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Big questions for a new year
Dec 15, 2023
Pause the hamster wheel and set a more thoughtful course for 2024.
One of the things I love about ending a year and looking forward to a new one is pausing to reflect on how the year has gone and thinking about what a good new year would look like for me and my business. It’s the ‘festive edition’ version of what I do at the end of every week, only with a longer view and a generously proportioned mince pie beside me. Asking some big questions now before the work hamster wheel starts spinning again helps us set a more thoughtful course for the year ahead.
When we talk about time management, we often focus on the day-to-day, week-to-week view. How efficiently can we get through our to-do list today? What days will we be working from home vs in the office? Who do we need to speak to or meet up with this week? Yet as I describe in The Future of Time, applying #timeintelligence means taking the long view too (check out my November blog for a 5 minute ‘all you need to know’ overview of what ‘time intelligence’ is and how we can use it). From the research I read and the conversations I have, it’s clear to me that asking the bigger questions benefits us as individuals, as teams and as whole organisations. Here are four ‘time intelligent’ questions that take the longer-term view that you can ask yourself, individuals you manage or mentor, or the team(s) you lead.
What do you want to have a shot at?
I was interviewing someone yesterday about their experiences of working at a former employer, and they told me ‘I wasn't there just for the salary, I came to learn and I had career dreams to achieve'. This echoed another comment from an investment professional while I was researching for my book, who told me the reason they chose to stay at their organisation was ‘You say where you want your career to go, what your ambitions are, what you want to achieve over the next five years and they’ll try and help you into those roles.’ Having this kind of conversation can be incredibly motivating for people as it lets them know that you’re interested in the answer and you’ll do what you can to help them realise their aspirations. Having the conversation with yourself gets you thinking differently about what you’re doing and can kick start your future ambitions now instead of kicking them down the road (again).
What doesn’t appear in your diary that you’d like to see in there?
This about the things we find hard to carve out time for but that really matter to us in some way. Outside of work it may be about exercise, a lapsed hobby you’re longing to pick up again or a ‘one day, I’m going to ….’ cherished ambition. Work-wise, it’s typically it’s the important proactive stuff that will help us advance in some way like longer-term planning, strategic thinking or creative work, but when it’s not deadline-driven it invariably ends up being squeezed out by more urgent, reactive activity. In a survey I did back in November 2020, I asked people exactly this. They said things like ‘analysis of work trends and customer data to plan work in a more targeted fashion’; ‘process and system development, testing & feedback, to identify and avoid problems before they reach customers’ and ‘deep thinking which benefits the company strategically’. Imagine how much an organisation and its customers would benefit if people found it easier to make time for these valuable activities.
What would you do differently next time?
Often during my Time Intelligence workshops, teams will say ‘we don’t get time to review how we’re working or debate better ways to do things’. People really want to have these conversations, to use the pause between sprints or deadlines to figure out how they can work more efficiently, resolve issues that cause delays and bottlenecks and to feel like they’re gaining the learning that will build their skills and expertise and help them advance in their career. In ‘Building Learning Organisations’, the management guru Peter Senge identifies how businesses that are successful over the longer term invest a huge proportion of their time in continuous learning. Not just formal training and development but this cultural habit of constantly reviewing our ways of working, the outcomes we’re seeing and what we’re learning from both.
Who do you talk to at work?
I mean this in the sense of ‘who do you confide in?’ and ‘who do you hang out with?’. We may be back in the office more regularly but this doesn’t mean we’re all bonding like mad and building close, rewarding friendships. On my free webinar ‘Make office time popular again’ last week (join my January free webinar on ‘Fewer, better meetings’ here), attendees were worrying most about the small number of people who are coming in but not interacting with others in any meaningful way. As Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace research shows, having a close friend at work is a big driver of employee engagement, making people feel more motivated to stay and do their best work. Software company Atlassian’s ‘Team Anywhere’ research found that team connection grew by 27% after they invested time in bringing people together for social and ‘culture-building’ events. And on my podcast The Business of Being Brilliant, Professor Robin Dunbar explains why the best thing a CEO can do is design more opportunities for people to meet in person for ‘synchronised social activities’ like eating a meal, singing or playing a game. It sounds almost laughably simple and slightly old-fashioned, but it’s still powerful stuff.
