Wouldn't it be nice if a time management tool could solve all our problems as humanitarian and development leaders?
Unfortuntely, it doesn't work that way.
While time management tools can be helpful, there is something else you need to address before you can use them effectively.
Something that will have a much greater impact on your time management.
It has to do with the way you THINK about your time.
After coaching hundreds of humanitarian and development supervisors, I have found there are common ways of thinking which prevent them from taking control of their time and making the impact they want.
Listen to this episode to find out more.
NEW: For a full written transcript of this episode, please visit the link here.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, my aid worker friend, I hopeyou're having a wonderful week.
(00:05):
And this week, I am back inmy normal recording place.
So I should be sounding back to normal.
Have you ever ridden in a unimog?
Many of you as humanitarian anddevelopment workers, maybe you at least
know what a unimog is, but if you don't,it's basically a German vehicle that
(00:30):
is made to work in extreme conditions.
It reminds me actually of a big tractor.
And kind of like the vehicle that Idon't know if any of you have seen
Star Wars, but there's a scene wherethere's this group of beings which
are going around and collecting trash.
(00:52):
And I think at one point they collectthe two robots, R2-D2 and C-3PO.
And, they're in this huge vehiclethat's going through the desert.
And that actually kind of reminds me of.
a unimog.
So you're probably wonderingwhy am I talking about a Unimog?
(01:16):
Well, It's one of the only vehiclesthat we could use at certain times
of the year in South Sudan.
And in particular, I remember on avisit to the Eastern part of South
Sudan, where I was visiting theHoly Trinity peace Village Kuron.
(01:41):
And this particular community wasset up by Emeritus, Bishop Taban.
And he was just an amazing man.
He was in his seventies when I wasthere and every morning he would
wake up around 4:00 or 5:00 AM anddo a hundred pushups and jump around.
(02:01):
And he had this whole routinethat he told me about.
I didn't actually participate in.
But he also was working on creating acommunity that was free from war and
violence within the Toposa region.
And , the reason we had touse these Unimogs is because
(02:23):
there were no paved roads.
We were working with the Toposa peoplewho had been living as they had been
for thousands of years, they stillhad the same huts the same, jewelry,
similar agricultural practices.
And so we were introducing seeds andways of planting that we hoped would
(02:47):
help prevent famine in the future.
But as many of you know, workingin these types of environments
can be very challenging.
And so you really had to begood at managing your time.
And this, of course not only appliesto working at the community level,
(03:07):
but also working in the office orworking with our teams or even just
in our everyday life outside of work..
Managing our time and understandinghow to best use it can be
very helpful and important.
(03:28):
And I wanted to talk today about what toconsider before choosing a time management
tool or app based on my own journey andbased on having coached now, hundreds
of humanitarian and development leaders.
Of course in South Sudan, you have toreally use your time wisely and you have
(03:48):
to be on top of everything because notonly are you working in a place where
you have limited time to serve certainareas because of the rainy season,
which creates a lot of clay and mud.
But also because of just theenvironment in general and the
unpredictability of, potentialconflicts or the lack of infrastructure,
(04:11):
which led to late procurements andall kinds of things such as that.
Uh, so managing timebecomes very essential.
And I remember becoming very interestedin time management as a concept
and coming down to the question ofhow do I really effectively manage
(04:33):
my time to create what I want?
And I've come a long way since those timesin South Sudan and there's things that I
wish I could have told myself if I was togo back in time and give myself advice.
But I thought that it might be helpfulfor you to know some of these things.
(04:53):
First of all, when I first startedlearning about time management, I started
on the somewhat traditional route thata lot of people take, which is consuming
books like David Allen's "Getting ThingsDone" or Tim Ferriss "Four Hour Work
Week" or so many other resources whichare on time management and different
(05:17):
ways of thinking about time management.
And I started to come up with my ownbest practices in terms of putting
things in place and managing my time.
Some being very obvious, such asturning off notifications and others,
maybe not quite as obvious, such asrespecting the meetings that I put in
my calendar when they were with myself.
(05:41):
If that makes any sense.
So respecting the time thatI had scheduled with myself.
I think I've done a podcast episodeon that in the past, but perhaps I can
do another one because I just thinkit is, such an interesting concept
that a lot of us overlook is how manytimes we schedule something to do
on our own and then we schedule overit because for whatever reason, we
(06:06):
don't value our time to ourselves.
In terms of selecting time managementtools and apps I went through this whole
phase of trying out different things,everything from Microsoft outlook to
Todoist and all the other ones thatare modeled after getting things done.
(06:28):
And what I found was number one, everytime I switched a tool, there was
a huge learning curve involved andthat in itself took a lot of time.
But number two, the time managementtool that you select is only going to
be as good as what you make out of it.
It's only going to be as good or as usefulas what you actually invest into it.
