WEBVTT

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Time is the one thing we
could all use more of.

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And research shows
that knowledge workers

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spend 41% of their time
on low-value tasks.

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People can make time
for the work that

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matters if they
think deliberately

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about how they spend their time,
decide which tasks matter most,

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and drop or off-load the rest.

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In one experiment, 15 executives
found that, on average, they

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were able to cut
their weekly desk

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work by six hours and their
meetings by two hours.

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In other words, they freed
up one full day a week.

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And they achieved this
without making a huge effort

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and without any
management directive.

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Let's look at how this
worked for one participant

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in the experiment, an insurance
company manager named Lotta.

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She quickly identified
several meetings

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and routine administrative
tasks she could drop.

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That allowed her to devote
more time to working directly

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with her reports by listening
in on their sales calls,

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giving them one-on-one guidance,
and thinking up improvement

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strategies with them.

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The payoff was clear: In just
three weeks, sales in her unit

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increased 5%.

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The key to freeing up
time in your schedule

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is to look at your
day and identify

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tasks that are both unimportant
and easy to off-load.

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Research suggests that
at least one-quarter

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of knowledge workers' activities
fall into both categories.

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Some companies try to help
their people eliminate tasks

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through initiatives like
banning e-mail on Fridays

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and placing time
limits on meetings.

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But it's hard to change
institutional norms,

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and workers who don't buy in
find creative ways to resist.

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So making changes on a personal
level is often more effective.

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To set up your own
self-intervention,

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follow the authors'
five-step process.

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The first step - figuring out
which tasks you can eliminate -

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requires answering a
series of questions.

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First, list the tasks you did
yesterday or the day before

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and describe them as
specifically as possible.

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For example, instead of
just listing "e-mail,"

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say "sending e-mails
to my support staff"

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or "responding to
e-mails from clients."

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How much time did
you spend on each?

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Now ask yourself, How
much does each task

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contribute to your
firm's main objective?

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Imagine you're updating a senior
executive on your performance.

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Would you mention this task and
justify spending time on it?

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Next, rate how
necessary each task is.

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Imagine that you've arrived
at work two hours late because

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of an emergency, and now you
have to reprioritize your day.

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How urgent is this task?

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Then assess how much value
you get from each task.

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Imagine that you're financially
independent and creating

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your dream job.

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Do you enjoy this task
enough to keep it?

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Last, ask whether you
can outsource the task.

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Suppose you've been tapped
to lead a critical initiative

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and you'll have to
reassign some of your work.

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Which tasks need
to be done by you?

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Which could you
delegate or drop?

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With the answers
to those questions,

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you can lay out your
daily activities

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on a grid like this one.

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You'll be able to see
what you should keep doing

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but could spend more time on,
what you should keep doing

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but might do more
efficiently, and what

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you can stop doing altogether.

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You may identify meetings and
routine administrative tasks

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you can get off your
calendar, or you

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might realize that
you're too involved

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in project planning details.

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The next step is deciding how
to get the tasks off your plate.

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Start by sorting the targeted
tasks into three categories:

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Things you can drop immediately
with no negative effects,

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activities that can be
delegated with minimal effort,

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and work that needs to be
redesigned or overhauled.

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Bear in mind that your reports
aren't the only people you

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could reassign activities to.

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You might outsource them
to an external service,

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hire a virtual
personal assistant,

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or enlist some
administrative support.

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NOW COMES THE HARDEST
PART: delegating.

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You'll need to identify
the best people

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to take this work on and invest
some time in training them.

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Participants in
the study admitted

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that this wasn't always easy.

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They struggled with things
like gauging junior people's

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capabilities and
managing handoffs.

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In the end, managers found
that the rewards of off-loading

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were worth the effort.

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Most participants overcame the
stumbling blocks and delegated

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their work without seeing any
decline in their productivity

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or their team's.

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And they saved a lot
of time each week.

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People said that
lightening their load

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made them feel more relaxed,
less stressed, and more

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energetic.

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As a bonus, junior
employees appreciated

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their new
opportunities and began

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to benefit from
being more involved.

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The fourth step in
making time for the work

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that matters is deciding what to
do with the hours you've found.

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The goal is not just
to be more efficient,

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but also to use the
extra time effectively.

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Spending it on the highest-value
activities you already do

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is one obvious way to go.

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But two other
exercises can help:

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Write down two or three
things you should be doing

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but aren't, and
start keeping a log

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to assess whether you're
using your time well.

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Some people in the experiment
found their extra time

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was eaten up by new problems.

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But the majority used it to
do better work - for instance,

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to give employees in-depth
coaching, focus on strategy,

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or learn more about
customers' needs.

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Others chose to spend the extra
hours with their families.

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The last step is making a
commitment to follow your plan.

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Even though this is a
self-directed process,

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it's crucial to share your plan
with your boss, a colleague,

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or a mentor.

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Explain which activities
you'll be off-loading and why,

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and agree to discuss what you've
achieved in a few weeks' time.

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If you don't do this, it will
be all too easy to backslide.

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Your boss or a
colleague may also

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help you identify people
you can delegate work to.

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This exercise
should significantly

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boost your productivity,
and you won't

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need to redesign parts of
your organization, reengineer

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processes, or transform
your business model.

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All you have to do is
ask the right questions

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and act on the answers.

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