What's going on everyone. And welcome to the darn good. A leadership podcast. This show is all about being a strong and effective leader. One that can make positive impacts on your teams and communities. And the next 20 minutes or less, you're going to get ideas, inspiration and practical advice. You can take action on to be a darn good leader. I'm your host, Emily. Holting. Hello? Hello. Last week, we kicked off our second season together and we discussed how in 2023, we are taking the driver's seat. We are taking extreme ownership and we are holding ourselves accountable for our happiness growth and setting the example for those around us. So today we are continuing the conversation and we're talking about how to work savvier in 2023. To be the savviest of leaders. We must refuse to just be busy. We must push back on burnout. We must say no to the things that aren't enabling our goals, and we must be unapologetic about it. Today we're covering two areas we need to focus on. And three mindset shifts we need to make, to become our most savviest of cells. Let's jump right in. The first area we must focus on to work. Savvier is strategy. Last week I asked why do you work? Where you work? And this week I'm asking if you have a strategy. Do you know, your longterm goals? Do your teams know those goals? Do you have a plan to get there? And have you communicated and collaborated on this plan with those around you, that you need to help progress that plan? Working savvier involves spending more time planning and strategizing. Rather than just using brute force or finger crossing your way to success. We only have so much resources, energy, talent, and time in the day to get what needs to be done. Done. And you can spend hours going through the motions on tactical busy work that in the bigger picture. So amounts to basically nothing. Or you could spend two intentional hours planning and strategizing that lays the foundation for the next couple of years. And when you do that correctly. Your strategy acts as a beacon for productivity for yourself and for your teams. It dictates what is needed to be successful. So without it yourself and your team is at risk of just being busy, churning out one aimless task to the next. To avoid this. It requires planning. And to move a business to a winning business requires lots and lots of cadenced planning. Uh, business doesn't just become a winning business by mistake. It takes a strategy. And that strategy creates clarity and strategic planning, defines the steps needed for those teams to achieve results that lead to success. In today's ever changing work environment and people's waning attention spans and the desire for everything to happen now instantly. Strategies, seem to have taken a back seat to immediate deliverables. But a good strategy. Isn't immediate. It requires patience and it takes time. It also requires a series of plan steps that are consistently reviewed and iterated on. So each sequential step compounds towards success. Once you have a strategy and a heightened level of planning around what matters most. Then you and your teams can begin to focus on those items and say no to everything outside of it. So get yourself a strategy, make sure you're having those intentional planning sessions that is laying the foundation for the success and the wins of your company. The second area we must focus on to work savvier in 2023 is time management. Once you have your strategy and your strategic plans. The next item is being ruthless with your time. So then you can focus on the things required to help you reach those goals. Often people want to say that they just don't have the time. But typically that's not the real issue. The issue is how you are managing your time. And what you are prioritizing that is progressing your goals versus what are your prioritizing? That is just a waste of time. With so many of us now working virtually more people are struggling with longer hours and increased burnout. So having the skill and the craft around time management is even more critical. So, how do you do time management? What are some tips that I have here? Well, there are a couple I've got for you. The first one is say, no. Now that, you know, your strategies now that you know, your goals feel empowered to say no to the things that aren't aligned to it, and don't help you progress these things. Just say no. The second track your time. In fact, if you are a person who feels like you don't have enough time, sir, tracking your day-to-day and be diligent about what you were doing. I guarantee you will find multiple items that are non-value time-suck things that you can start to reduce, remove and eliminate altogether. The third is to plan out your week and identify your MBAs, your most valuable actions. And what are those? The most valuable actions are coming from your strategy. And it's your strategy broken down into your goals. And in order to reach your goals, what are your most valuable actions you can take to reach those goals? So you want to look at that upcoming week and figure out what it is you need to do that week to help progress. What are the most valuable actions you can do to help progress your goals that will in turn, help progress towards your strategy. The fourth is to block your calendar. So now that you plan things out for the week and identified your MBAs, your most valuable actions. You want to actually block your calendar around those things? So take a look. What do you need to do? What's your me time? You need to do what's brainstorming. You need to do heads down, work time for meeting with your team or the other folks that you've got to collaborate on these things to get those MBAs done and do not. I repeat, do not allow people to interrupt what you have set on your calendar. Yes, you may have to occasionally adjust these things for unexpected tasks or emergencies, but for the most part, you want to protect your calendar. And the things the NVAs your most valuable actions that you have identified for the week? This will help keep you on point focus and progressing towards your goals. The fifth is to take mental breaks. So, if you've ever read the book seven habits of highly effective people, Stephen Covey talks about a story of a woodcutter who saw gets more and more blunt as he continues to saw down trees. But the fact of the matter is if he were to just stop doing what he was doing and sharpen his saw, it would be super sharp. It would have a great blade. He'd be able to cut down those trees even faster and save time and effort in the long run. The analogy is a pretty simple one. It's important for us to take breaks and sharpen our own salt. So what is our salt? Well, it's you, you got to sharpen yourself and in order to do that, you got to take your mental break. That is your saw. You got to sharpen your focus. You got to sharpen the way you're thinking about things. And our brains are only able to focus for about 90 minutes or so. So in between those, you gotta rest, you can't just work. Uh, 15 hour day in front of your screen and expect to produce amazing results. It's not going to happen. So put some breaks in there for yourself, work out, walk, spend time outside, where you can turn off your notifications, or at least some of them, why you take your breaks, avoid screens. You can let your mind and your eyes wander and focus on something else. And a lot of times in these moments when you're working out and you're not really thinking about much of anything, it's when our brain can start to put things together. And it's when I personally find some of my most. Aha ideas and moments for what I need to do next. So take mental breaks. And the six is to sleep. Prioritize your sleep and schedule it just as rigorously as you would a meeting. When you feel burnout, this is a signal that says your brain can no longer take in more information until you've had a chance to sleep. So figure out when you need to go to bed, when you need to take naps, maybe I'm not a napper, but I know. My fiance is when you need to start your nighttime routine, work that backwards from when you have to get up. And make sure you put all that in place for yourself. I know this can be harder, especially if you're a person who's got kids. But find ways that when you hit the bed, you can really prioritize your sleep. I've got a sound machine. I've got a sleep mask. I do lavender spray, you know, do whatever you need to do to make sure it's a priority. And it's scheduled and your time management is just as disciplined around that.