Thinking about these 4 questions myself, on my ‘have a shot at’ list is getting invited onto TV or radio to give an expert point of view, applying for and getting accepted for a TEDx talk and collaborating on some research. What doesn’t appear in my diary, despite my best intentions every week? Time to update my website, finish my new online ‘time intelligence’ diagnostic and start planning book 2. Please ask me how these are going when we’re next in touch! I’m definitely going to be asking myself ‘what would I do differently next year’ as I ponder what I’ve learnt about this year’s efforts and I’m making a list of wise and wonderful people I want to catch up with again because it’s been too long since we last spoke.
What would your answers be? Pop me an email at hello@helenbeedham.com, I’d love to hear and I promise to respond. While I’m reaching unashamedly for another mince pie….
When we talk about time management, we often focus on the day-to-day, week-to-week view. How efficiently can we get through our to-do list today? What days will we be working from home vs in the office? Who do we need to speak to or meet up with this week? Yet as I describe in The Future of Time, applying #timeintelligence means taking the long view too (check out my November blog for a 5 minute ‘all you need to know’ overview of what ‘time intelligence’ is and how we can use it). From the research I read and the conversations I have, it’s clear to me that asking the bigger questions benefits us as individuals, as teams and as whole organisations. Here are four ‘time intelligent’ questions that take the longer-term view that you can ask yourself, individuals you manage or mentor, or the team(s) you lead.
What do you want to have a shot at?
I was interviewing someone yesterday about their experiences of working at a former employer, and they told me ‘I wasn't there just for the salary, I came to learn and I had career dreams to achieve'. This echoed another comment from an investment professional while I was researching for my book, who told me the reason they chose to stay at their organisation was ‘You say where you want your career to go, what your ambitions are, what you want to achieve over the next five years and they’ll try and help you into those roles.’ Having this kind of conversation can be incredibly motivating for people as it lets them know that you’re interested in the answer and you’ll do what you can to help them realise their aspirations. Having the conversation with yourself gets you thinking differently about what you’re doing and can kick start your future ambitions now instead of kicking them down the road (again).
What doesn’t appear in your diary that you’d like to see in there?
This about the things we find hard to carve out time for but that really matter to us in some way. Outside of work it may be about exercise, a lapsed hobby you’re longing to pick up again or a ‘one day, I’m going to ….’ cherished ambition. Work-wise, it’s typically it’s the important proactive stuff that will help us advance in some way like longer-term planning, strategic thinking or creative work, but when it’s not deadline-driven it invariably ends up being squeezed out by more urgent, reactive activity. In a survey I did back in November 2020, I asked people exactly this. They said things like ‘analysis of work trends and customer data to plan work in a more targeted fashion’; ‘process and system development, testing & feedback, to identify and avoid problems before they reach customers’ and ‘deep thinking which benefits the company strategically’. Imagine how much an organisation and its customers would benefit if people found it easier to make time for these valuable activities.
What would you do differently next time?
Often during my Time Intelligence workshops, teams will say ‘we don’t get time to review how we’re working or debate better ways to do things’. People really want to have these conversations, to use the pause between sprints or deadlines to figure out how they can work more efficiently, resolve issues that cause delays and bottlenecks and to feel like they’re gaining the learning that will build their skills and expertise and help them advance in their career. In ‘Building Learning Organisations’, the management guru Peter Senge identifies how businesses that are successful over the longer term invest a huge proportion of their time in continuous learning. Not just formal training and development but this cultural habit of constantly reviewing our ways of working, the outcomes we’re seeing and what we’re learning from both.
Who do you talk to at work?
I mean this in the sense of ‘who do you confide in?’ and ‘who do you hang out with?’. We may be back in the office more regularly but this doesn’t mean we’re all bonding like mad and building close, rewarding friendships. On my free webinar ‘Make office time popular again’ last week (join my January free webinar on ‘Fewer, better meetings’ here), attendees were worrying most about the small number of people who are coming in but not interacting with others in any meaningful way. As Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace research shows, having a close friend at work is a big driver of employee engagement, making people feel more motivated to stay and do their best work. Software company Atlassian’s ‘Team Anywhere’ research found that team connection grew by 27% after they invested time in bringing people together for social and ‘culture-building’ events. And on my podcast The Business of Being Brilliant, Professor Robin Dunbar explains why the best thing a CEO can do is design more opportunities for people to meet in person for ‘synchronised social activities’ like eating a meal, singing or playing a game. It sounds almost laughably simple and slightly old-fashioned, but it’s still powerful stuff.
