Time Management Techniques

Here is why you really need to think about this👇🏻 A client vented their frustrations recently, that they were nowhere near achieving the goals they had set for themselves at the start of the year. They had become so overwhelmed as time went on, that their goals seemed to almost be out of reach and they now spent more time stressing about these goals than actually actioning them. Sound familiar? I have definitely fallen into that trap myself in the past.😆 Here is how I helped them overcome this mental block (because that is exactly what it is). Their goals hadn't changed but their mindset had and mindset will determine success or failure! Like all goals, unless they are backed by lots of small steps that are easy to implement, they all tend to fade away. Goal setting is a process that starts with careful consideration of what you want to achieve, and ends with a lot of hard work to actually do it. In between, there are some very well-defined steps that transcend the specifics of each goal. Knowing these steps will allow you to formulate goals that you can accomplish. ✏ Write it down and say it out loud - Saying what you want to achieve out loud creates an accountability to ourselves and those we say it to, to actually do something about it. 🧠 Make it SMART - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Bound. 🤏 Approach in bite size chunks - focus on one small, achievable change every week. Then enjoy the accumulation effect. 🤼Find an accountability buddy - An accountability buddy is someone who helps you stay on track while you work toward achieving your goals. 🥂 Set review milestones and celebrate successes - Take some time to think about what went well, what went wrong and what you want to focus your energy on for the rest of the year. Celebrate all your successes, no matter how small. By using this strategy, my client can now focus their energy on taking smaller, actionable steps towards their goals. It’s a surprisingly simple formula but it works every time. Can anyone relate to this? #mindset #goals #achievement #careeradvancement

Every project has one timeline. But ask each stakeholder… and you'll get five different versions. Welcome to "Timeline Multiverse: PM Edition" Where everyone's reality… is a little off. 🧠 The Exec: "It's just a small update. We can probably launch this week, right?" 💻 The Dev Team: "We need 4 more sprints. Minimum. And we still haven't scoped the integration." 📣 The Client: "So… we're going live Monday? I already told the board." 📅 The PM: Built the buffer. Added a backup plan. Still holding her breath. 🎭 Reality: 3 blockers, 2 ghosted approvals, and a Jira ticket titled "WTF is this?" Because project success isn't about just picking a date. It's about aligning five different timelines to land on the one that's actually real. ✔️ Want to survive timeline chaos like a senior PM? Here are 4 timeline habits that actually work: 1- Add "invisible" buffers Don't announce them. Just build them. Time is your riskiest dependency. 2- Over-communicate timeline risks Not everyone reads the roadmap. Say it in updates, Slack, slides—and again in the recap. 3- Track two timelines at once The one they hope for, and the one your gut says is real. 4- Create one source of truth When everyone has their version, the PM owns the version that sticks. So here's to the timeline wranglers. The PMs doing diplomacy in one hand, delivery in the other. You're not just managing time. You're aligning five versions of reality into one coherent finish line. Which timeline are you living in right now? → Repost ♺ to celebrate the timeline negotiators. → Follow Jesus Romero for more execution strategies that keep chaos on schedule.

I’ve built an agency that works with names like Microsoft, J&J, NASA etc. Here are some things I learnt are NOT worth spending time: 1. You DON’T need a 10-page company vision when starting out. Your company will evolve, and so will your vision. 2. You DON’T need a fancy office until you have a team of at least 10-15. 3. You DON’T need to take another course, webinar etc. Apply what you’ve learned instead. 4. DON’T spend time micromanaging to get things perfect. Your team will learn and get better with time. 5. DON’T follow every shiny object. Focus on what works for you and double down. 6. Constantly staying in “action-mode” does NOT equal productivity. Set aside time for “creative thinking” and treat it with same importance as your other tasks. 7. DON’T spend all the time chasing new clients. Focus on Annual Recurring Revenue. For agencies, it means upselling existing clients to build sustainable pipeline. What’s one thing you’ve learned is NOT worth spending time on? I’d love to hear your experiences below!

As we near the end of annual planning, I’ve been reflecting on Dave Stewart's concept that the work is never just "the work." When estimating how long new initiatives will take, we often underestimate because we focus solely on “the work” itself—without accounting for all the invisible effort surrounding it. What does this invisible work look like? It’s the meetings to align stakeholders, the back-and-forth reviews, the setup of tools and infrastructure, debugging unexpected issues, and countless other tasks that rarely make it into initial plans but are critical to success. Stewart describes this phenomenon as the “work before, between, and around the work,” and his framework has challenged me to think differently about how we plan and execute. For us, this means two things: 1️⃣ Acknowledging that timelines for new projects will always need buffer time for these “hidden” tasks. 2️⃣ Being more deliberate in identifying and planning for these components upfront, so we can set realistic goals and avoid frustration later.