Let's recap. That

Some tips on how to be savvier with your time management are. Say no to things that don't matter. And aren't aligned to your goals. Just say no. Track your time. So, if you think you don't have a lot of time start tracking it, be diligent, figure out those opportunities. Where you're just wasting time. Maybe you're scrolling on Instagram, you're watching too much Netflix, whatever it is. I guarantee if you start tracking your time, you're going to identify those time sucks and then reduce, eliminate, or get rid of them altogether. Plan out your week and your MBAs, your most valuable actions. And then once you have those things that you gotta do, block your calendar accordingly to get them done. Whether that's time by yourself or time with people you need to collaborate with to get those items worked on and progressed. Take mental breaks. Remember, you got to sharpen your own mental saw, take those breaks so you can come back sharper and more focus and rejuvenated and bringing your full self to work. And finally sleep, so we know if we want to be savvy workers, we need a strategy and we need strong time management. In addition, I have three reminders around your mindset and behavior to help you on your savvy expedition. The first one is eliminate your excuses. Remove the option of not completing the things you have outlined for your week that are your MBAs, your most valuable actions, the things that you have to get done, make those, non-negotiable get them done early in the week and refuse to reprioritize them. So you can tick them off your list. Excuses are the enemy of your goals and winning altogether. The second control, what you can control and let the rest go. You can't control your boss, you can't control team members. You can't control your customers. You can't control the weather. I'm talking to those people in California. Who've gotten a lot of rain recently, but you can control how you show up, how you respond to things, how you lead in the examples that you set for those around you. So take control of the areas that you own. Make sure that you are getting those NBA's done where you can and let go of the things that are beyond your control. It's as easy as that. The third. Be consistent. Small efforts compound. Small efforts compound. So when there are things that are out of your control, your consistency will make up for it. So if you've been consistent with your sleep and you're in the A's and you're making progress towards your strategic goals. And there is something there's a day or there's a week that comes that completely blows up. Out of your control. There's nothing you can do to make real progress. In the grand scheme of that year, your consistency on all the other days will make up for that. So how does one win? How does one lead winning teams by winning each day? And you do that with consistency. Be consistent as you can be. Okay. So have a strategy. Align that strategy to how you're going to manage your time. In the things that you need to do with your time to progress that strategy, remember to eliminate your excuses, control what you can control. And to be consistent in your efforts. These things are simple. But they are not easy. It requires discipline and focus. And we all get off track from time to time. However, it is time to take that wheel as we talked about. And in order to help myself get more focused and sharpen around my own mental toughness and my own goals and executing against them accordingly. I'm actually going to start a 75 hard in about a week. I've spoken about 75 hard in a previous podcast. I will link in our show notes, but it is a 75 day mental toughness challenge that have five critical tasks that you have to do. Each and every one of those 75 days. It is not for the faint of heart. But if you're game and you want to give it a go with me, I will leave the details in my show notes as well. I did my last 75 hard about a year and a half ago. And I think I'm ready to surmount that challenge again. I see for myself that I will welcome the discipline and the focus and see what lessons I can garner from at this time. If you're not up for it. No worries. You will still hear about my lessons and my learnings and my progress and upcoming episodes. So say tunes. So that's what I got for you I hope the show has given you some ideas on how you too can be a savvy leader. I know you can, if you like what you heard and you feel could benefit anyone, you know, please share the show.

Be bold, be bright, be a wood chopper who takes those breaks to sharpen their saw and comes back even stronger, even savvier and ready to take on the forest. Cheers.