How to focus your time on what is most impactful and fulfilling
Last week, I wrote about the feeling of being overwhelmed because you feel that everything on your plate is important.
There’s a difference in my overwhelm these days, though. When I look at what’s on my plate now, I know that I’m focusing on the right stuff. I know that the things I’m working on are the most impactful and will move the needle the most.
There have been plenty of times in my leadership journey when I’ve been overwhelmed because I wasn’t working on the right stuff.
I can think of one time a few years ago when I felt completely burned out and had no idea why. I felt like I had done everything I could as a leader to delegate the things that I didn’t need to do myself, and all that was left were the things that were really, truly mine to tackle. I had empowered my team and delegated everything I thought I could, and yet, I was still burning out. Why?
I brought this challenge to my coach at the time, hoping he could help me pinpoint the answer. He walked me through an exercise that forever changed the way I view my time: the impact-fulfillment chart.
First, my coach asked me to write down every task I do on a regular basis. I mean every task, from writing blog posts to delivering speeches to preparing the weekly team meeting agenda to responding to emails and everything in between. Then, he had me rate each of those tasks on a scale of 1 to 10 in two categories: The first was how impactful the task was, and the second was how fulfilling I found the task to be. By impactful, he meant how important these tasks are to the organization, the team, our customers, the bottom line, etc. Rating the tasks on how fulfilling they were was more of a personal reflection. He asked me to consider questions such as how much energy does doing this thing bring me? How much happiness does it bring me? How much do I enjoy working on this thing?
Before the exercise, I thought that every task on my list was important, impactful, and only something I could do. The chart told a different story. When I completed my impact-fulfillment chart, I ended up with four categories of tasks:
Low impact, low fulfillment: These are the things I was devoting precious time to that had very little impact on the business and that I really didn’t enjoy doing. They were things I’d always done without question. After the exercise, I realized I didn’t need to spend time on them anymore, and they became my “stop doing” list.
Low impact, high fulfillment: These are the things I enjoy working on, but they don’t necessarily drive tangible impact. My coach told me that the goal wasn’t to cut out these tasks completely, but because they aren’t impactful, I should be careful about how much time I spend on them: I could do the low-impact things I found fulfilling as long as I balanced them with high-impact work. There weren’t too many things in this category, but it helped me be aware of tasks that could fall into this theme in the future. It also made me think about how I could make these things more impactful.
High impact, high fulfillment: I found that I was spending the least amount of my time on things that scored high in both areas, which was a huge wake-up call. I should be spending most of my time here! Everything in this category became my priorities.
High impact, low fulfillment: This last category was really interesting. These are the tasks that absolutely must happen in order for my business to function, but I am not fulfilled by them at all. I thought they were only something I could do because they are so important and impactful, but this exercise challenged that thought. It gave me a new lens for empowering people: Who else on the team would be excited to take over these things? One example was leading the weekly team meeting. I knew how important it was, and yet, creating and managing the agenda wasn’t exciting to me. It was for someone else on our team, though, so I happily passed it over—something I never thought I could do! To this day, I don’t lead team meetings.
My chart served as a roadmap for what belonged on my plate and what didn’t. I restructured my priorities and time so that I could focus on the most impactful and most fulfilling tasks, and I set boundaries around the rest. I also encouraged my team to make their own impact-fulfillment charts so that any time someone felt lukewarm about an impactful task, they could speak up about it and either ask for help or delegate the task completely. It helps make sure we all stay motivated and that all of our high-impact responsibilities get done.
You might be wondering: What happens if you do this exercise and realize you have impactful, unfulfilling things on your plate that must be done and can’t be delegated?
My suggestion is to think about how you can make that thing more fun. How can you bring more joy to it? Take answering emails, for example. My inbox is always full of important, impactful emails that I absolutely have to answer, but I don’t always feel motivated to do so. What helps me is throwing a “work party” with my team: I open my Zoom room, let everyone know I’ll be there for a couple hours, and invite people to work alongside me while I play music. It feels like we’re working “together,” even though we’re focused on different tasks in different places, and it motivates me to knock out my inbox. Another suggestion is to put a task you find very fulfilling immediately after one that isn’t. Give yourself something to look forward to!
This exercise has been such a game-changer for me and for our team, and now, we want to share it with you! We are excited to introduce our brand-new resource, which will walk you through making an impact-fulfillment chart of your own. You can download it here!
Hope this post challenges you to think differently about your time and how you spend it. Here’s to focusing more energy on the things that bring us joy and that also make an impact!
Big hugs,
