Joelle K. Jay

balance

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Why We Need To Talk Work/Life Balance

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Recently when I was giving a keynote talk to a Silicon Valley tech company, I asked the question, “How many of you want a better work/life balance?” Every hand in the room shot up.

I then asked, “How many of you believe you have work/life balance?” Every hand in the room dropped down.

Test it. What if I ask you?

Do you want better work/life balance?

Do you believe you have it?

If you are one of the lucky ones who are living their lives with a sense of serenity and ease, be sure to pass on your secrets! And if you’re not, know that you can get there. Either way, often the first step on the path to achieving that elusive work/life balance is to talk about it.

Talk to Your Friends and Co-Workers

            When I encourage you to pass on your work/life balance secrets, I actually do mean it – and if you’re seeking those secrets, ask around for ideas.

It may sound too simple, but I can tell you from experience that it works. The breakthroughs you so desperately want may be only a conversation away. All you have to do is take the initiative.

In that Silicon Valley room, seeing how the participants felt about work/life balance, I gave them some time to talk about it. In small groups they simply shared their best ideas – the ways they, individually, had saved themselves time and found better balance. In the span of just a few minutes, ideas were shared, collected, and adapted around the room. You could practically see the light bulbs going off as participants racked up ideas to save themselves hours and hours of time.

One participant learned how to better set expectations. Her co-worker at the table told her how she starts every meeting by telling everyone exactly how much time she had, and she sticks to it – saving herself at least an hour of meeting overflow time per day in the process. What would you do with an extra hour a day? Could setting expectations in some area of your life help you, too?

Another participant discovered she could save two hours a day by shifting her work hours to avoid traffic. Bay Area commutes are notoriously long, and for a driver whose commute could last 90 minutes each way, a simple change in those work hours could save her, her company and her family (day care!) time and money. Would your company prefer to have you wasting time in traffic, or contributing meaningfully to work on a slightly different schedule? Would your family be happier to have you home more? Would you? If your company is open to flexible work hours, this is something worth bringing up to management.

Perhaps neither of these suggestions fit for you. If you’ve read this far and aren’t getting any new ideas about setting expectations or shifting your work hours, you’ve proven my point: you need to get out there and find your own new ideas. Find the ideas that do help you break through. Want work/life balance? Talk about it. Ask for ideas. Go get your light bulb moment.

Talk to your Partner

Maybe what you need at this stage isn’t to get more ideas, or maybe you already have ideas but just need to put them to work.

One of the key people to involve in this discussion is your partner – your significant other or even your business partner. These are people whose lives are intimately entwined with your own. Are there agreements you need to make? Changes? Requests? Many people go through their days stressed and strapped for time, assuming there’s no way to change the situation, but it could be that if you have the courage to talk to your partner, the two of you can come up with new solutions.

Talk to Your Boss

Just as we make assumptions about what is or isn’t possible with our partners, we can also make assumptions about what is and isn’t possible at work.

Again, when I think about all the leaders I have coached to save them time and help them balance their lives for a more fulfilling and impactful approach, the ideas start rolling.

There was Tom, who brought his baby to work at times when his wife was traveling.

There was Renee, who cut back on travel by mastering the virtual meeting.

There was Kurt, who gave up endless hours of stress, worry and busyness by focusing his role and reconfiguring his team.

As another reminder, the point isn’t that these strategies are the ones that would work for you – although they might – but that all of these strategies came out of new agreements these leaders developed with their boss.

Having a discussion around what you want your job and home life combination to look like is a great step in the right direction. In doing this, you will be able to design the best strategy for your time and find the balance you never thought possible.

Let’s Start Talking!

If you’re ready to create a better balance, try these 7 shortcuts for maximizing your time. You’ll be amazed at what’s possible when you do.

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The Four-step System For Conquering Your New Year’s Resolution

It’s the 3rd week of January.

How’s that New Year’s Resolution going?

New Year’s Resolutions have a poor reputation for being successful, but it’s rarely because of the goals set themselves. Your goals are important. You do want to achieve them. Sometimes people are quick to dismiss the value of New Year’s Resolutions and even stop setting them – after all, what’s the point, if you’re not going to follow through? But if you set a resolution – or a goal – that matters to you, maybe the solution lies not in giving up but shoring up your chance to be successful.

What you need is a proper framework.

A framework is a way of thinking and doing things that you can count on to help you succeed. Without a framework, you’re left to your own unreliable devices. Will power. Trying really hard. Both strategies that fail when your motivation wanes.