Thinking about these 4 questions myself, on my ‘have a shot at’ list is getting invited onto TV or radio to give an expert point of view, applying for and getting accepted for a TEDx talk and collaborating on some research. What doesn’t appear in my diary, despite my best intentions every week? Time to update my website, finish my new online ‘time intelligence’ diagnostic and start planning book 2. Please ask me how these are going when we’re next in touch! I’m definitely going to be asking myself ‘what would I do differently next year’ as I ponder what I’ve learnt about this year’s efforts and I’m making a list of wise and wonderful people I want to catch up with again because it’s been too long since we last spoke.
What would your answers be? Pop me an email at hello@helenbeedham.com, I’d love to hear and I promise to respond. While I’m reaching unashamedly for another mince pie….
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How to encourage this in a way that works for your business. There is a real and urgent need to address the creeping norm of employees working all hours, being contactable and available all the time. But Labour’s recent abandoning of a legal ‘right to disconnect’ in favour of a voluntary code of practice is probably the right move, in my humble opinion. Here are 5 reasons why, 5 ways to make switching off a win/win for you and your organisation, and 5 positive actions to put into practice now. Why legislation is too blunt a tool: Heavy-handed legislation will probably antagonise businesses, not secure their support. There's more to do first to spotlight organisations that are managing the boundaries well between working & non-working time well and proving the business benefits. It’s too early to say confidently how well similar legislation has worked abroad. Australia only adopted this last month; the longer-standing fine-based approach in France and Portugal isn't proven as an effective deterrent. Human-centred organisations are probably already paying attention to this, being creative about work boundaries and using their approach to enhance their employer brand. They'll be the ones who proactively adopt the code of practice and make it genuinely part of ‘the way we work here’ - and they'll win at attracting and retaining talented people longer-term as a result. ‘But clients will go elsewhere’. This is the defence I often hear in rejection of proposals like the right to disconnect. No, client won't IF you engage them in the change and show them that it means they get to access your sharpest minds working at their best,. When organisations see their early-adopter competitors living the code and still winning & keeping desirable clients - and nabbing theirs - they’ll swiftly follow suit. Let’s be clear: some people will continue to say yes to high pay/exciting work in return for ‘you’ll work whenever when we need you ‘. But it’ll be a transactional relationship lasting for as long as it benefits the individual (or employer) and no longer. Easy come, easy go. If that’s your philosophy as an employer: own it and be transparent. Don’t sign the code and pay it lip service. If yours IS an organisation that wants to do better at encouraging employees to switch off, try: 1. Using Labour’s shift to open up conversations at work about pressures to communicate or be available after hours. 2. Adding ‘we support the right to disconnect’ in your recruitment material and having examples to share with candidates during interviews. 3. Supporting selected managers and their teams to trial different experiments around switching off. 4. Asking people ‘how can we help you do to your best work within your normal working hours?’. ‘What gets in the way of this?’. 5. Setting up an industry-wide collaboration to trial different ways of achieving the same outcome. Asynchronous and flexible working are here to stay and bring many benefits to individuals and their employers. But they can make it a challenge to co-ordinate and communicate within teams and across time zones. Here's what you can do personally to uphold the right to switch off and respect other people's non-working time: Add an email footer like: 'I'm sending this now because it suits me but I'm not expecting a response outside of normal working hours'. Work offline if you're working late evenings or weekends, so you're not visible on Teams/whatever channels you use, and schedule your emails to send the next day to avoid the ripple effect of people responding immediately. If people on your team have repeatedly worked late or sacrificed home lives to help reach a deadline, then give them some time back straight afterwards. It's simple and effective. If you're a manager, find out people's preferences around being contacted - or not - during out of hours or when on leave. Everyone's different, so make it your job to know. See annual leave as an opportunity for a colleague to step up and have some stretch experience by covering for you, with support beforehand. Then switch off properly and don't muddy the water by dipping in and out unasked. Listen to my podcast conversation with Ben Higgins, Global CHRO of Wholesale Banking at Societe Generale, about how he does this. These examples are about applying #timeintelligence. If you want to know more about my #timeintelligence sessions for leaders, teams and individuals, get in touch . And if you're making good progress in your organisation on switching off - or at least trialling a few changes - then I'd love to hear more. During normal working hours, of course.
