September 11, 2023 •Level Ten Healthcare Advisors
It’s one thing to get clear on our role as leaders and everything we must do to gain traction and make an impact in our organization, but it’s another thing altogether to figure out how to actually make the time to accomplish everything we want to achieve.
We know we’re often stuck in the role of firefighting, consumed with last minute, urgent challenges, racing through each day in a blur, never feeling like we have control of our time, our schedule, or what’s on our plate.
But, as leaders, we can’t let the chaos around us overtake us.
We need to find a way to take back control of our time, develop a plan and a strategy about what’s most important, and then chart the course for how we’ll gain traction on those goals.
We know it feels like an impossible dream to actually be in control of our time, especially when we’ve got other people scheduling us in meeting after meeting and pulling us into their last-minute projects and emergencies.
But, with just a few minutes a day, and a few slivers of time throughout the year, we can build a system to prioritize what really matters. We can take back control of our time.
Introducing the 10% Secret
The 10% Secret is our solution to finally getting a hold of your calendar, your priorities, and your plan for excelling as a leader.
The 10% Secret is a simple idea that carves out only 10% of your 2,080 hours each year to pull back from the daily chaos and get that 10,000 ft view, seeing everything from the viewpoint of the leader.
This 10% Secret time gives us the chance to see everything that’s demanding our attention, strategically decide what’s most important, determine what’s not reasonable to actually take on at this time, and map out how we can leverage our team to accomplish tasks that might be a better fit for their abilities.
Additionally, 10% Secret time also helps us prioritize our work based on the Four Focuses of a Leader, so we can be sure we’re doing what will most benefit the organization and we’re not dropping the ball on mission-critical tasks and responsibilities.
With the 10% Secret, we have a clear roadmap for how to maximize each day, week, month, quarter, and year so we’re not left wondering where all the time went, but rather we’re being strategic and thoughtful about where we need to spend our time and we're taking ownership about how our time is spent.
Reclaiming Control of Our Time
You’ll feel much more in control and successful as a leader when you’re able to actually chart the course and plan ahead for what really needs to be done.
And, you’ll gain far more traction as a leader because you’re ensuring that you’re spending time working toward strategic goals, instead of being swept up in the chaos of each day.
Time management and embracing the 10% Secret is another aspect of leadership that will require us to adopt the Quest Mentality.
We’ll need to have the audacity of belief that it is possible to take back control of our time and that committing to this simple, yet highly effective system will help us feel more grounded, successful, and impactful in our role as leaders.
Let’s embark on this quest hopeful and encouraged about what we can accomplish. Let’s take back our time with the 10% Secret.
How to Use the 10% Secret to Increase Your Impact as a Leader
Let’s take a closer look at the 10% Secret and how much time to allot to become more strategic, future-focused, and effective as a leader:
Yearly Planning:
8-16 Hours Per Year
First, we start with eight to sixteen hours of time each year that you, your fellow leaders, and key members of your staff can gather together to set the vision and direction for your department and organization.
This may be done at an annual offsite meeting or staff retreat, or if you aren’t involved in organizational planning, you can set aside time to work with your leader and your team on your departmental plan.
Eight to sixteen hours—or one to two workdays—to kick off each year gives us enough time to review our progress from the past year, dial in on what’s most important to pursue this year, set annual goals, and assign owners and outline tasks for our biggest strategic priorities.
Quarterly Planning:
3 Hours Per Quarter
Once we have that overarching plan for the year, we then can distill it down into quarterly blocks, creating workflows and priorities for each quarter based on volume, demand, and availability.
Three hours each quarter is plenty of time to help us break the bigger goals into bite-sized chunks, review what’s already been accomplished, and identify any areas that aren’t on target with our plan and need a new strategy to get back on track.
Monthly Planning:
2 Hours Per Month
At the start of each month, we’ll grab two more hours to review our accomplishments from the past month and plan ahead for what projects need to be prioritized to keep us on track with those quarterly objectives.
We can anticipate any challenges and make a plan for potential roadblocks, track key deadlines, and set the cadence for the month to align with pre-established activities and events.
Weekly Planning:
1 Hour Per Week
Weekly, we’ll grab one hour to break down our monthly goals, do some time blocking to carve out focused work time for major projects, and ensure we’ve got our employee rounding and staff check-ins prioritized.
This block of time is our opportunity to check in on our plan, schedule time for our most important projects, and make sure we’re on track and have everything we need to succeed. This weekly planning session is a great way to wrap up your week.
Daily Planning:
15 Minutes Per Day
Each day, we’ll use a 15-minute block of time to make sure we’ve got our top three priorities set for the day.
Some leaders find it’s easiest to grab these 15 minutes at the end of the day so they start the next morning with a clear direction and plan.
