Make Time for What Matters Most

Give up the search for balance and prioritize what matters to you.

I’m going to let you in on a secret: work-life balance doesn’t exist. But many of the leaders I work with tell me that they are quietly waging a battle to achieve it day after day. Are you one of them?

Buying into the idea of balance can make you feel like you’re perpetually falling short—and the resulting sense of overwhelm doesn’t help matters.

It’s time to stop striving for the ever-elusive “work-life balance” and start focusing on making time for what matters most. Identifying what’s most important to you and getting it in your life and on your calendar on a regular basis will bring greater joy and satisfaction then chasing after the illusion of a harmonious work-life balance.

Follow these time-tested steps to get started IMMEDIATELY on a meaningful goal for your leadership and life.

First, Check Your Mindset Around Time

Whatever I’m working on with my leadership clients ultimately comes down to time—because if you want to shift a behavior, you need to make the space in your schedule to do it.

I’m not talking about large amounts of time necessarily. Meditating in the morning for 10-minutes a day has profoundly changed my life. Your ability to set aside small blocks of time will make a tremendous difference.

Are you driven by urgency? Or are you driven by importance?

Pay attention to the difference between the two. If you are driven by urgency, then the things that are important but not urgent (like connecting to purpose, planning, or investing in your leadership and learning) aren’t going to get done. Instead, you will always go after the next thing right in front of you, even if it isn’t important. Take email, for example: It always FEELS urgent, but most of the time it isn’t. I estimate that just 1 out of every 5 of my emails needs to be responded to immediately.

But aren’t some things truly urgent?

Yes, there are many good reasons to be in urgency mode—IF the task at hand is IMPORTANT and truly time-sensitive.

The problem is, we label far too many things as urgent.

Check your relationship with urgency so you can make sure you’re creating the time for things that are important. Is there a reason you need to prioritize setting your goals for the year by this Friday? No. But if you continuously postpone your goal-setting exercise to focus on smaller “urgent” tasks, you’ll do your leadership a great disservice.

For more on how to break out of urgency mode, click here.

Then, Set an Importance Goal.

What’s one thing that would have a positive impact on your leadership if you did it consistently on a weekly basis?

To put it differently, if you had to name the most important thing you could be doing each week—but aren’t doing yet—what would it be?

For me, it’s writing for an hour a day. Writing is super important for my work and leadership, but it’s never urgent, and it’s always easy for me to postpone it. For some clients, it’s an hour of planning each week, exercise, connecting with team members one-on-one, or building relationships with donors. There’s no right answer—only what’s right for YOU.

Now, Assess your Habits and Schedule.

Now that you have your importance goal clear, I’m going to ask you a few questions that will help you pinpoint how to free up time for yourself. Some of these questions will resonate more than others depending on your current role, and that’s ok. Use what’s useful!

1. Which of your current activities can you do less of or eliminate?

Many people free up blocks of time each day by eliminating unnecessary activities. One leader I worked with had an open-door/ongoing slack channel with her team which led to constant interruptions. She had no time for visioning or setting strategy. Using this question, she realized that she could reduce her open-door hours to a few blocks of time a week. This freed up two hours per week for her to the deep thinking work.

What are some common time wasters?

Here are the three biggest ones I see again and again with my clients:

Social media
Email
Reading the news

When assessing how to free up more time for what matters, these are all great places to start.

2. What responsibilities can you delegate or share with others?

Take a moment to challenge your assumptions about what truly needs to be done by you and you alone.

Do you have to be the one handling all the responsibilities on your list? Could you share some of your tasks with someone else?

Investing a little time upfront in teaching a colleague or a family member how to do something new can bring big payoffs. It might even be a great opportunity to help someone else build their skills while offloading a task from your shoulders!

3. What systems can you create to make repeat activities easier and faster?

Streamline repeat activities so that you don’t have to put so much thought into them each time. One leader I worked with developed a template for weekly check-ins that she now uses with all of her team members. She was able to cut her preparation time down to just a few minutes before each meeting.

In my own life, spending two hours a month brainstorming ideas for blog posts saves me a ton of time. Now, when I sit down each week to write, I choose one of those ideas instead of starting from scratch. Time-management expert Laura Vanderkam even suggests keeping a list of fun, low-energy things you want to do in your spare time, so you won’t have to spend that precious time struggling to think of them!

4. What existing routines could you add your new high-importance activity to?

When you add a new high-importance activity to an existing routine, you’ll make it a habit much more quickly. Join it with a complementary activity to take advantage of the existing rhythm. That’s called stacking your habits!

One client used this strategy to start exercising regularly for the first time in five years. The three mornings that she drops her children off at school each week are now her exercise days. She wears her sneakers, drops off the kids, parks the car and runs for 20 minutes.

What established routines in your own life could you add your new goal to?

Here are a few ideas:

Team meetings
Lunch
One-on-ones
Planning time
Car trips

How did I finally get my writing goal into my schedule? First thing each morning before I check email or do anything else professionally, I make a cup of tea and write for an hour. Writing has become part of a foundational daily ritual that I now look forward to.

There’s no single right answer.

Think about this as a puzzle with many possible solutions. As you reflect on these four questions and set new habits, you’ll reduce your focus on urgent tasks and clear room for truly important priorities. As a result, you’ll do more of what really matters to you every day — not to mention gain more satisfaction in your work and leadership!

Are you ready to move beyond urgency and focus on what’s most important? Book a quick call with Amanda to see what’s possible.