Managing the school holiday juggle and announcing book 2!
What does it cost us to be always rushing ahead? What are we missing by not pausing to look back?
When sticking stops. A barn owl perched observantly on a post in front of me, a heron gliding by like a feathered Concorde with its wings tucked in. Just two of the birds I’ve spotted today whilst working at UK’s only family-owned and managed National Nature Reserve, at Elmley in Kent. I’m not working in the sense of checking on wildlife and mending fences, I’m working in the sense of enjoying an indulgent writing retreat in glorious isolation, tucked away in a definitely-not-roughing-it wooden cabin complete with outdoor tub overlooking meadows and marshes (more pics here ). This retreat is both a long-anticipated birthday gift from my family and the official starting point for writing my second business book. It’s been brewing in my head for months and is now begging loudly to be given some proper love and attention. So here I am, off-grid in every sense with nowhere else to go and nothing else to do for 24 hours than plan and write. Write what? I hear you ask…
I waved a Minion off to school yesterday for World Book Day. At least my 12 year old daughter now sorts out her own WBD outfit thank goodness, and there’s now another 364 days before WBD rolls around again. But we’re not done for this week because it's International Women’s Day today! In recognition of this global celebration of women’s contribution to work and society, every day this week I’ve been sharing a statistic on Linked In that describes how women are impacted by our 'time culture' at work. If ‘time culture’ is a new expression to you a) you obviously haven’t read my award-winning business book The Future of Time yet and b) it means our attitudes, behaviours and expectations around the way we spend our time at work. What gets valued and rewarded, what doesn’t. What we spend much of our time on, what we don’t spend so much time on (but ought to). Because surprise, surprise, women are disadvantaged by our ‘time culture’ in several ways. Here are my top five.
Making change stick. Recently, I’ve been tuning in regularly to the 'Just One Thing' podcast by Dr. Michael Mosley. In each 15-minute episode, Michael delves into a single, manageable change that can enhance our health and extend our lifespan. Thanks to him, I’m keeping up my green tea ritual (that was a quick win), incorporating daily planks into my exercise routine (right after my morning run - oof) and reheating leftover carbs. I’m a bit of a podcast butterfly and I’m wondering why this podcast has stuck firmly now as a favourite. Besides Dr. Mosley's warm and reassuring tone, I think it boils down to 3 things. Firstly, focusing on just one thing feels refreshingly attainable. Let's face it, we're bombarded with complex self-improvement strategies daily. Who wants a whole industry of new ‘to do’s to implement, remember and track? Secondly, the changes are entirely within my control. I don't need anyone's permission to start planking in my bedroom, even if it does provide my husband with daily amusement. I can make these changes tomorrow, better still, today. Thirdly, the advice is specific and the outcomes are clear. I know precisely what to do and whether it’s working. Whether it's keeping my blood pressure in check or reducing blood sugar spikes, the benefits are measurable. Now, shifting gears to my work life, I find parallels between Dr. Moseley's approach and my Time-Intelligent Teams workshops. These workshops aim to enhance teams' productivity and enjoyment at work – to help people to invest their time more effectively. We focus on one collective and one individual change that are within the team's control. Through reflection, brainstorming, and laughter, teams identify actionable steps to work smarter, not harder. The feedback from these workshops has been resoundingly positive with managers reporting improved communication, higher levels of commitment to the change and more cohesive teamwork. Of course the power of ‘just one thing’ is that once you’ve mastered that one change and it has proven it’s value, it simply becomes part of how you do things. Which leaves you free to cast around for the next ‘just one thing’ that could also have a transformative effect. And another after that. That’s why, to my amazement, wall squats have joined my daily exercise routine and I’m evangelising about the benefits of cooked tomatoes. I just need to find Michael’s episode on why sticky toffee pudding will reverse the ageing process…..