It’s better to tackle your goals with a framework you can follow that will lead you through the hard times and help you stay motivated for the long term.

So how to you go from “trying really hard” to actually achieving your 2017 goals? Try this framework: problem, project, plan, and process.

Problem. Define the problem. We make changes when something is wrong and we want it to better. So what’s wrong? What’s the problem you’re trying to solve?

Project. Once you’ve identified the problem, make solving it your new project. Aside from setting the goal (“Drop 10 pounds.” “Increase revenue 10%.” “Hire new team.”), take the time to sit down and map out how you will achieve it.

Plan. Once you know how you want to tackle this project, put pen to paper and make the plan. What will you do, and when? What’s your timeline? What are the milestones? What are the steps?

Process. A plan is only as good as the paper it’s written on until you implement it, so the last step is to put a process into place. Decide when you will revisit the plan, and how often. Set about a regular routine of identifying the next immediate step; taking that step; evaluating the outcome; and revisiting the plan for the new next step. If you do this, achieving your goals is no harder than a walk through the park. You just take one step after another, until before you know it, you’ve arrived where you wanted to be.

Imagine the difference this could make for you in achieving your goals. Where once you had a feeble resolution (“Get my finances together”) now you have clarity about the problem (“My finances are a mess, and if I’m not careful I’m going to miss the chance to build a strong retirement.”). You have taken it on as a project. (“In the next six months, I am going to focus squarely on getting organized with my finances.”) You developed a plan. (“I know what I am going to do in each month to move from a mess to a strong financial set-up for the long-term.”) And you have a process. (“Monday is now “Money Monday.” Every Monday I look at my financial plan and choose the steps to move forward.”)

When it comes to making your 2017 goals a reality, remember, don’t just get inspired. Get ready, get started, get it done, and get the results!

 

The previous article appeared on Inc.com as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

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3 Ways See Yourself Bigger – And Help Others See It, Too

You’ve accomplished a lot in your career, you’re eager to move to the next level – but how do you get your colleagues and superiors to see you in your new role as a leader when they still see you in your old role?

For example, you want to be seen as strategic and visionary, but others see you as someone they can rely on to “get things done.” Or, you want to be involved early in important conversations, but others pull you in on an “as needed basis.”

So how do you get other people to shift their perspective of you, to see you as the leader you want to be?

Many leaders struggle to change others’ perceptions of them simply because they don’t realize they can influence the way they are seen. Here are three ways you can get others to see you as the leader you are:

See yourself bigger. Don’t let your own self-doubt hold you back. If your self-perception needs a boost, spend time with your strengths. Remember what it is you do especially well and what you want to do more of.

Step into bigger shoes. In several companies where I coach and speak, the way to get promoted is to act the part of a position for six months before you get the title. If you can prove yourself to be an effective leader at that next level by doing the things next-level-leaders do, then and only then will you be eligible for the actual post. Hold yourself to this standard and play the part of the role you want, whether that means contributing in new ways, speaking up with more courage and conviction, or sharing innovative ideas.

Tell others how you want them to view you. It sounds like this: “I’ve been a salesperson in this organization for a long time, but I’d like to take on more of a leadership role.” Follow it up with requests to get involved in higher-level activities, or share your ambitions so others can help pave the way.

By being proactive in these ways, not only will you be seen as “bigger,” you’ll actually become the next-level leader you want to be. Take a moment to imagine if your colleagues and superiors viewed you in your new role. You would be able to elevate yourself into the kind of position and reputation you want to have, as someone essential to the leadership team who can help drive the direction of the company or lead a project to a successful outcome. You would be having fun, contributing and engaging with others – instead of striving and driving so hard every day to just get yourself noticed.

 

The previous article appeared on Inc.com as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

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Balance Isn’t a Myth: 3 Ways for Women Leaders to Get Their Work-Life Balance Back in Check

When it comes to succeeding at work and home, many women feel they must work twice as hard – because often they do. However, sustaining a healthy and happy way of life, while not losing your sanity, is possible. You don’t have to pull back on your professional goals or pare back on your personal ambitions. You can align your home life and your work life in a more effective way. You can make everything fit.

Balance means prioritizing the various elements of your life, with a sense of peace and confidence that you’re making the right decisions for yourself, your career, and the people who matter most in your life.

