Musings at Altitude

I’ve been desperately seeking more time in my days lately.

Things don’t get done.

Schedules don’t get met.

Commitments made to deliver certain things at certain times aren’t fulfilled.

And it’s getting worse.

Unfortunately, I’m not the most efficient person in the world.

I don’t do things in a systematic or time saving way.

In fact, it’s just the opposite.

It takes me twice as long as most to do some pretty routine things.

Because I let just about anything distract me or divert me from the high priority job at hand.

And, to make things worse, the older I get the more I need to prioritize time to those things that may prolong and enhance life.

Like exercise.

Like meditation.

Like more sleep (that hasn’t happened yet).

That just steals even more of my daily precious minutes that could have been used to do those incredibly important things that aren’t getting done.

So, what do I do?

It’s actually pretty simple.

• I delegate more.  Other people have the time and energy to do much of the work that I can’t seem to get done today.
• I recognize clearly what I’m not very good at and bring someone in much earlier to pick those things up and run with them.
• I turn exercise into learning or growing or solving or sharing sessions.
• I decrease my “must talk to” list and increase my “must email list”.
• I analyze and reflect much less and more quickly assess and envision what’s next.

Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it.

But it’s not.

Some of you have already simplified it to being wiser, smarter, and more prudent with my time.

But that’s easier said than done.

I’ve never been that way.

I like to do things myself.

I enjoyed being a Rambo-like, go it alone, do what you want to do consultant.

Delegation is hard.

Recognizing what you’re not good at and letting others pick you up on those things isn’t easy at all.

Turning those sacred moments of exercise and mediation into working sessions is an enormously tough compromise on this time thing.

Emailing more and talking less is fairly easy for me, but most of the rest of the world still needs that open dialogue, talk time to feel good for themselves.

And going back and over analyzing what was said or what was done can sometimes be the only way to get to the conclusions that are needed from any particular meeting or event.

But I know I can’t do things the way I’ve done them in the past.

I need help.

I need others now to do things that I would always want to do myself in the past.

I need to trust others to deliver so much better than I ever could or would, and in trusting that way,  I need to admit that others are so much better at getting things done now than I am.

It’s hard to let go of being the some-dreaming-with-lots-of-doing in the past to the lots-of-dreaming-and-only-some-doing of today.

Things are certainly changing.

It’s a young person’s game.

And I’m a rapidly aging, certainly balding, and overly pontificating player in today’s game.

But oh what fun I’m having.

Transitioning from the one who’s responsible for the action to the one who’s responsible for those who are responsible for the actions.

Transitioning from the one who’s responsible for thinking things through to the ad nauseam level to the one who’s now responsible for looking at the thinking of others and asking that one very intelligent question that sends them back for more thinking and more meaningful responses.

Transitioning from the one that can pull the all nighters and still be just fresh enough to solve the world’s problems to the one who needs some amount of significant sleep to be able to understand the stuff pulled together by those pulling those all nighters today!

Yep.

What fun I’m having!

Hope you are too!