How Are You Supposed to Complete Your ‘Own Work’ When You’re a Manager?

When I first became a manager, I was floored by the number of things I was expected to do. Attend meetings. Lead meetings. Host one-on-ones with every team member. Fill out performance reviews. More meetings. Attend conferences. Strategize company goals. And on and on.

The more work that landed on my plate, the more I kept wondering: When will I have time for my own work?

The open slots on my Outlook calendar filled up faster than shot glasses at a bachelor party. I had no time for myself. I still had projects to complete, paperwork to fill out, and other personal work to accomplish, but there was no time to complete that work.

Even when I wasn’t in a meeting, my time was monopolized by distractions — often in the form of questions from my team. One person wanted to talk about next week’s schedule. Another wanted to get feedback on her performance. Another wanted to complain about a co-worker’s low productivity, bad attitude, or body odor. (Yep, for reals.)

Two Key Realizations

Around this time, I realized two things:

1. As a manager, the distractions ARE the job. I had been frustrated by the number of distractions that arose each day. But then I realized that those “distractions” embodied the human elements of leadership: empathizing with team members, developing my team, and solving problems. As soon as I began viewing those tasks as meaningful leadership work rather than distractions, my perspective improved and I began to appreciate those aspects of the job.
2. Prioritization is paramount. I had to learn how to lead myself, which would help me become a better leader of my team. And in order to lead myself, I had to get better at prioritizing important tasks. I still had personal tasks I needed to complete, and I had to find time to complete them.

The Distractions ARE the Job

This was the first time I truly realized that my new management position wasn’t about me; it was about them. As a manager, you’re not being paid to just churn out work; you’re being paid to help others become more productive. Sometimes that means that you have to hit your brake pedal in order to help someone else hit the gas.

Recognizing that the “distractions” were the job enabled me to free myself from the stress and shame I had been feeling for not having much time to do my work. I shifted from thinking inwardly (about myself and what I personally wanted to accomplish) to thinking outwardly (about my team and what they needed from me). 

Your job is the interruptions. You’re the lubricant for all of the gears that are spinning in the team’s machinery. Your job is to help your team move faster, communicate better, feel more engaged, and accomplish more. Your job is them.

Paradigm Shift

The transition from individual contributor to manager is a HUGE transition in many ways — not least of which is that the type of work you complete changes dramatically.

Corporate trainer Monica Livingston expresses it well: “You used to be in charge of the work. Now you’re in charge of the people who do the work.”

It’s a big paradigm shift:

• Rather than managing a bunch of tasks, you now manage people…who manage those tasks.
• Rather than your success being measured by the number of cases you complete in a given day, you’re measured by the number of cases your team completes that day.
• Rather than your commission check being based on the new revenue you bring in each quarter, it’ll be based on the new revenue that your team brings in.

“To become a successful manager and leader, you need to be able to transition from being focused on individual achievement to collective achievement. One scales, and the other doesn’t.” -Elena Botelho and Kim Powell

Finding Productive Time

All of that said, there will still be tasks that you’ll personally need to complete. And there’s no sugarcoating the fact that it is indeed difficult to find time for those tasks.

Whereas your day used to be eight hours of nearly nonstop tactical work, you’ll now need to squirrel away a few minutes here, a few minutes there to accomplish the tasks on your personal plate. 

“As a leader you are expected to be able to deal with an overwhelming workload and not be overwhelmed. That’s the job.” -Patty Azzarello

I’ve found that my most productive moments tend to be the very start and the very end of the day. Sometimes I show up a bit early to knock out a few things before the rest of the team arrives, or stay a bit later. The moments before 9am and after 5pm are magical periods of productivity. 

But the secret isn’t just to put in more time. It’s to get more strategic with the way you spend your current time, as described below.

Practical Tips

(1) Block time in your calendar to complete important projects.

Rather than letting your meeting schedule dominate your life, schedule time with yourself. It’s best to schedule project time in blocks of at least one hour (if possible) to allow you enough time to mentally ramp up and dive into deep work. During these time blocks, close programs like email and Slack. Your goal is to eliminate all distractions and knock shit out during this time. Sometimes I even hide in phone booths or conference rooms to focus on my important projects. You may need to do the same. Just find the appropriate balance, as you also want to ensure you’re around to help the team whenever possible.

(2) Act ruthless in your approach to meetings.

Now that you’re a manager, you’re going to be invited to a ridiculous amount of meetings. That’s part of the gig, and—contrary to popular opinion—it’s not a bad thing. Meetings (at least well-run meetings) can be extremely productive usages of time. They give you a unique opportunity to brainstorm ideas, debate concepts, align expectations, and make decisions in a relatively fast way. But if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself in 40 hours of meetings a week, with no time to do other things.

To avoid this, you need to feel comfortable declining meetings where your presence is unnecessary. It’s also smart to challenge the length of meetings whenever someone schedules a time block that seems inappropriately long. Few meetings should run longer than an hour, and even that’s a long amount of time. If someone invites you to a meeting (especially one that doesn’t have an agenda) that seems to be scheduled for more time than necessary, ask them to consider shortening the meeting time. You’ll be thankful you did, and little time savings like this add up quickly and give you more time to complete your own projects.

(3) Seek out a mentor.

Find someone who can teach you how to become more productive. When looking for a mentor, don’t limit yourself to only people within your company. There are thousands of capable leaders out there who would be honored to meet over lunch or coffee to share their insights. 

(4) Know when to say “no” to additional projects.

Everyone has limited bandwidth — including you. Evaluate any new project against your vision, goals, workload, and other priorities. Reconsider whether you’re the right person to do the project or whether it should be done at all.

(5) Delegate work to develop your team.

Even if you think you’re the best person to complete a task, trust your team enough to delegate work to them. Delegation is not merely a tactic to minimize your personal workload; it is one of the most effective ways to develop your people and give them stretch assignments to grow and improve.

Remember, your new job is your people.

This is what leadership looks like.

And once you embrace that reality, it’s actually one of the best parts of the gig. Your work is helping people grow, learn new things, and become more productive. Pretty cool, huh?