The problem for busy leaders is there’s simply too much to do. The pattern is familiar to most working adults in this fast-paced modern world: Put in a jam-packed day at work and race off to a chock-full evening with the family, friends, fitness, church, charities, personal goals, grown and learning, and hobbies. You can’t get everything done–but you can’t not get everything done, either. It is exhausting.

For the many women that wrestle with these dynamics, they often turn to two options: Scaling back responsibilities at work to support their lives at home, risking letting go of professional goals, or drive twice as hard to make it all happen, and, in the process, drive themselves into the ground. In which of these situations is the woman, or her friends and family affected by the decision, really winning?

Resolving this dilemma requires three important things: A belief it can be done, a fresh perspective, and a few good, practical ideas for how to get better balance in your life.

First, believe it can be done. The same characteristics that make you an exceptional leader can be an advantage in balancing your life. That might include the following: aligning your personal and professional vision, being decisive about your priorities, taking action planning seriously to create efficiencies, getting clear about your strengths and values, learning ever-better systems and building a personal support team around you, and committing to seeing new possibilities available to you when you keep an open mind.

Find a new perspective. Many of our clients who lead extremely busy lives have been able to settle into a more present and peaceful mindset by applying the skills and strategies that work so well in business to their personal life. You already contain these characteristics and view them as your strengths – simply redirect and apply these assets to reach other facets of your life.

Get practical to get better balance. Planning and prioritizing your time is another way to gain control and balance in your life. Think consciously about how to spend your time, decide which tasks matter most to you and your organization, and then drop or outsource the rest. By doing this, you can reduce your involvement in low-value tasks. You can actually cut your desk work by an average of six hours a week, shave meeting time by an average of two hours a week, and free up nearly a fifth of your time (an average of one full day a week). By doing this, you make more time for what matters in your life. Imagine you had one full day a week to fill as you seem fit, giving time and energy for all parts of your life so nothing is left behind. Perhaps balance does stand a chance, after all.

With the right mindset, the right strategy, and the right information, you can enjoy your personal life and pursue your professional dreams.

 

The previous article appeared on Inc.com as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

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7 Foolproof Practices For Maximizing Your Time

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

We need to think differently about time. It’s not as if we haven’t been trying. Time-management courses have been around for decades, and work/life balance has become a clich. Some question whether work/life balance is even possible.

Others argue we shouldn’t be talking about balance at all, but time or life choices. Many people feel they don’t even have a choice about their time in a fast-paced, high-pressure world, which makes the whole about which vocabulary to use entirely moot.

The fact is, you will never have control of your time unless you take control of your time. That means stopping long enough to get a handle on what’s happening, reflecting on whether it’s working, and learning new ways to maximize the time you’ve got.

 

Here are a few shortcut strategies for maximizing your time that I teach my executives and entrepreneurs–they’re simple and you can do them in your head or on a piece of paper:

Modeling. Modeling your time means figuring out what the ideal schedule would look like. You sit down with a pencil and a sheet of paper and sketch the way you’d like the next stretch of time to look. In just a few minutes you can design your ideal week, or even day, month or year. It will take time to turn the model into reality, but now you know what’s possible.

Define your time. This means figuring out what “types” of days you need, just as you have different kinds of clothing (professional acquaintances, neighbors, college buddies), you can also have different kinds of days.

For example, types of days can be: meeting days (when you are available to meet with others), work days (you keep to yourself to do your own work), flex days (a flexible day to provide a cushion for spillover activities), admin days (catching up on paperwork), or days off (for rest and renewal). You can also go by half days or even two-hour blocks if a full day is too long.

Defining your time allows you to get into one mind-set for a particular type of activity and stay there, so you can find your rhythm.

 

Make appointments with yourself. It’s a strategy so simple I’m always amazed more people don’t use it more often–set a meeting with a specific purpose and be there to get the job done. Some tasks might include: e-mail catch up, coaching appointment, read up on industry news, review financials, or strategic planning. For example, you might set aside the first Monday of every month to review financials.

Breaking time rules. You can escape the rules of time, like that you must work 8-10 hours per day or that you must be available by phone and e-mail at all times. You might start defining the length of your workday by the result you achieve instead of the hours you’ve worked. Time rules don’t necessarily mean working less, but they do mean working with more freedom and choice.

Making time rules. For efficiency and quality of life, you can apply your own rules to how you’ll use your time. Here are a few examples from other leaders and entrepreneurs I have worked with:

  • Never open e-mail before planning the day.
  • Never schedule a meeting before 9 or after 4.
  • Turn off my computer after 7pm.
  • Spend no more than one evening away from home per week for a work event.