(06:56):
From my experience, some of them area little bit clunky or they take some
time to really set up and understand.
And so to be honest, at this point, rightnow, I'm using a word document and that,
between that and my outlook calendar,is the majority of how I manage my time.
(07:17):
It's not to say that these timemanagement apps and tools aren't helpful,
but like I said, you really need to usethem in order for them to be helpful.
And be on to yourself if you arealways thinking about the next best
thing, because this is the otherthing, there is no magic fix, right?
There is no magic fix whenit comes to time management.
(07:40):
When it comes to time management,I think an even more foundational
and more important thing to addressbefore even getting into a time
management app or tool is lookingat the way you manage your mind, or
your mindset around time management.
(08:03):
This.will be the key to whether yourtime management is successful or not.
So it's really interesting afterhaving coached many leaders and also
from my own experience, from whatI remember as a country manager,
as a head of office and so on,
I realized that there are these recurringbeliefs that humanitarian and development
(08:30):
workers have that they may not beaware of having number one, but also
number two that are so common that I'veactually given them a name and my name
for them is high performance syndrome.
And basically the way I look at this highperformance syndrome is a well-intentioned
(08:55):
busy-ness with limited productivityin which a leader spends time on
activities that do not create impact andinstead, cause overwhelm and burnout.
So, let me repeat that again.
High performance syndrome is a wellintentioned busy-ness with limited
(09:19):
productivity in which a leader spends timeon activities that to not create impact
and instead, cause overwhelm and burnout.
A lot of humanitarian and developmentleaders they're very ambitious.
I know you want to make an impact.
You want to help as much as you can.
(09:41):
And you want to get it all done.
So there's this drive or this,attraction to the humanitarian
development sector of high performers.
However, there's a certain mindsetwhich I'm calling the High Performance
Snydrome mindset which leads tobusy-ness without the productivity.
(10:06):
And it's sounds all good and well,for example, this needs to be perfect.
That is one of the mindsets that will leadto you not being able to get anywhere
with time management, because it willperpetually lead to you focusing on
activities that do not create impact andyet will burn you out because guess what?
(10:30):
Perfect is not possible.
There are a few other mindsets as well.
One is needing to beavailable all the time.
This one, I especially see commonamongst the admin finance teams of the
humanitarian and development sectors,where leaders feel that if they're not
available, they're not being helpful.
(10:52):
This also will impact the amount ofwork you have and will lead to burnout.
And then another type of thought, whichI see a lot, which also fuels the High
Performance Syndrome is around needingto be a team player or needing to say
(11:14):
yes if somebody asks you to do something.
So, what does this have to dowith time management tools?
Well, we can use all the time managementtools and the apps in the world.
But they're not going to be effective ifnumber one you don't use them to their
full benefit but number two If we don'taddress these certain mindsets that
(11:40):
are fueling our burnout and overwhelm.
I myself believe when it comes towellbeing, when it comes to burnout that
we do need to take a certain type ofresponsibility over our own wellbeing.
To be honest, I would rathertake responsibility over my own
(12:04):
wellbeing than have someone elselike the organization do it.
Of course, there is a duty ofcare and responsibility for
supervisors and organizations tohelp their teams and their staff.
I've seen so many times humanitarianand development leaders are not very
good at taking their own responsibilityfor the cause of their burnout.
(12:30):
And part of this, once again comes fromsome of these High Performance Syndrome
thoughts which lead to taking on morework than we should, focusing on things
that are not productive and just keepus busy, and therefore lead to burnout.
What I'm saying is being aware of thesemindsets and which one might be plaguing
(12:55):
you because it's very likely that atleast one of these ways of thinking
are something that you experience,which are keeping you stuck in the same
routines and focusing on the things thatwill not make an impact in your work.
If you're interested in identifying whichof these things is keeping you stuck
(13:22):
and how to overcome them this is alsoone of the things that we discuss in the
"Coach Approach Leadership Style" course.
And that is because what I see moreand more is that if leaders believe
that they don't have the time andthey're too busy to work with their
(13:44):
teams, then they're not going to do it.
And so in order to use a coach approach,we need to believe that we have control
over our time and that we have theability to operate in a way which creates
impact and is actually productive.
(14:06):
And part of the way to accomplishthat is by overcoming these High
Performance Syndrome thoughts.
And so if you're interested in identifyingwhich thoughts are plaguing you and how to
overcome those and move forward and freeyourself up to really make an impact in
your work then please join us in the next"Coach Approach Leadership Style" course.
(14:31):
You can find out more on thewebsite www.aidforaidworkers.com,
click on "Coach Approach course" and thereis information on how to take next steps.
Time management apps and tools areuseful and can be very important.
But they won't be as effective ifwe haven't addressed the underlying
(14:58):
thinking, which is causing ourbehavior in the first place.
The behavior of busy-ness ofproductivity that doesn't
create the impact that we want.
