Caution! Disaster ahead, use Me Time

After getting promoted, people usually get lot’s of additional communication to be a part of. Lot’s of new responsibilities, meetings, decisions and approvals. This can be overwhelming, or worse, addictive.

One’s managerial leverage increases as the person goes up in the organization hierarchy. This is a double-edged sword. As described by Andy Grove in High Output Management, using this leverage positively can increase the organizational output dramatically. If the same leverage is used negatively (delayed decisions or unnecessary interruptions), it will result in dramatic decrease in organizational output i.e. a disaster.

How to make sure that you are not leading yourself and your team/organization to the path of disaster? Use Me Time. It’s a chunk of time that you dedicate for a one-on-one with yourself. This is necessary for you if you want to

• Measure and increase your organizational effectiveness
• Explore your passions and talents
• Move out from the level of your incompetence (Peter’s principal)
• Move your focus from problems to opportunities
• Be Less Reactive and More Proactive
• Move out from circle of concern to circle of influence
• Spend your day with resolution instead of confusion and distraction

What should one do in ME TIME

• Create a vision for your life if you don’t already have one. Now regularly measure your progress towards it.
• Categorize your tasks in four quadrants of time management matrix. Now try to achieve the target time allotment for each quadrant.

• Maintain your daily, weekly and year to-do lists.
• Create a list of work related tasks you performed recently and sort them according to the managerial leverage ( i.e. Maximum impact and output in minimum time). Now try to increase the high leverage items in your daily schedule.
• Maintain daily journals. It’s a great way to manage oneself. Daily journaling is not limited to making a list of tasks you did or want to do during the day. It should include your thoughts and emotions. Things like what is making you happy, were you able to inspire someone today, did you learn something new? Writing these down is the first step towards controlling your emotional self.

Me Time is a routine with astonishing fruits and an equally astonishing process. A lot of patience and practice will be needed to become the master of me time. Concepts are listed with a very brief summary above. you’ll have to further read about them. There’s tons of material available about them in different formats. Once you cross the initial blocker of habit building, you’ll discover that it’s the greatest gift you have given to yourself.

Every next level of your life will demand a different you.