Time rules, even small ones, have the advantage of being concrete and explicit, making it easier to hold yourself accountable.

 

Replace multitasking with “unitasking.” Mutlitasking is a fact of life in a high-speed world, but many studies have shown that it actually cuts productivity. The strategy behind “unitasking” is to do one thing at a time, even for a short time. This will improve concentration, calm you down, and allow you to get more done in less time.

Considering that on average only about three minutes out of every hour are used with maximum focus, you can improve your rate of concentration with just five minutes at a time. Then fifteen. Then twenty. You don’t have to unitask all the time, just when it counts.

 

Power down. This means turning off technology. Free yourself the excess–just because you can take your laptop with you in the car and perch it on the passenger seat doesn’t mean you should. Not only does misuse of technology undermine the quality of your work, it also can strip away your gains. So just take the occasional step to power down when you can, turn off the technology, and do what will bring you progress and fulfillment.

 

The goal here isn’t to stock you up on more complicated notions of how to manage time. Instead, these strategies are meant to take what you already know about time and twist it–just a little bit–so you see powerful new possibilities. These shortcuts for maximizing your time are your exit off the fast track. You can do things much more quickly, easily, and enjoyably than the rest of the world by taking a different route–one of your own design!

 

Related: 5 Quick Steps You Can Take To Find Your Focus

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Separators, Integrators and Cyclers: 3 Ways to Balance Your Life

 

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

 

“I don’t believe in work-life balance.” Speaking with business leaders about how they think about their time, I’ve heard that same sentence three times in the last week.

At first I was tempted to debate with them. I do believe in work-life balance. Regardless of how you frame it–some people prefer to call it “work-life choices” or simply “life”–I believe you have the opportunity to live a life where you have plenty of time to do the things you need to do in the office or at home.

Apparently, that’s arguable. Questions I’ve seen in media headlines on the topic challenge the concept.

“Is work-life balance possible?”

“Does an expectation of balance put undue pressure on people?”

“Shouldn’t we all just learn to integrate our lives in this 24/7 world?”

A healthy debate like this can help us see different angles on this challenge we all face. Yet, sometimes the debate over how we “should” organize our time spirals into a more negative version–the “I’m right/you’re wrong” kind of confrontation that leaves everyone feeling attacked.

The real problem isn’t that we have different perspectives on work-life balance. The problem arises when we try to impose our views on others.

A client of mine recently complained when his boss overloaded him with extra projects that would stretch him past capacity. When my client dared to point out the obvious–that with so much work at once, he couldn’t possibly do a quality job–his boss snapped at him for “not pulling his weight.” For the record, this client was one of the highest-performing leaders in the division, and not one who could fairly be seen as a slacker. The underlying problem was that his boss thought working 24/7 was acceptable at any cost. My client did not.

In another interaction I witnessed, one manager berated another for “working so hard you never see your kids.” Again, this was an unfair judgment. I knew both managers to be extremely family oriented and perfectly healthy time managers. The problem arose because they simply worked differently–and judging each other only caused animosity.

Frustrated by the pattern I was witnessing, I wanted to find a way to help people out of the struggle and into a more productive point of view.

Then I met Ellen Kossek, who offered a solution.

Ellen Kossek is a Professor of Management at Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management, Research Director of the Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence, and author of CEO of Me: Creating a Life that Works in the Flexible Job Age. She has a theory about approaches to work-life balance and, along with her colleagues, has developed a work-life assessment to help individuals understand their styles. She calls the three types of approaches separators, integrators and cyclers.

 

Rather than continue to wrestle with the issues of work-life balance (and whether it’s even possible) you might consider which of these approaches work best for you.

 

Separators. Separators compartmentalize. During the weekdays and the workday, separators focus on their work and the task at hand. When the weekend hits, the separators put the phone down, reclaim their freedom and enjoy their down time.

An example of a separator is a client of mine who is a CEO of a start up firm. She has several children, and between her family and her job, she could easily choose to work all day, everyday. Instead, she consciously chose specific hours for work and specific hours for home, and she made an agreement with both her firm and her family to adhere to the schedule. She made sure everyone was taken care of–including herself–and from them on, she felt free. Both her clients and her family knew what to expect, and everyone became accustomed to her schedule. She knew that separating was the way she worked best.