We need to be clear on what is theimpact we want, what is our productivity?
How do we define it?
And then what is the mindset weneed to have an order to achieve it?
(15:23):
All right, my friends until nextweek, keep broadening your impact.
Bye for now!
Hello, my aid worker friend, I hopeyou're having a wonderful week.
(00:05):
And this week, I am back inmy normal recording place.
So I should be sounding back to normal.
Have you ever ridden in a unimog?
Many of you as humanitarian anddevelopment workers, maybe you at least
know what a unimog is, but if you don't,it's basically a German vehicle that
(00:30):
is made to work in extreme conditions.
It reminds me actually of a big tractor.
And kind of like the vehicle that Idon't know if any of you have seen
Star Wars, but there's a scene wherethere's this group of beings which
are going around and collecting trash.
(00:52):
And I think at one point they collectthe two robots, R2-D2 and C-3PO.
And, they're in this huge vehiclethat's going through the desert.
And that actually kind of reminds me of.
a unimog.
So you're probably wonderingwhy am I talking about a Unimog?
(01:16):
Well, It's one of the only vehiclesthat we could use at certain times
of the year in South Sudan.
And in particular, I remember on avisit to the Eastern part of South
Sudan, where I was visiting theHoly Trinity peace Village Kuron.
(01:41):
And this particular community wasset up by Emeritus, Bishop Taban.
And he was just an amazing man.
He was in his seventies when I wasthere and every morning he would
wake up around 4:00 or 5:00 AM anddo a hundred pushups and jump around.
(02:01):
And he had this whole routinethat he told me about.
I didn't actually participate in.
But he also was working on creating acommunity that was free from war and
violence within the Toposa region.
And , the reason we had touse these Unimogs is because
(02:23):
there were no paved roads.
We were working with the Toposa peoplewho had been living as they had been
for thousands of years, they stillhad the same huts the same, jewelry,
similar agricultural practices.
And so we were introducing seeds andways of planting that we hoped would
(02:47):
help prevent famine in the future.
But as many of you know, workingin these types of environments
can be very challenging.
And so you really had to begood at managing your time.
And this, of course not only appliesto working at the community level,
(03:07):
but also working in the office orworking with our teams or even just
in our everyday life outside of work..
Managing our time and understandinghow to best use it can be
very helpful and important.
(03:28):
And I wanted to talk today about what toconsider before choosing a time management
tool or app based on my own journey andbased on having coached now, hundreds
of humanitarian and development leaders.
Of course in South Sudan, you have toreally use your time wisely and you have
(03:48):
to be on top of everything because notonly are you working in a place where
you have limited time to serve certainareas because of the rainy season,
which creates a lot of clay and mud.
But also because of just theenvironment in general and the
unpredictability of, potentialconflicts or the lack of infrastructure,
(04:11):
which led to late procurements andall kinds of things such as that.
Uh, so managing timebecomes very essential.
And I remember becoming very interestedin time management as a concept
and coming down to the question ofhow do I really effectively manage
(04:33):
my time to create what I want?
And I've come a long way since those timesin South Sudan and there's things that I
wish I could have told myself if I was togo back in time and give myself advice.
But I thought that it might be helpfulfor you to know some of these things.
(04:53):
First of all, when I first startedlearning about time management, I started
on the somewhat traditional route thata lot of people take, which is consuming
books like David Allen's "Getting ThingsDone" or Tim Ferriss "Four Hour Work
Week" or so many other resources whichare on time management and different
(05:17):
ways of thinking about time management.
And I started to come up with my ownbest practices in terms of putting
things in place and managing my time.
Some being very obvious, such asturning off notifications and others,
maybe not quite as obvious, such asrespecting the meetings that I put in
my calendar when they were with myself.
(05:41):
If that makes any sense.
So respecting the time thatI had scheduled with myself.
I think I've done a podcast episodeon that in the past, but perhaps I can
do another one because I just thinkit is, such an interesting concept
that a lot of us overlook is how manytimes we schedule something to do
on our own and then we schedule overit because for whatever reason, we
(06:06):
don't value our time to ourselves.
In terms of selecting time managementtools and apps I went through this whole
phase of trying out different things,everything from Microsoft outlook to
Todoist and all the other ones thatare modeled after getting things done.
(06:28):
And what I found was number one, everytime I switched a tool, there was
a huge learning curve involved andthat in itself took a lot of time.
But number two, the time managementtool that you select is only going to
be as good as what you make out of it.
It's only going to be as good or as usefulas what you actually invest into it.
(06:56):
From my experience, some of them area little bit clunky or they take some
time to really set up and understand.
And so to be honest, at this point, rightnow, I'm using a word document and that,
between that and my outlook calendar,is the majority of how I manage my time.
