The Difference in Jay Holstine’s approach to optimizing time management is simple: instead of adding to the framework of daily lists and structure, Holstine streamlines, to reduce distractions.
“We’ve all had the feeling of being continually pulled from the day’s important work to answer the more immediate, repeated interruptions,” said Holstine. Your concentration is derailed, and bit by bit, the day is reduced to a reactionary whack-a-mole process. We start into an in-depth task, only to be overwhelmed by a variety of unvetted incoming information, ranging from the ‘’important but not urgent,’ to the completely irrelevant.
Jay Holstine has worked with CEOs and executives across industries to improve productivity and work quality by streamlining out the noise and giving executives back the prime hours of their workday.
“Some prime standards of productivity we discussed were: (1.) Increasing the emphasis around the Priorities of each role, and not overloading the list of priorities,” said Holstine. “When there are 100 listed priorities, nothing’s a priority. But owning 10 strong areas of responsibility naturally generates subsets of goals in accomplishing each priority.”
Another important goal in Jay Holstine’s discussion of productive time management encouraged (2.) Managing one’s Attention, rather than seeing the day as simply a span of time to be managed.
From the first two goals, there is a more natural and comprehensive management of the workflow (3.) that really provides the productivity needed.
“The more successful executives I’ve seen,” said Holstine, “engender a corporate appreciation of clear priorities, trained focus, an encouragement of sustained concentration and completion, rather than the more undisciplined free-for-all of chatter throughout the workday.”
“Maintaining control of your day might involve Containing the potential distractions to a given hour, controlling the work environment a little more, for focus and productivity. When leaders are modeling a more streamlined control of electronic and verbal communications in pursuit of the highest quality results, the work environment supports a more calm, clear objective,” said Holstine.
“A less appreciated aspect of productivity is the way the actual Workflow is managed, and how that process is conveyed through the company,” said Holstine. “While each employee may have developed favorite methods of managing their work, there is a significant value to a consistent, organized company method that enables tracking. Often this is centralized in a CRM type system.”
Holstine emphasized “while flexibility is good, there is a boost in transferability and productivity when a workload is quantifiable, documented, and clear in job description, expectations, incentives, as well as timelines.” Holstine added “among the most important aspect in helping executives regain control is in this enabling of all stakeholders at every level to see accurate timelines, and track progress.”
When the company, as a whole, feels in step with the culture of valuing attention management and intelligent workflow, the workday is ultimately more productive.