Others, find it more useful to guard that first 15 minutes of the day for quiet planning time so they know they’re starting out with what’s most important to them before any outside chaos attempts to draw them away.
No matter which system works best for you, you’ll find that you’ll begin to crave this time for your sanity and productivity!
Making Time to Do the Work of a Leader
Sometimes the most important thing we can do as a leader is to decide what exactly it is we’re not going to do.
Even with the absolute best planning system, there are going to be times when there is simply too much on our plate and there are too many projects and priorities that we cannot manage anymore.
If we continue to try to carry everything on our own, not only will our effectiveness start to diminish as leaders, but our resilience reserves will wear down, and after too much time on overload, we’ll begin to burn out.
If our primary role as leaders is to develop people and processes and grow ourselves, our teams, our capacity to serve our patients, and our impact as an organization, then we need to adopt an essential practice of burning down everything that’s in the way of achieving that growth.
Just as in forestry, where clearing out the old brush and burning slash piles creates an environment for new growth and a healthier ecosystem, as leaders, we also need to burn away anything that isn’t serving our greater purpose.
We need to clear away whatever is holding us back and consuming our time and attention but not yielding productive and healthy results.
These tasks may not be necessary at all, they may not be the right thing for us to tackle, they may be on our to do lists at the wrong time, or they have may be hanging on the to-do list for far too long and we need to just get them finished so we can finally move on.
How to Remove Tasks from Your To-Do List
The "Four Ds of Time Management" give us four clear ways to “burn” tasks and projects from our to-do list so we can maintain our clear focus as leaders:
- Delete: First up, we can simply delete anything from our to-do list that’s an unnecessary time waster such as projects we’ve never completed or unproductive meetings.
- Delegate: Then, we can delegate any tasks to someone else on our team that may be a better fit for the job at hand. Many times entrusting our staff with these opportunities is appreciated, because it gives them a chance to grow and showcase their unused talents and abilities.
- Defer: Next, we can defer or postpone any tasks that are hanging on the list but don’t need to be handled right now. We can bump them back from our daily to-do list to our monthly or quarterly plan and revisit their necessity when things calm down or our capacity and availability increases in a slower season.
- Do: Finally, we can simply do tasks that may take 5-10 minutes or less and have been hanging over us like a dark, stormy cloud. There is no greater feeling of relief than just getting those things done and out of our head. You may be able to tackle several of these tasks in no time with the help of a colleague, team member, or assistant.
As we establish our monthly, quarterly, and yearly plans, keep an eye out for projects and priorities that you might need to burn:
- What do you see that’s holding you back from truly making an impact as a leader?
- Which projects, to-dos, and priorities are not aligned with your Four Focuses of a Leader?
Add those tasks to a list of “Burning Ideas” and share them with your leader.
Seek help on how you can burn away those tasks by deleting, delegating, deferring, or doing the task, so you can focus on growing your team and be free to make your biggest contribution and impact as a leader.
Burn Down or Burn Out
Just as the forest will burn out of control if we don’t preventively burn away the extra foliage, so too, our schedules, priorities, and the chaos we experience as leaders will grow out of control if we don’t burn away what’s keeping us overbooked and out-of-focus.
We need to keep a healthy balance of growing and burning as a leader. This is the key to successful, effective, sustainable leadership.
We get to decide, will we burn these unnecessary tasks and to-dos? Or will we let the chaos burn us out?
Remember, you are the leader of your time. And, as the leader, you get to set the course for where you’re heading and what you’re going to accomplish.
Use the 10% Secret and keep track of your burning ideas to take back control and regain calm in the midst of the chaos.
10% Secret Challenge
Winston Churchill said “failing to plan is planning to fail.”
We don’t want to you feel like you’re failing in your role as a leader.
We want you to be as successful as possible and to create true transformation in your organization and in your community.
We encourage you to set a personal challenge of actually using this 10% Secret time for even one month and make note of how much more in control you feel:
- Are you achieving more of what matters and doing less firefighting and more leading?
- Are you growing your skills as a leader and building momentum in each of the four focuses?
- Are you feeling more fulfilled and in love with your job all over again?
Carving out time to prioritize your leadership and do the strategic work of the leader will be where you can make your greatest contribution and use your greatest gifts.
You were chosen as a leader in your organization because you had the skills, insights, and abilities your health system needed to make a bigger impact and succeed.
Your team, patients and community need you to maximize your time and find a way to bring those gifts to work every single day.
We can’t wait to see what you’ll accomplish and hear how the 10% Secret is helping you stay confident, calm, and under control as a leader.
Be sure to let us know how you’re taming the chaos and taking back your time.
