Time is a valuable asset and therefore consistent adjustments should be made in order to maximize it. Our careers take up a large amount of physical and mental space and rightfully so since it’s the one portion of our lives that is essential to providing for ourselves and our families. However, the continuous growth of that career and learning is also essential and just as important as showing up and performing your duties. Why? There are two reasons. Unless you own your own company, you have no control over the future of your job as a result of a relocation, merger, reorganization of your area or outsourcing among a number of possibilities. And even as an entrepreneur, business can change quickly. Secondly, the ability for you to do your job successfully depends on collaboration and so connecting with others is key to your success.
So how do we create time with all of the other priorities like schoolwork, families, second jobs, volunteer work etc. that is consuming most of our days? You first need to understand why connecting with others professionally is a priority for YOU and once you understand the why, make it one.
Review your weekly schedule Take a look at your weekly schedule and really see where you have time to dedicate to connecting with someone. If it helps to physically track your week to see where most of your time is being spent, then do so. The goal of this exercise is to first see where your time is going but then figure out if there isn’t any time left, where can you make the time.
Schedule chats that can be done during other normal activities For me personally, I like to connect with others primarily in the morning over coffee. I’ve had close to 1,000 coffee chats throughout my career. I like this time of day because I’m a morning person who loves coffee and the main benefit I’ve seen is that depending on who you are connecting with, the morning allows for that person to also get their morning cup of coffee, tea, water etc. before their day has started. The chance that you’re meeting will get rescheduled lessens since it’s the first meeting of the day for the both of you. You can create additional opportunities for connecting over lunch. If the morning doesn’t work, dedicate at least one day a week to having lunch with someone. Perhaps there is a day of the week were you don’t have many meetings or work from home, make a date to connect on those days.
Connect after work You can also choose to connect after work as well depending on both of your schedules. This can be done as your last meeting of the day on site if it’s someone who works at your company or schedule a chat off site.
Connect over a phone call Another technique is scheduling a call with someone on your way to or from work. This is a great technique if you have already connected in person once and are looking to follow up with some information.
The objective is to create the time that works best and send those invites. If you have a question or are interested in learning more, connect with me.
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