(May 7th, 2024 Lift Up Email – to get inspiration delivered directly to your inbox click here.)
It turns out that overloaded, distracted workdays that disappear is a hot topic.
My inbox was flooded with requests after I offered my energy tracking worksheet template. If you’d like a copy, email me here.
Here’s the challenge I issued in my last email:
For at least a week, track what you do.
Be specific. Jot down thoughts or feelings around each activity.
Find patterns.
This exercise is powerful.
It’s amazing to see my clients’ transformation after tracking their activities.
If you did this exercise last week, I’m curious about your results, too.
When someone goes from feeling constantly stressed and frustrated with life, on the verge of burnout and contemplating quitting their job – to making simple tweaks so they feel grounded, more fulfilled, and HAPPIER in their work – WOW – it’s a beautiful sight to witness.
BUT, I’ve realized this…
No client has ever accomplished this transformation without us first digging into the nitty gritty of their days.
Tracking activities and energy is a tedious exercise, but without specificity, we can’t find patterns that are stealing precious resources.
- Yes, you’re busy.
You have many meetings.
Your phone is constantly ringing, and your Team’s chat notifications won’t stop.
Your days are a blur as you deal with the problems-of-the-day.
Those challenges are too vague to solve.
Specificity is the secret to uncovering solutions that stick and get you time to focus on your priorities.
We need to understand variables such as:
What meetings drain you and which ones energize you and why?
Are there big gaps between meetings so you can get focused work done, or are your meetings back-to-back and you don’t have time to run to the bathroom?
What phone calls? What chat messages? Is it the same people asking the same questions? Are they asking you because they can’t move forward in their job without your input; or are they lacking resourcefulness?
What fires are you putting out each day?
If the same issues are stuck on repeat – that’s where we focus on finding solutions first.
This clarity is GOLD.
Even more insightful is associating the activities with the various hats of responsibility you wear.
Do your days reflect your priorities?
For example:
A client needed to increase her sales.
Yet, when we tracked her time, we found that she was in-the-weeds of running her business and dealing with her team’s drama.
This awareness led to two strategies.
First, to create harmony among her team.
Second, to incorporate proactive revenue generation activities into each workweek.
It’s likely that a couple of small tweaks is all it will take to design your ideal workweeks. It all starts with tracking.
If you’re serious about taking control of your stress and finding more space in your days, track your time.
If you’re serious about finding solutions and these results resonate, then ask me about my private coaching programs.
We can do a one-off power coaching session to dig deep into a specific issue, or we can explore a full life optimization program over six months.
It’s up to you!
Allison “Tracking Gold” Graham
P.S. If you tracked your activities last week – let me know – what did you notice? If not, and you want my tracking template, hit reply and ask me!
No Time to Focus on Your Priorities? This is the Program for you…
Optimize Your Workweek online course to discover my proven system for taking control of your time.
