I know that the most important thing I can do in my position is to think. Yet I find that even though I set aside time in my calendar every week to plan, reflect, review, and think about big-picture projects, I seldom actually keep that appointment with myself. There just always seems to be something more urgent. Ideas?

Whether you are a business owner, executive director, manager, or employee, the struggle is real! It seems super easy to keep appointments with OTHER people, but you tend to blow off the appointments you make with yourself.

Plus there is ALWAYS something more urgent!

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Yet, you are at your greatest and highest value when you actually have the time to think!

So what can you do?!

  • Be strategic when you schedule this appointment with yourself. Do you think better in the morning? Afternoon? When you are able to match the task and the time, it is much easier to get started! (And getting started is more than half of the challenge!) (More on this in this post.)
  • Have an agenda for your thinking time. Looking at a blank space on your calendar called “thinking time” can be overwhelming. Determine ahead of time what you want to accomplish during this block.
  • Use an accountability partner. You know you’ll keep an appointment with someone else, so do your planning with someone else. You don’t have to physically be in the same location – you can just text each other when you start and finish, you can plan together over Zoom, or…

The key to being effective and efficient is to think! When you spend all day doing, you are shortchanging yourself and your organization.

If using a group of successful professionals as your accountability buddies appeals to you, the Impact Time Collective may be exactly what you are looking for. Want to know more? Contact me here!