Last week I received a results update from a client I worked with last year. Despite the expected uncertainties of running a SaaS start-up, this co-founder and CTO feels much more in control of his time.

Check out these results. The ‘before’ shot is before implementing his individual action plan (where creating time for deep focussed work was a key goal). The ‘after’ is >12 months after our lasting coaching session; these results show sustained behaviour change.

Here’s how he describes his results:

“Here’s a screenshot of my calendar for this week, compared to April 2021, the first week after our first coaching session. Pretty insane difference!

“Key differences:

• I’ve removed myself from all regular team meetings, as the team now run these sessions without me
• As a result, my team have more ownership, and are empowered to make operational + process decisions without needing my input. The team are running much more efficiently today, then when I was involved in the day to day. They just wrapped up the quarter having completed 100% of the goals they’d set across 6 initiatives ???
• Instead my input is mostly provided through 1-1s, which are now fortnightly, based on clearly defined OKRs, follow a specific structure, and only require 30 minutes. Each team member will provide specific updates on their running document for me to review ahead of these sessions, to ensure we get the most out of our time together.
• What you can’t see in the calendar, is ensuring the # of attendees are minimal, and that agendas are provided and documented. It’s pretty cringey looking back at the some of the meetings from this week, and seeing ~3 one-off meetings with +10 attendees. I actually can’t remember what “Product Team Chats” was about, but it was an hour long session with 11 attendees and no agenda ?‍♀️
• Also, having much more time in my calendar, ensures that I have time to properly prepare ahead of meetings, which was definitely a big problem previously, and resulted in wasting others’ time.
• Outside of work, I’ve actually been really committed to regular bedtimes (9pm) on work nights, and rarely any screen time after work. With the extra time, I’m now regularly going to the gym 3x per week, and have been making serious progress on my side project which has been very rewarding 🙂 

Seriously, thank you again for your time management coaching, I really can’t overstate how much of an impact it’s had on me!”

Obviously there are some factors that make the ‘before’ calendar look more cluttered – marking in his lunch breaks, a doctors appointment. But that ‘after’ calendar… so much more capacity for the deep work time he wanted. And hearing how the benefits compound across his team? Gold.

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