 

Integrators. Integrators blend the different parts of their lives all together.

An example of a great integrator I know is a small business owner. Dramatically successful and with a fast rise into seven figures, she loves to work. She also loves her life. This entrepreneur chooses to work wherever she is, whenever she wants to–or not. She has her phone, laptop and car at her disposal at all times. She does what she wants to do and goes where she has to go and gets it all handled along the way. She can be found taking a business call on the treadmill or sitting with her kids in the office conference room having coloring time. She might leave work at three in the afternoon to pick up her kids, but then after everyone is situated at home she’ll sit at the kitchen table with her laptop and join an evening conference call.

Integrators allow work and home life to blend together. As long as they make sure they have time for themselves and their work, and as long as everyone’s needs are met, it all seems to come together and everything gets accomplished.

 

Cyclers. Cyclers follow what might be seen as a more traditional model: work hard and play hard, each in their own time.

If you’re a cycler, you go through phases that are all about the work. Your hours might be long, and you work really hard, allowing yourself to stay focused and reach important milestones and outcomes.

Then you go on vacation. You completely unplug. You sleep and swim and play. You feel restored and happy, and when the vacation’s over, you put away your beach towel and head back to work.

This model seems to work well for a lot of people. Parents, especially, seem to benefit from aligning their work schedule to their kids’ school calendars, which tend to operate with this “cycling” approach. They can work while the kids are in school and then take off the breaks that their children get, whether it’s two weeks at the holidays, a long weekend here and there, or even those long summer vacations. Entrepreneurs, executives, and inventors I’ve known have all appreciated the ability to immerse themselves in their work for awhile, and then reward themselves with some good, quality time off.

Let’s revisit the scenarios I posed earlier in this article. The manager who wanted my client to work 24/7 was a cycler; his style bumped up against the values of his direct report, who was a separator. The manager who scoffed another manager’s workaholic-seeming style was a separator also; but she misread and misinterpreted her colleagues’ integrator way of life. With Kossek’s lens on work-life balance, none of these people were “wrong” in their way to managing their time. But they were wrong to judge other people for managing their time differently. Many different styles can accomplish the same goal. The real way to judge the effectiveness is to gauge whether the work gets done in a way that supports a healthy quality of life–however you define it.

 

As you consider these three models, ask yourself a few questions.

  • What model appeals to you most?
  • What model are you living with now?
  • Is there any way to bring the two closer together?

 

Once you choose your way of making your life work, you can more easily accept other’s choices and go about focusing on your own.

 

Related: The Puzzle Method of Scheduling Your Day

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Father Tom

A friend of mine once told me a tale relayed to her by her pastor, Father Tom. Father Tom was given a jar of glass stones. The number of stones equaled the number of weeks, based on his age and demographic, that Father Tom could be expected to live. Every week he took one stone out of the jar. As he held the stone in his hand, he reflected on what it meant: one less week to live. Had he made that one week count?

Learning to make every moment count is a theme of the book, The Inner Edge: The 10 Practices of Personal Leadership. To learn more, go to www.TheInnerEdge.com. You’ll find an overview of the book, endorsements by such thought leaders as Marshall Goldsmith and Stephen Covey, and more.

The way you spend your time is the way you spend your life. Enjoy it; make it count.

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Stopportunities

Have you ever had one of those days where you just can’t seem to get into action? It seems like instead of steady progress your brain is stuck in stop-and-go traffic. That can actually be a symptom of a larger issue – an overfull life.

To prevent this from happening, you need to press “stop” in the right places, so you can free yourself to drive along faster toward your goals.

I call them Stopportunities.

Stopportunities are those actions that you should stop doing because they don’t help you achieve your vision. Take something off your plate for once. Free up some space.

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins reports that stopportunities distinguish good companies from great:

The good-to-great companies at their best followed a simple mantra: “Anything that does not fit with our [primary focus], we will not do. We will not launch unrelated businesses. We will not make unrelated acquisitions. We will not do unrelated joint ventures. If it doesn’t fit, we don’t do it. Period. (p.134)

You can adopt the same approach, refusing to do what doesn’t advance your vision as a leader and for your life.

Are you ready to learn to STOP so you can GO? I’ve written a longer article on Stopportunities along with some exercises to get you started and posted it (for FREE), on my website. Go to www.TheInnerEdge.com and click on Worksheets and Audios (on the left). Scroll down a bit to the heading called The Third Practice, and there you’ll find the Worksheet called Stopportunities. Happy stopping!