(07:17):
It's not to say that these timemanagement apps and tools aren't helpful,
but like I said, you really need to usethem in order for them to be helpful.
And be on to yourself if you arealways thinking about the next best
thing, because this is the otherthing, there is no magic fix, right?
There is no magic fix whenit comes to time management.
(07:40):
When it comes to time management,I think an even more foundational
and more important thing to addressbefore even getting into a time
management app or tool is lookingat the way you manage your mind, or
your mindset around time management.
(08:03):
This.will be the key to whether yourtime management is successful or not.
So it's really interesting afterhaving coached many leaders and also
from my own experience, from whatI remember as a country manager,
as a head of office and so on,
I realized that there are these recurringbeliefs that humanitarian and development
(08:30):
workers have that they may not beaware of having number one, but also
number two that are so common that I'veactually given them a name and my name
for them is high performance syndrome.
And basically the way I look at this highperformance syndrome is a well-intentioned
(08:55):
busy-ness with limited productivityin which a leader spends time on
activities that do not create impact andinstead, cause overwhelm and burnout.
So, let me repeat that again.
High performance syndrome is a wellintentioned busy-ness with limited
(09:19):
productivity in which a leader spends timeon activities that to not create impact
and instead, cause overwhelm and burnout.
A lot of humanitarian and developmentleaders they're very ambitious.
I know you want to make an impact.
You want to help as much as you can.
(09:41):
And you want to get it all done.
So there's this drive or this,attraction to the humanitarian
development sector of high performers.
However, there's a certain mindsetwhich I'm calling the High Performance
Snydrome mindset which leads tobusy-ness without the productivity.
(10:06):
And it's sounds all good and well,for example, this needs to be perfect.
That is one of the mindsets that will leadto you not being able to get anywhere
with time management, because it willperpetually lead to you focusing on
activities that do not create impact andyet will burn you out because guess what?
(10:30):
Perfect is not possible.
There are a few other mindsets as well.
One is needing to beavailable all the time.
This one, I especially see commonamongst the admin finance teams of the
humanitarian and development sectors,where leaders feel that if they're not
available, they're not being helpful.
(10:52):
This also will impact the amount ofwork you have and will lead to burnout.
And then another type of thought, whichI see a lot, which also fuels the High
Performance Syndrome is around needingto be a team player or needing to say
(11:14):
yes if somebody asks you to do something.
So, what does this have to dowith time management tools?
Well, we can use all the time managementtools and the apps in the world.
But they're not going to be effective ifnumber one you don't use them to their
full benefit but number two If we don'taddress these certain mindsets that
(11:40):
are fueling our burnout and overwhelm.
I myself believe when it comes towellbeing, when it comes to burnout that
we do need to take a certain type ofresponsibility over our own wellbeing.
To be honest, I would rathertake responsibility over my own
(12:04):
wellbeing than have someone elselike the organization do it.
Of course, there is a duty ofcare and responsibility for
supervisors and organizations tohelp their teams and their staff.
I've seen so many times humanitarianand development leaders are not very
good at taking their own responsibilityfor the cause of their burnout.
(12:30):
And part of this, once again comes fromsome of these High Performance Syndrome
thoughts which lead to taking on morework than we should, focusing on things
that are not productive and just keepus busy, and therefore lead to burnout.
What I'm saying is being aware of thesemindsets and which one might be plaguing
(12:55):
you because it's very likely that atleast one of these ways of thinking
are something that you experience,which are keeping you stuck in the same
routines and focusing on the things thatwill not make an impact in your work.
If you're interested in identifying whichof these things is keeping you stuck
(13:22):
and how to overcome them this is alsoone of the things that we discuss in the
"Coach Approach Leadership Style" course.
And that is because what I see moreand more is that if leaders believe
that they don't have the time andthey're too busy to work with their
(13:44):
teams, then they're not going to do it.
And so in order to use a coach approach,we need to believe that we have control
over our time and that we have theability to operate in a way which creates
impact and is actually productive.
(14:06):
And part of the way to accomplishthat is by overcoming these High
Performance Syndrome thoughts.
And so if you're interested in identifyingwhich thoughts are plaguing you and how to
overcome those and move forward and freeyourself up to really make an impact in
your work then please join us in the next"Coach Approach Leadership Style" course.
(14:31):
You can find out more on thewebsite www.aidforaidworkers.com,
click on "Coach Approach course" and thereis information on how to take next steps.
Time management apps and tools areuseful and can be very important.
But they won't be as effective ifwe haven't addressed the underlying
(14:58):
thinking, which is causing ourbehavior in the first place.
The behavior of busy-ness ofproductivity that doesn't
create the impact that we want.
We need to be clear on what is theimpact we want, what is our productivity?
How do we define it?
And then what is the mindset weneed to have an order to achieve it?
(15:23):
All right, my friends until nextweek, keep broadening your impact.
Bye for now!
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