How high-leverage leaders schedule their week

In this episode, I unravel the art of getting out of the daily hustle to carve out space for strategic visioning and impactful leadership. Join me as we explore how to harness 3 specific strategies for spending time on high leverage activities throughout your leadership journey, whether you're implementing them today or aspiring towards them as your future benchmark.

What You'll Learn:

• Elevating Productivity with Energy-Aware Scheduling: Understand how to align your tasks with your natural energy cycles to enhance efficiency and avoid burnout.
• Prioritizing with the Big Rocks Philosophy: Learn to identify and focus on your most crucial high-leverage objectives, ensuring that your key goals never get sidelined by the minutiae of daily tasks.
• Batching for Focus and Efficiency: Discover the technique of grouping similar tasks to minimize cognitive load and maximize deep work, propelling your leadership to new heights.

Key Takeaways:

• Energy Mapping for Optimal Performance: Recognize the different types of energy (physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological) and how to schedule tasks to match your energy peaks and troughs.
• The Big Rocks First Approach: Emphasize scheduling your mission-critical objectives before anything else to ensure they receive the attention they deserve.
• Batch Work to Reduce Cognitive Overhead: Group similar tasks to lessen the mental strain of switching contexts, thereby increasing focus and output.
• Intentional Scheduling to Guard Your Time: Be deliberate about your calendar to protect your high-leverage work times from interruptions and lesser priorities.
• Mindful Replenishment of Energy: Incorporate practices into your routine that renew your four types of energy, supporting sustained high performance.

Step-by-Step Process:

1. Map Your Natural Energy Flow: Identify when you're most productive for different types of work (creative, deep thinking, social interactions) and align your tasks accordingly.
2. Implement the Big Rocks Strategy: Determine your high-leverage objectives and schedule them into your calendar first, ensuring they are immovable priorities.
3. Batch Your Tasks: Organize similar tasks into dedicated time blocks to focus deeply and minimize the mental cost of task-switching.
4. Protect Your Scheduled Time: Adopt a mindset that prioritizes intentional scheduling and learn to say no or redirect inquiries to protect your focus time.
5. Replenish Your Energy Intentionally: Integrate activities that renew your physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological energy, enabling sustained high leverage work.

Resources Mentioned:

• Leverage Playlist: www.brookerichiebabbage.com/leverageplaylist
• Leveraged Leadership Bundle
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: By Stephen Covey, this book introduces the Big Rocks philosophy among other effectiveness strategies.
• How to Get Into Flow State: An article providing tips on achieving a state of flow, where you're fully immersed and performing at your peak.