Think about the best work week you have ever had.  Maybe you just started day­dream­ing about that award trip to the Bahamas, or the lead­er­ship con­fer­ence (golf­ing vaca­tion) in Palm Springs….but for the pur­pose of this exer­cise, let’s con­sider some­thing else.

Think about a week that you really brought your “A” game to the office. 

You were on time, fully present and pre­pared for all your meet­ings.  You closed the deals you were work­ing on.  You exe­cuted with excel­lence.  Not only this, but you had time to think, to plan, to exer­cise, and you were home in time for din­ner!  Did I men­tion email?  Yes, you were even caught up on all email cor­re­spon­dence.  Not just your work email, but your Linkedin, Face­book, and per­sonal email accounts.

Even as I type this, I am think­ing “Yeah, right!”  I was track­ing with my own exer­cise, until I got to that email part.  It’s time for a coaches’ con­fes­sional:  I am really strug­gling to keep up with my email inboxes.  I have to admit that email com­mu­ni­ca­tion is one of my weaker disciplines.

So if I were coach­ing me, what ques­tions would I ask?  What direc­tion would I take myself in this situation? 

The first place I would start is with my Per­fect Week.  The Per­fect Week is an exer­cise we coach clients through to help them visu­al­ize what a week filled with High Pay­off Activ­i­ties from their Life Plans and Busi­ness Plans would look like.  We then have them add the Low Pay­off Activ­i­ties which can­not at this time be del­e­gated or dropped.  We also coach them to sched­ule no more than 70% of their time, leav­ing room for the unplanned oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges that creep into all of our days.

This is just what my assis­tant Lynne and I did last week.  We went back to my Per­fect Week to make sure it is syn­chro­niz­ing with my real schedule. 

In years past I had two times blocked out each day for emails and return­ing phone calls.  Some­how, I had lost that dis­ci­pline.  The good news is that, by doing this exer­cise, we recap­tured that dis­ci­pline, and Lynne is already sched­ul­ing these times back into my days.  I am con­fi­dent this will help me to keep my inboxes man­aged and my stress level down.

I know this has worked for me, and I believe it could help you as well.  Please feel free to con­tact us at info@buildingchampions.com if you want a Per­fect Week Time Block­ing template.

Cheers,

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Tags: Coaching, Core4, Disciplines, Email, Time Blocking

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