How Eisenhower and a notebook made me a better self-manager
In graduate school, I enrolled in a management class with the expectation of learning all types of theories and strategies related to managing others. At the beginning of the course, my professor made this declaration: “You can’t manage others unless you can manage yourself.” As a result, we spent the first several weeks of the semester examining our own self-management skills.
While I was initially surprised by this curve ball, the more I read and learned, the more I understood my professor’s perspective. One pillar of my own leadership style is leading by example. Demonstrating the ability to manage myself is a logical requirement for effectively managing others.
When I took this course, I was “wearing many hats” in life, and I was feeling stretched at the seams. While I have always been a self-disciplined and organized person, the many areas of responsibility, along with the details to keep track of, weighed heavily on me, and I needed new strategies to relieve the cognitive load. What do I mean by “cognitive load?” Cognitive load is the amount of information stored in short term memory. I had more information than room, which led to lots of post it notes and the potential to forget something important.
I utilized a planner and a calendar, but it wasn’t enough. I found myself waking up in the middle of the night “remembering” something and having to get up to write it down so I could tackle it in the morning. Tasks that I should have been able to anticipate were missed, creating urgent, “do this now” work. I’m not a procrastinator, and I do not thrive under that feeling, so the stress resulting from cognitive overload was miserable.
During this management course, I read Stephen Covey’s First Things First, and I loved it. Two of the principles really stood out to me, and I used them to develop a self-management system that I have successfully used for 15 years. The two principles are:
The Eisenhower Matrix: Based on Dwight Eisenhower’s method of sorting out the urgent and the important, the matrix creates four quadrants for the four combinations: (I) urgent and important, (II) not urgent and important, (III) urgent but not important, and (IV) not urgent and not important.
The “Normal View:” Covey’s observation that a daily view is too close up, and a monthly (or longer) view is too far away. The “normal view” is a weekly approach that combines the need of a daily plan with the long-term goals of a longer perspective.
Through these concepts, I realized I was missing Quadrant II tasks – the important but not urgent. However, the urgent tasks (many of them not actually important) kept rising to the top of my list, and as a result, I was not as prepared at the start of each semester as I wanted to be.
I was also leading an academic program, and I wanted to spend time developing a plan for growth and development, but again, the urgent took priority. What I realized was that by not spending time planning, tasks that could have been tackled with a long-term view ended up becoming urgent, adding to my stress, as well as reducing my own perception of effectiveness. I had to make time for Quadrant II.
Here is the basic plan I developed. Keep in mind I was in education, and life cycle is by semester – fall, spring, summer. You can choose the cycle best for you, but 3-4 months is a good length of time. Every few months, set aside 60 minutes or so to go through this process. That may sound like time you don’t have, but trust me, you will more than make up for that in the efficiency you gain over the following months.
Step 1: Go through each “hat” and list goals. These hats should include various aspects of your professional and personal life. One of my current goals is “complete my targeted outreach plan.” One of my recent personal goals was “prepare for the ‘Heroes for Hospice’ 5K.” So list your goals! Remember these are for your benefit, so write them in a way that is most helpful for YOU.
Step 2: For each goal, make a list of the tasks to complete it. In addition, set a deadline for the completion of each goal. (Suggestion: if your goal has a hard deadline, set your deadline ahead of that one, giving yourself some wiggle room.) You need the goal deadlines so you can work backwards and set targets for each of the tasks leading to the goals. In the end, you should have a list of tasks, each with a target deadline.
Step 3: Use your list to create a plan for the week. I like to make my plan for the following week on Friday afternoon, so that I am ready on Monday morning, and I’m not thinking about it over the weekend. For each day, I list the tasks, always reserving time for the daily tasks such as responding to email. I note the meetings I have that day, so that if it’s a heavy-meeting day, then I plan fewer tasks. For days with fewer meetings, I try to block out time for bigger tasks that take more brain power. I do not check email during blocked out time, and I minimize distractions as much as possible. I add notes for when I’m working out or when I need to grocery shop.
Now at the start of each week, I know when I’m grading papers, when I’m focusing on networking, when I’m writing my blog, when I have time for future planning…and the list goes on. Does it always work out perfectly? Of course not, but over time, I have become much more accurate in knowing how long tasks will take and anticipating the days and seasons that tend to have the elements of surprise.
You can certainly purchase a planning system, and I know those work for many people! I simply use an Excel file to keep track of my tasks and deadlines (I like being able to sort it by various columns) and a pad of “weekly planning” notes (kind of like giant post it notes that have a section for each day of the week and a place to write notes). For many years, I used a notebook, with one page dedicated to each week. Particularly within the “semester cycle,” this worked really well.
This is the overview. There are certainly lots of tips and tricks, and I have made revisions over time. However, this three-step approach has allowed me to add Quadrant II activities to my regular schedule, and that’s a game changer for anyone!
I would be happy to share more with you or your organization. Reach out and let ABL Wise Consulting help you become an effective manager of others by being a great self-manager.
pc: Volodymyr Hryshchenko via Unsplash
