Mar

15

Running Late?

Filed Under Time management, Work life balance issues, Working smarter not harder | Leave a Comment

I remember at the beginning of my corporate career, the constant state of frenzy and adrenaline rush. So much to do in such a short time. My days were being cannibalized by meetings. So many meetings. Did I need to be in all of them? Definitely not.

On certain days of the month, I had to drive to Boston, three hours each way, to be at a meeting. I would sit in this two-hour meeting thinking of everything that had to be done and wondering why on earth I was there in the first place. I ended up working weekends or late nights, trying to catch up. Somethings we have control over and some we don’t.

Getting back to the three hour drive to Boston. I somehow had convinced myself that it would only take me two and a half hours to get there. We can analyze why that was or we can just accept the fact. I was convinced that it would take me two and a half hours, period! The meetings would be scheduled for eight or nine in the morning. That, of course, meant . . . morning traffic! Try getting into Boston at that time in the morning. It can be hell.

Best case scenario, I would arrive there right as the meeting was starting. No time for me to settle down, take a deep breath, relax after a long drive, or acclimate myself to my environment.

Worse case scenario, I was 10-15 minutes late. Major embarrassment. Did people know I had a three hour drive? Yes, they did. Did they understand I had to leave the house at five in the morning? Yes, they did. Did it matter? No!

It didn’t take me long to realize that I had to address this before it became a problem. I loved my job and I respected my colleagues. I couldn’t say no to the meetings. I had to change how I approached this. Living under the stress and going on adrenaline was affecting my health. Not an option.

I had learned by then, that even a small change can make a difference. I started by facing the fact that getting to Boston takes closer to three hours. Then, I began to schedule time for travel and transition. When I penciled in a meeting, I also included time for travel plus fifteen minutes. This practice allowed me room to breathe, settle down and deal with the unexpected when it happened – which often did!

Trying to squeeze as many things as possible in a tight time frame makes us inefficient and causes us stress and anxiety. How effective can we be then? Not much.

When you schedule a meeting, pencil in extra time for travel (before and after), preparation and for dealing with the unexpected. The amount of time for travel is up to you, as long as you don’t convince yourself that it takes you less than it takes. Schedule fifteen minutes to breathe and gather your thoughts. You’ll be a lot more productive when you take time to get into the mindset for that particular meeting, review your strategy and even touch base with the “players” before the actual meeting.

If you are one of those people who run from one thing to another with no time to catch your breath, you may want to rethink how you go about the little things. Just because things have always been a certain way, it doesn’t mean that’s the only way to go about it.

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