How are those 2024 goals looking? If you’re the type of person who loves setting New Year resolutions and making aspirational plans for the coming 12 months, but then feels downcast a few weeks or months later when all those intentions look over-ambitious or have fallen by the wayside, then this blog post will cheer you up, I guarantee. Because I’ve discovered a better way to start the year: by recognising that we’re already living our future today. Let me unpack that. People today say they are time poor and the stats shed light on why: work intensity has increased steadily over the past 20 years, leisure time has fallen - plus we don’t tend to use it wisely - and we spend more of our time parenting our children than previous generations, or caring for elderly dependents. When we’re time poor, we tend to feel under pressure to get things done, stay on top of things and keep all those plates spinning as efficiently as possible. We’re always thinking about what’s coming up next and the future that we’re working towards. (My vision of the future? Older me is effortlessly churning out bestseller books from an idyllic coastal eco-cottage, in between bouts of sea-swimming and long clifftop yomps. What’s yours?). The problem is, that future is always slightly out of grasp. So we keep on striving to get there. Hand-in-hand with tomorrow-chasing is beating ourselves up about the big things what we haven’t achieved yet or on a smaller scale, tasks we haven’t ticked off our daily or weekly to-do lists. I had a great 2023 – busy, healthy, enjoyable – but reading back over my mid-year plan was a frustrating litany of ‘not done’, ‘not done’, ‘not done’, from my updating my website to launching my new Time-Intelligence online diagnostic for teams and organisations. Hal Hershfield, Professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management and author of Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today came on my podcast The Business of Being Brilliant in September. He advises ‘ not to always live life for tomorrow’ and to ‘ have some self compassion and self forgiveness. It's really easy to beat ourselves up because we're falling short of the things that we said we wanted to do. And that's not really fair to our present selves’. What we don’t typically pay so much attention to – or even notice at all – are all the things we’re already doing today that are to be celebrated or that quite simply, we find enjoyable or rewarding. As Hal says ‘ I think we do a disservice to our future selves by telling ourselves that we're working for them, but in reality we're missing the present and then what sort of life does that add up to?’ I notice the same unhelpful tendency in organisations, where we’re equally future-obsessed. As soon as one project is over, the next one begins. We sprint from one deadline to the next without pausing for breath or taking time to reflect, appreciate, learn or reconsider. It’s a common refrain I hear people say in my Time-Intelligent Teams workshops . It’s a chronic case of organisational impatience, and it’s not a recipe for long-term, sustainable high performance. So what’s the antidote? It’s to ask ourselves ‘are we there already?’ This question is reminiscent of the dreaded ‘are we there yet?’ that every child asks, usually 10 minutes after leaving home (yep, you did it too) and that makes every driver want to scream. But ‘are we there already?’ is different. It invites us to reflect on what we’re doing today and the outcomes we’re bringing about. It helps us to see afresh the seams of richness layered through our work or home lives that we’ve been neglecting to notice and whose absence we’d sorely regret. By asking ‘are we there already?’ or ‘am I there already?’, we can look differently at what we spend our time on today and appreciate those things we do that are working well for us right here, right now. In other words, the ways in which we’re already living our future today. In my #timeintelligence workshops, I help teams identify all the positive aspects of the way they work that is enabling them to deliver on their goals, often under intense time pressure and resource constraints. In parallel with celebrating these strengths and successes, we look for changes within their control that can help them overcome the challenges or frustration and make best use of their time at work. So instead of setting some traditional resolutions, why not try setting some ‘living my future today’ resolutions? By listing a few things that you already do and would like to continue doing/do more often because they bring you joy, respite, connection, growth, inspiration, fulfilment, contentment or some other benefit. Here are some of my ‘living my future today’ resolutions: 1. Doing a short writing sprint every day to make sense of some half-formed musings, explore the seed of an idea or untangle a mental confusion. The world makes a bit more sense after each sprint. 2. Playing the piano every day that I’m at home, because I find it a magical antidote to a racing mind and it brings back treasured memories of jamming on the piano with my father. 3. Keeping up my daily running streak (today was day #1,151) because I love it and I want to stay mobile and independent until I’m headed for the next world. 4. Sticking with my ‘Review, Celebrate, Plan’ habit where at the end of each week, I review how the week has gone, celebrate things I feel proud of and plan for the week ahead. Cup of tea and large slice of cake in hand. 5. Saying yes to coffees and phone calls with friends even when work and life feel too busy and I’m tempted to say ‘not this week’. I never regret making the time. Why not ask the same question to colleagues in your team? Your close friends or family? It might spark a new kind of conversation. And you might well discover that your future has already arrived.
Pause the hamster wheel and set a more thoughtful course for 2024.