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Moving from Chaos to Control

It’s 3:00 in the afternoon. You’re standing in the middle of your office. Hands on your hips, you deliberate about what to do now. Do you sit down and sling out a rash of emails? Do you return a few phone calls? Or do you close your door and somehow try to concentrate on the big project you really need to work on? Frozen, you are immobilized by the possibilities. You drift off for a minute, staring off into space. Then you catch yourself and snap back into action.

The rest of the day you spend busily working. You pull out a project, then the phone rings and sets you off in another direction. You keep on top of your emails and other people’s requests as best you can in an attempt to keep the deluge at bay. Head down, you fly through tasks and manage the crises, barely looking up to notice the time until finally, the day comes to an end.

Driving home, you’re spent. The day has been intense and full; you take satisfaction in enumerating all you’ve done. Then you realize even though you’ve been busy all day, you haven’t really done anything. You’ve been so buried, you’ve lost sight of your grander vision. You find yourself being haunted by vague, unanswerable questions. Could I be doing better than this? Is this what I wanted for my life? Am I making any difference? Somehow answering these questions never gets to the top of the list. Why is that? Your mind drifts off, hypnotized by the traffic and whirring about what you need to do tomorrow.

Have you ever had this experience? Ironically, even though you may be working all day, you never feel like you get anything done. You’re busy but not necessarily productive. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you wonder if you’re doing the right things. Not that you have a choice; you’re too swamped with what you have to do today to dwell for long on what you want to do or ought to do to be more effective. Still. You know there’s something wrong with this picture.

And you’re right. There is. What’s wrong is that when you bounce along from task to task, you’re not choosing where to put your attention. You’re living by chance and not by choice. You may be ignoring the most valuable parts of your life – the parts that are going to help you achieve your vision, possibly in the long term and definitely for today. Or, you may be doing many of the right things, but you’re not really sure. You haven’t stopped moving long enough to check. Plus, there are so many priorities, you find it hard to keep them all straight, much less stay on top of them all at once.

In order to get what you want, in order to be who you want to be, in order to live the kind of life you want to live and lead the way you want to lead, you need to be more strategic than that. You need to find focus.

Finding Focus is one of the ideas I share with leaders in the book, The Inner Edge: The 10 Practices of Personal Leadership. To learn more, go to www.TheInnerEdge.com. You’ll find an overview of the book, endorsements by such thought leaders as Marshall Goldsmith and Stephen Covey, and more.

By finding focus, you’re going to pull your thoughts out of the crowded rabble of your mind and give them the attention they deserve. Get ready to move from chaos to control.

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Look Under the Rug

Have you ever wished you had more time to do what you need to do?

“Ha!” You say. “How many times a day?!”

Me, too. And then I remember – oh, wait. I do have more time. I have all the time I need. And so do you.

So where is it? You’ve got to find it. In you.

There’s a process for increasing your productivity. In order to get more out of your efforts, you’ve got squeeze every moment out of your energy. Find the shortcuts. Eliminate the distractions. Expand the time you need for the things that really matter.

To do this, you’ve got to be creative. It’s the same process you’d use to look at your expenses if you suddenly decided you wanted to go on vacation. You look closely at the details and find that little extra – and a little more – and maybe a big chunk over here – until you amass the money you need and Hawaii, here you come. Only now, you’re trying to save up your time.

Saly Glassman, Senior Vice President-Investments at Merrill Lynch, is a master of this. She is a financial advisor who has been listed consistently in the top third of the Barron’s 100 Financial Advisors. With a successful family business, two daughters, dogs, horses, and a few little hobbies (like enjoying a lovely 60-mile bike ride), she knows what it means to make the most of her time. Here’s what she says.

You’re looking for every angle you can get more productivity. You have to go into every little corner and look under the rug to see if there’s anything in here.

So where do you look? Try here.

Time checking email Time cooking and cleaning Time on the phone
Time in traffic Time shopping Time reading
Time running errands Time in meetings Time writing

Every single one of these can be eliminated – not just reduced; eliminated – if you get creative.

What are you waiting for? There’s no time to lose.

Did you enjoy this profile? You may be interested in the eCourse, Getting an Edge: 21 Ways World Class Leaders Share Their Secrets for Leading and Living Well. Each of 21 profiles just like this one comes in a separate email – once a day for 21 days. Click here to order.