jeffrey Fox’s advice.
I have decided as I move through life that I am willing to concede the throne on the busiest schedule. Have you?
Ps want the books I referenced, here they are on Amazon:
Clinical Researcher. Patient Advisor. Glaucomaniac. Rare Disease Advocate.
6 年Nina has taken the Friday personal development block to heart.
Regional Specialty Manager, Psychiatry | MBA
6 年I implemented the same practice of blocking off time during my Friday afternoons, too and have made a concerted effort to protect that time as much as possible. I have a reoccurring Friday Outlook meeting invite, to me, from me. It’s been a nice way to finish my week on a positive note and look ahead to the future. Love this!
Senior Medical Monitor @ Novotech | MD, Global Executive MBA
6 年Jeanne love your posts! How true
Clinical Trials / Data Analytics / Gen AI / Writer
6 年Touché