Time is the most valuable resource because you cannot get more of it.

Learning how to use our time effectively is not a lesson that we learn. It is a lesson that we have to keep relearning because how we use our time changes as we grow and develop.

As a young father, I am starting to understand that my children will only be young once. If I don’t spend time with them now, I can never regain it, no matter how successful my career or business is.

Unfortunately, the majority of working environments don’t place a premium on our time. We are usually contracted for a set number of hours. Typically, people will work longer than those to show discretionary effort or perhaps demonstrate their commitment to the organisation.

This model dates back to the industrial revolution where workers were paid to be in a factory or on a production line. They did work and created something of value. In return for their time, they were paid. This model works well in a manufacturing dominated economy.

People can’t work from home when they work on a production line so they were paid to be in the workplace.

The problem is that our economy has transitioned from being manufacturing-based to service-based, yet the same model, the same way of thinking about time and work still exists.

People are still paid for their time – rather than the value that they add to an organisation.

I am not sure that I have a solution to this problem but one of the things that I have learnt is that the value of the hours you have in the day are not even. Some are worth more than others and the ‘value’ of an hour is closely linked to your energy levels.

Most people will start the day by logging in and responding to emails. 

I agree that emails are a part of the job and need to be responded to but they are not THE job. No one is paying you to read or write more of them.

Typically, they are requests for you to do something. Arrange a meeting, read this report, acknowledge this piece of information.

When you think about it, they are driven by someone else’s agenda. Someone is asking you to do something.

Flipping through emails, reading and writing them and responding to them feels like work but it isn’t because it’s not adding value. It’s necessary but it is not the reason people are paying you.

When you start the day by reading and writing emails, you are using some of your best energy on some of the least demanding work. This is the fastest way to ineffectiveness.

The following are the principles that I use to plan my day:

Principle 1: Plan tomorrow at the end of today

Planning tomorrow should be done at the end of the day. Why? Because, you’re still in the moment. You’re mentally still in the work zone. You’re better placed to plan tomorrow based on what you’ve done and what you haven’t done over the course of the day.

Principle 2: High Demand vs Low Demand Tasks

Think about the most difficult and challenging tasks that you are going to have to deliver tomorrow. The ones that you’re probably avoiding. The tasks that are going to require maximum attention and focus.

These are your ‘high demand’ tasks.

High demand tasks might be things like:

  • Planning a leadership workshop
  • Writing a proposal or a pitch document
  • Writing a speech or a blog post

Anything creative that requires you to be at your best are high demand tasks.

Low demand tasks are things like:

  • Reading and writing emails
  • Arranging meetings
  • Sending invoices

Any form of administration that doesn’t require high levels of creativity but needs to be done are low demand tasks. If you had an assistant, they’d probably be the first things that you’d delegate.

In order to be truly effective you need to know when your energy levels are at their best. For me, that is in the morning.

I have mapped out my energy levels on a typical day below.

This might be the same for you or it might be different, you might be an evening person who takes time to warm up and get into the day.

Principle 3: Match Energy with Demand

It doesn’t matter where your energy levels peak, the key is to map them out based on how you feel during the course of the day. Then take high demand tasks and match them to times when you have peak energy.

This is a much more efficient way of using your time. The quality of your work will be far better if you match your peak energy to the demanding tasks and push the administration to the margins.

Necessity is the mother of all invention.

Give yourself an hour to read and respond to all your emails. You will probably fly through them, pushing distractions to the side and ignoring ‘notifications’. You’ve made it necessary to shift gears and perform at a higher level.

Giving yourself twice as much time does not mean you do twice as much work. You are more likely to spread the work across the time you have allocated.

Using the principle of necessity is a great way to drive up performance in the short-term. It is not sustainable over long periods of time but can help you get a lot done in a short space of time.

Creating space for deep work of extremely high quality is important.

That is how you deliver value to an organisation or people. But creating space for deep work is becoming harder and harder as competition for our attention increases.

Think about how often people get notifications on their phones. Notifications are a clever word for distractions because they take us away from what we are focussing on and get us to focus on something else.

How can you do high quality work if you’re permanently being distracted?

The answer is that you can’t. You have to create boundaries that create the space for focus and quality. One of the simplest ways I do this is by using an app called ‘Noisli’ which plays consistent, dull sounds… right now I am listening to the noise of a train… it’s much better than listening to other people’s conversations!

Knowing what your energy levels look like and matching high demand tasks to times when you have peak energy is crucial in producing high quality creative work.

Creating boundaries that allow you to focus and create high quality work is equally important.

As a leadership consultant, I am judged entirely on the quality of the work I delivered. Creating space for high quality work is essential in order to do a great job and delight the people I work with.

These are the principles that I use – please feel free to take them and make them your own!