How to Eliminate Busywork for Improved Time Management

82% of leaders have no time management system. (And it's killing their success) Every evening, I’d ask myself: Where did the day go? Staring at an endless to-do list that somehow grew longer. That pit in your stomach when you realize another day slipped away... The inconvenient truth: → 34 hours lost monthly in unnecessary meetings → 2+ hours weekly on non-work browsing → Only 3 truly productive hours in an average workday Your time isn't just slipping away. It's sprinting. But here's what elite performers do differently. (Tested and validated in real-world corporate environments): 1/ Time Block Everything Why: Our brains process single-focus blocks 43% more efficiently. ↳ Even 15-minute blocks matter. ↳ Include buffer zones. ↳ Protect your peak hours. 2/ The 2-Minute Rule Why: Small tasks snowball into 2-hour backlogs daily. ↳ If it takes less than 2 minutes, do it now. ↳ Stop the small tasks from becoming big delays. ↳ Clear mental clutter fast. 3/ Strategic Elimination Why: Top performers spend 80% of time on 20% of tasks. ↳ Cut 20% of your recurring meetings. ↳ Batch similar tasks. ↳ Say "no" to low-impact activities. 4/ Energy Management Why: Working with your energy doubles output. ↳ Match complex tasks to high-energy hours. ↳ Use breaks as performance enhancers. ↳ Honor your natural rhythm. 5/ Priority Stacking Why: Morning priorities are 2.5x more likely to get done. ↳ Handle big rocks before pebbles. ↳ Front-load your most important work. ↳ Eliminate first-hour distractions. The reality? Implementing these strategies reclaims 20% of your work hours. That's an extra day each week. Ready to take control? Start with one strategy today. ↓ Drop a comment with your top time hack. ♻️ Share to help other leaders reclaim their time. 🔔 Follow me (Loren) for more science-backed performance insights.

"We're too busy to improve!" The most expensive lie in business. I hear this excuse everywhere: - Coffee shops too busy to fix their slow ordering system - Restaurants too busy to train staff properly   - Offices too busy to organize their filing systems - Factories too busy to eliminate waste Here's the uncomfortable truth: Being too busy to improve is exactly why you're too busy. Let me break this down: Your current chaos is self-created. ↳ Firefighting the same problems weekly ↳ Redoing work because it wasn't done right ↳ Searching for things that should be organized ↳ Waiting for decisions that could be automated You're stuck in a hamster wheel of inefficiency. The brutal math: Time spent improving = 10x time saved later Time avoiding improvement = Same problems forever Here's how the trap works: Week 1: "Too busy to organize, we'll do it next month" Week 2: Waste 2 hours daily searching for stuff Week 3: Same searches, same waste, same stress Week 4: "Still too busy for improvements..." Result: 56 hours wasted that could have been eliminated with 4 hours of smart work. The reality check: Busy teams need improvement MORE, not less. Start microscopic: ↳ 15 minutes to identify your biggest time drain ↳ 15 minutes to think of solutions   ↳ 15 minutes to test the easiest fix I've seen 15-minute improvements save hours daily. Real example: Team spent 30 minutes daily hunting for supplies. Invested 2 hours creating a simple organization system. Now saves 2.5 hours daily. ROI: 2 hours invested = 625 hours saved annually. The question isn't "When will we have time to improve?" The question is "How can we afford not to improve?" Every day you postpone fixing problems is another day of: → Wasted time → Accumulated frustration   → Missed opportunities → Burning out your best people My challenge to you: Pick ONE thing that wastes your time daily. Spend 15 minutes fixing it today. Count the time you save tomorrow. Because the people who are "too busy to improve" are usually drowning in problems that improvement would solve. What's eating up most of your time right now?

High urgency, low value tasks are the #1 leading productivity killer. They feel important. They demand your attention. But they don’t actually move the needle. 👀 Here’s how to spot them: – immediately responding to every ping and Slack message – doing work someone else should do but you don’t want to pause long enough to explain it to them – dropping everything for last-minute “emergencies” – sitting in meetings with no clear decisions or outcomes – saying yes because it’s faster than pushing back 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗴𝘀 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁, 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗰𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝘆𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸. 😣 Instead, use this framework to take back your time: Sort every task into these 4 categories: 1. High impact / High urgency → Do it right away 2. High impact / Low urgency → Schedule it 3. Low impact / High urgency → Delegate or renegotiate 4. Low impact / Low urgency → Delete it To be truly effective as a “force multiplier” you have to protect your focus and guard your priorities.

You have no doubt heard of DOGE by now - Dept of Govt Efficiency. Imagine this: DOPE - a new department in your company—The Department of People Efficiency. A team that’s all about making your workplace leaner, smarter, and more productive. (Yes, it’s a play on “dope”—because this idea is just that cool.) Efficiency isn’t about running faster on the hamster wheel. It’s about trimming the fat and letting your people focus on what really moves the needle. If the DOPE team walked into your office tomorrow, here’s what they’d cut first: 1️⃣ Useless Meetings. We all know them—meetings with no agenda, no purpose, and no outcomes. Atlassian reports employees waste 31 hours a month in unproductive meetings. Fix it: “No agenda, no meeting” rule. Replace status updates with a quick dashboard. Default to focused, 15-minute standups. 2️⃣ Communication Overload. Slack, email, Teams, DMs—too many tools lead to noise, not clarity. Streamline to a couple of platforms and set boundaries. Less pinging, more doing. 3️⃣ Busywork That Goes Nowhere. Reports no one reads. Processes no one understands. Tasks that feel important but achieve nothing. Automate it, delegate it, or delete it. 4️⃣ The “Always-On” Mentality. Productivity doesn’t come from burning the candle at both ends. It comes from focused work, intentional breaks, and clear priorities. Hustle culture without purpose is just burnout in disguise. 5️⃣ Legacy Processes. If you ever hear “We’ve always done it this way,” it’s time to audit. Outdated processes cost time, energy, and morale. Innovation starts by challenging the status quo. Here’s the truth: Time is the one resource we can’t get back. If your people’s time is wasted, so is their talent, creativity, and energy. The DOPE team wouldn’t let that happen. As businesses, we need to stop overcomplicating work and start respecting the value of time. That’s how you boost efficiency, build trust, and unlock results. So, if you had a DOPE Department at your company, what’s the first thing you’d cut? Drop your thoughts below. Bam!💥