Ever feel like you’ve been busy all day… but somehow your most important tasks are still staring at you? Chances are, you’re letting time wasters sneak into your workflow. Here’s how to spot them and take action: 1️⃣ The “Scrolling Trap” You open your phone or LinkedIn for 5 minutes… suddenly it’s 45. ✅ Fix: Schedule intentional breaks for social media. Treat it like dessert enjoy it, but don’t let it eat your day. 2️⃣ The “Unnecessary Meeting” Some meetings exist only to… meet. No agenda, no outcomes. Just talking. ✅ Fix: Ask for the agenda. If it’s not clear, skip it or propose an async update. Your time is money. 3️⃣ The “Low-Impact Tasks” Filing 50 spreadsheets? Organizing emails endlessly? If it doesn’t move revenue or strategy forward, it’s a time waster. ✅ Fix: Delegate or automate. Let someone (or something) else handle it. 4️⃣ The “Emergency Frenzy” Suddenly, everything is urgent. Fire-fighting mode = constant stress. ✅ Fix: Define true priorities at the start of the day. Not everything urgent is important. 5️⃣ The “Perfection Paralysis” Spending 2 hours tweaking a slide no one will notice. ✅ Fix: Aim for “good enough” and move on. Done is better than perfect. Keep a “time waster log” for a week. Write down every task that doesn’t move the needle. By Friday, you’ll see patterns and know exactly what to cut. Small changes = big productivity gains. If you cut just one time waster per day, you’ll reclaim hours in your week without adding more work. Question for you: What’s your biggest daily time waster? Comment belowlet’s swap strategies so we all get more done without burning out. ♻️ Bonus: Know a founder who’s drowning in busy work? Repost this and help them find their time again.

I've been a fractional CMO and consultant to 10+ startups. They all did this wrong. Goal setting. Many use OKRs as a “check the box” activity. A “hey look we can do this thing too” moment in the calendar year. The problem? They never look at those docs when the exercise is complete. Goals are not a one and done moment in time. They are a GPS destination for your day to day activities. Today's newsletter taught how to create quarterly goals and actually use them as a guide for your day to day life. Personal OKRs are great if you are: ➡️ Embarking on a new chapter ➡️ Spending a lot of effort but not seeing the impact ➡️ Struggling with staying focused on priorities ➡️ Stalling in personal or professional development Here's a recap of today's deep dive: Step 1: Pick your pillars Step 2: Prioritize them Step 3: Create your Objectives Step 4: Add your Key Results Step 5: Identify your tactics Step 6: Make a Plan Step 7: Bi-Weekly Review Be sure to sign up for 🧩Life's a Game to get these weekly deep dives in your inbox and start making progress toward your goals!

As an agency owner juggling multiple client accounts, I always felt busy. But I wasn’t always productive. So I ran an experiment: I tracked every minute of my workday for a month. Here are 5 unexpected habits that quietly drained my time (and how I fixed them): 1. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝘀𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁s Every time I shifted from one account to another, I lost 15–20 minutes reloading mental tabs. ✅ Fix: I grouped similar clients together into “theme days”—one for strategy, one for execution, one for review. 2. 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 & 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗮𝗽𝗽 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 I was checking my inbox 27 times per day. Each time, it wrecked my focus. ✅ Fix: 3 scheduled check-in windows. All notifications off. 3. 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗶𝗻 I joined “just in case” calls where I didn’t add value. ✅ Fix: Built a “Should I Attend?” flowchart for the team. If I’m not critical, I skip. 4. “𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘀” 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻’𝘁 Tiny revisions ballooned into 20+ minute tasks due to context switching. ✅ Fix: I now batch all revisions into 2 dedicated windows weekly. 5. 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿-𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗼𝗰𝘀 I spent hours polishing things only my team would read. ✅ Fix: Created “good enough” standards per doc type. Moved faster. Templetized everything. After applying these, I reclaimed 12+ hours/week for strategic work. That’s a day and a half—every week. Key takeaway: Most productivity killers don’t look like distractions. They disguise themselves as “just 5 minutes.” Have you ever tracked your time like this? What surprised you most? #AgencyLife #TimeManagement #B2BMarketing #FounderProductivity

