"The key is not to prioritise what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities." – Stephen Covey

It has been said that if you really want to know what someone's values and priorities are, check how they spend their time. How you spend your time is more powerful and compelling than anything you can say - because what you do shouts far more loudly.

Your priorities are determined by your key goals or objectives - whether they are tangible work deliverables, projects to execute, family goals, relationship goals or any other goals that matter to you. If it really matters to you, it MUST make it onto your schedule.

Anyone in a leadership role has their lives run according to their calendar, so your calendar is the most powerful tool you have in managing your priorities - it enables you to set out time to pay attention to your most important priorities. What goes in your calendar is what goes on in your life.

So how do you make sure that you actually give the requisite time to your most critical priorities? I find that the best way to do this is to take charge of your calendar. Even if you have an amazing PA or Executive Assistant, you must be the boss of your calendar. Either alone, or in discussion with your PA, you must decide what types of activities go into your calendar because they speak to your priorities, what activities are declined or delegated, and what activities are up for discussion.

As a business leader, your priorities will be determined by the activity''s impact on:

1. Your team and their ability to do their work well and deliver results;
2. Your customers, whether internal or external and their willingness and ability to "buy what you are selling" (and you are always selling - read "To Sell is Human" by Daniel Pink);
3. Your shareholders or principals - that means your manager, your board or your actual shareholders.

And if you follow the leadership principles of Richard Branson, these priorities are IN THAT ORDER.

I bet that made some of you cringe! Am I really saying that your managers are lower down the pecking order than your team? Yes, I am. How you manage that is a different story.

Generally, human beings think more clearly and are more energetic in the mornings (yes, I know there is a significant minority of night owls, but this is a general rule). That means that activities that speak to your priority areas should happen earlier in the day, with your lower priorities happening later. There may also be a case to be made for relational activities to happen later in the day when the more urgent "tasks" have been taken care of - since relational activities are best served when one is feeling relaxed.

The key to making sure your priorities see the light of day is in your planning:

1. Your annual strategising and planning sets your priorities in terms of projects and key deliverables, as well as outlining the activities that must take place in order to make sure that consistent action is taken. It probably also sets out the regular meetings that must take place on a weekly or monthly or quarterly basis in order to assure progress.
2. Your monthly planning (sometime in the last week of the month) sets out what must be achieved during that month in order to make good progress, as well as the specific activities and meetings that must get into your calendar other than those regular meetings you set out as part of your annual plan;
3. Your weekly plan sets out how you will carve out time in between your meetings to actually do the work that you must do in order to do your part in taking care of your priorities. It is also your time to look at where you can slot in those activities that are not key to your priorities, but which are important to a colleague or team member.
4. Your daily plan really just reviews your plan for the week and may involve moving things around to accommodate the unexpected.

Your team members and colleagues can help you in staying focused on YOUR priorities by understanding what they need to to do get some of your time and attention, and in order to help you manage your calendar appropriately. It is useful for you and for them to ask the following questions when new issues come across your desks (tasks, requests, meetings, etc.)

1. Which of MY priorities does this speak to?
2. Based on the answer to the 1st question, MUST it be done? Why?
3. If yes, MUST it be done by me?
4. If NO, by whom?
5. If YES, then when.

Too many of us end up being victims to our calendar, but it is worth considering this:
Your calendar can either be a tyrannical master or a faithful servant. You decide.

This is the time of year (I’m writing this in January 2021) when many of us turn to our plans. There is a psychological angle to it – it just seems to make sense that we set our objectives/goals/targets at this time of the year. (From now on I’m only going to call them goals). These goals tend to be quite  big “projects”, and how to achieve them can be quite overwhelming. Planning definitely involves a lot of thinking because you need to figure out the following before you can set your plan down:

• What are the specific measurables/indicators of success for each of your goals?
• What are the “mini-projects” that will contribute to the achievement of each objectives/goals/targets?
• In what sequence must each of these mini-projects be addressed, or can they be addressed simultaneously?
• What actions make up each mini-project, and in what order must these actions be taken?
• What are the timelines, deadlines and due dates?

The overwhelm is not just because the achievement of the goals seems to involve to much, but also because there will overlaps in terms of the timing of various actions. We can’t address our goals sequentially. We have to address them simultaneously, and then it becomes difficult to keep all the right balls in the air.
Then on top of these goals (which are often unique or special projects), we also have our daily responsibilities and tasks: the routine work that must be done as a Marketing Executive or Sales Manager or Divisional Director or CFO. It is useful to also consider these in the context of projects. For example, if the CFO thinks of the generation of the monthly management reports as a project, it becomes possible to create a monthly project plan that ensures that everything that needs to be done in order to deliver the management reports on time takes place as and when it should.
Many of the management guru’s whose work I’ve read or followed over the years advocate treating ones job responsibilities as a series of projects: they each have required outcomes (goals) that are measurable; they each consist of a series of mini-projects which each contribute to the whole; and each mini-project consists of a series of tasks that must be actioned in a particular sequences and according to particular timing. Projectizing every aspect of your job and planning properly using one of the many (free) planning tools available helps you to create a roadmap for the year and makes it possible for you to keep many balls in the air. They ensure that you don’t fall down on follow-up and that you never miss a deadline.
Why do I advocate using a specific planning tools?

1. Because the use of these tools “forces” a level of rigour that a blank piece of paper or Excel Spreadsheet will not do – they take you through a process that reduces the risk of leaving out important thinking steps;
2. These project tools enable you to update project progress in real time;
3. Most of these tools enable your collaborators (your team members or colleagues) to update their own contributions and be reminded of their own responsibilities and deadlines;
4. These tools make it possible for you and your team (and even your manager) to have a visual scoreboard or tracker that gives a sense of where you are in real time;
5. Modification to the plan is easy because automation takes out much of the donkey-work involved in updating the details on the plan.

Success and consistent discipline are simply indivisible. Using a project planning tool fosters so many important disciplines that are essential to success:

1. Once again, the rigour that is ensured when you follow the process that the tool takes you through;
2. Secondly, you can drive the project because you can see where you are;
3. It is possible for you to meet with your team around the scoreboard (physically or virtually) in order to review progress and assess every aspect of the plan;
4. Team members and other collaborators can manage themselves using the scoreboard;
5. It gives everyone a sense that progress is being made consistently – which is an essential component of real engagement.

Many organisations own and make available to their employees a variety of planning tools. The challenge is to get people to use them as they are intended. The kiss of death is for them to be treated as “admin”. Nobody loves “admin”. The best energy “admin” can expect to get is that people go through the motions. When people use planning tools as a “way of working” – something that helps one to do good work and stay on top of things; something that assures success rather than something that “inspects” your work – you have a better chance of success.
This means that your planning activities should be fun:

• Take the team out of the office and away from the phones;
• Do the work in a room that has windows and a view! You are looking into the future. How can you do this when all you can see is four walls?
• Take regular breaks – during those breaks do something energizing (a yoga class; a trust walk; some stretching; a team exercise that makes people laugh). Drinking coffee and eating muffins JUST DOESN’T DO IT;
• If you are planning a really big project, do your planning over time – don’t try and do it in one exhausting hit.

Furthermore, monitoring your progress should be fun:

• Your scoreboard should be visually appealing;
• Progress must be acknowledged;
• Obstacles must be addressed and problems solved – quickly and as a team;
• Celebrate successes!

So what project planning tools would I recommend? Here is a great link that will help you to find tools that suit your needs:

• https://www.getapp.com/p/sem/project-management-software?t=Top+Planning+Software&camp=adw_search&utm_content=g&utm_source=ps-google&utm_campaign=COM_MISC_Desktop_BE-Project_Management&utm_medium=cpc&account_campaign_id=1509234447&account_adgroup_id=56224923741&ad_id=476115059493&utm_term=planning+tool&matchtype=e&gclid=CjwKCAiAxp-ABhALEiwAXm6IyT9xdXljFNMmFIGeque-mVpoEa6cMM3xciqOwC2j-BTn8-1-XAKShRoChZ0QAvD_BwE

This link will take you to a comparison of some of these tools:

• https://www.capterra.com/sem-compare/project-management-software?gclid=CjwKCAiAxp-ABhALEiwAXm6Iydm5TLSiIKvJltFVXhnH7kjJD9Mo9aVbljsQrjZ1-_l_YY26P72XEhoCmAAQAvD_BwE

 
To me, the specific tool you use is not important. What is important is that you use something that follows a thorough process, is easy to revise when things change, can be updated in real time, allows the whole team to collaborate and shows you how you are progressing in real time.

What makes having goals important at all? Why should we do it when it seems that there is so little over which we have control?
Well, research from as far back as 1968 (Locke) shows that conscious ideas guide our actions - and the act of clearly articulating our goals translates them into conscious ideas. Perhaps you are aware of the quotation from William Hutchinson Murray who said "Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.
We may have different types of goals:

• Career goals
• Life goals
• Team or department goals
• Business goals
• Material goals

In order to be truly committed to achieving these goals, they need to be worthwhile at some deeper level. So what characteristics make goals worthwhile or worthy?

1. Your values: goals that are a manifestation of our clear values are worthy. Any goal that serves your values is worthwhile. If you value Excellence, and you have set yourself the goal to win an excellence award, then that is worthy. If you value Relationships, and you have set yourself the goal of having a fulfilling and happy marriage that, too, is worthwhile. If there is clear line of sight between your values and your goals, you can be sure that you are living in alignment.
2. Contribution: goals that contribute to something larger than ourselves are worthy. It is my belief that our purpose in this life is to make a contribution - and that will be different things for different people. If, by working towards the achievement of your goal, you are making a contribution to the lives of other people or the quality of life on this planet (no matter how small that contribution may be) that is worthy.
3. Relationships: we are social creatures and the quality of our lives is dependent on the quality and richness of our relationships. If your goals improve the quality of your relationships, you are expending effort and energy on something worthwhile.
4. Ambition and success: there is nothing wrong with being ambitious and pursuing success in whatever form that may take for you. I believe the only problem with these pursuits is the abuse of power. Being ambitious and pursuing career success is definitely worthwhile. The more successful you are, the more you can do in the world and the greater the impact you can have - provided it is not at the expense of worthy values, contribution and relationships.

If you cannot attribute one or more of these characteristics of worthiness to your goals, how committed are you likely to be? How much energy and quality attention will you give them? How satisfying with their achievement be? These are all important in giving us the sense that we are living in a worthwhile manner - making our lives mean something. This is fundamental to human nature.

What is the impact of having clear goals?

• they clarify behaviour - everything you do or don't do moves you towards or away from the achievement of your goals;
• they allow for feedback - in terms of how you are progressing and whether you are doing in pursuit of your goals is or is not working;
• they promote happiness - having a sense of purpose and a reason to get out of bed every day contributes to our personal happiness, and happy people are more effective in their pursuits, generally;
• they encourage the use of your strengths - and when we use our strengths we feel effective and impactful.

So here are some questions for you?

1. What are your goals for this year?
2. Which of the characteristics of worthiness do they satisfy?
3. If you could only achieve one of your goals this year, which one must it be?