Every Workday project has two timelines. Only one shows up in your kickoff deck. The first one is visible: 1. Milestones 2. Integrations 3. Cutover plans 4. Go-live dates This is the timeline everyone talks about. But then there's the second timeline. The invisible one. It’s made of things like: • “We’re still finalizing requirements.” • “We lost 2 weeks chasing access issues.” • “The client wasn’t aligned on their own processes.” • “Testing’s blocked—we’re waiting for security updates.” • “Leadership wants a last-minute scope change.” • “No one knows how this legacy process actually works.” This hidden timeline lives in side chats, late-night firefighting, and nervous Friday wrap-ups. And it’s what actually decides how smooth or painful your Workday project will be. Most delays aren’t technical. They’re about ownership, decisions, and clarity. The best Workday leads don’t just manage deliverables. They manage the invisible: - Misaligned stakeholders - Unrealistic expectations - Unspoken process gaps - Emotional fatigue across teams If your project feels like it’s “always one step behind,” you’re probably tracking the wrong timeline. It’s not about managing faster, it’s about managing what’s actually happening. Most Workday delays don’t show up on a timeline. But they decide everything. What’s your invisible blocker? Drop it below, I’m curious what patterns we’re all seeing.

🌪️ A Planner’s Morning Chaos You grab your coffee ☕, open SAP, and the Stock/Requirements list looks like a storm hit overnight: dozens of small shortages, red signals everywhere, planned orders cluttering your screen. Sound familiar? This is the daily firefight for many CPG planners. But there’s a smarter way hiding in plain sight within SAP: 🚀 Partially Available Safety Stock 🔍 The Twist in SAP Most see safety stock as sacred — “untouchable buffer.” But SAP lets you loosen the rules: you can make a portion of it available for planning. Configured here: IMG → MRP → Define Safety Stock Availability Defined at the MRP Group level. Entered as a percentage. Formula (in plain text): Available safety stock = Safety stock × % available for planning 📌 Example: Safety stock = 100 cases of soda 30% available → 30 cases usable in planning 70 cases remain “hands-off” for emergencies It’s like a “secret fuel tank” in your car 🚗 — you’re allowed to sip from it when the ride gets bumpy. ⚙️ How SAP Reacts SAP won’t create a new planned order until that “available” portion is consumed. Once consumed, it replenishes back up to the full safety stock level. 💡 Why it matters: ✔️ Fewer unnecessary planned orders for tiny shortages ✔️ Lower admin effort and cleaner MRP runs 🥤 Real-Life CPG Example Bottled water production: Safety stock = 1,000 bottles Policy = 20% available → 200 bottles 👉 If demand dips into those 200 bottles, no panic order. 👉 Only when those 200 vanish does SAP trigger replenishment. Result: fewer small, costly production runs — while still guarding against true disruptions. 🧠 Memory Cue: Traffic Lights 🚦 Green Zone = sacred buffer (not available) Yellow Zone = usable portion of safety stock Red Zone = real shortage SAP lets you “play in yellow” before touching green. 👉 Easy to remember: Green sleeps. Yellow works. 📊 SAP T-Codes That Make It Real SPRO → configure MRP group safety stock availability MM02 → maintain safety stock in Material Master (MRP2 view) MD04 → watch stock dip into safety stock MD02 / MD03 → run MRP and test replenishment behavior 💡 Industry Shortcut Phrase “Safety stock is not fully sacred in SAP. Part of it works, part of it sleeps.” 🔑 Takeaway for CPG Planners Allowing part of safety stock to be “partially available” means: ✔️ Fewer firefights ✔️ Smoother production runs ✔️ Smarter working capital use It’s a small SAP configuration switch — with outsized impact in the real world. ✨ what about you? Have you enabled partially available safety stock in your SAP setup? Did it cut firefighting or bring surprising insights? #SAP #SupplyChain #CPG #MRP #SafetyStock #InventoryPlanning #DigitalSupplyChain #OperationsExcellence

High-performing teams love to bite off more than they can chew. They want to get a lot done in a short amount of time, which is admirable - but often not realistic. In my view, successful goal-setting starts with healthy pushback on timelines. For example, when I see our high achievers laying out a 90-day plan, I find it helpful to break down those 90 days into milestones. If we wind up with 7 milestones in the breakdown process (to me, a pretty high number), I nudge our team to consider hitting 3 or 4 instead - and leave the rest for the next quarter. The reason I encourage this breakdown is because I’ve seen this movie before: I know that a big part of goal-setting is leaving room for the unexpected. If a fire pops up, teams that are overstuffed with milestones to hit won’t be able to set aside time to put it out. Plus, people have day jobs to attend to, and those inevitably take up time. With a realistic set of milestones to attain in a given period of time, teams give themselves the freedom and space to iterate, deal with the unexpected, and get their daily work done too. I love a high-performing team’s confidence… but I love calibrating that confidence to realistic goal-setting. And that starts with breaking down that goal into bite-sized, achievable milestones.