Linking your calendar to your goals

Lessons from GE's Approach to Personal Productivity.




While reading the HBR Editors Blog last month I came across an interesting post called Lessons from GE's Approach to Personal Productivity. The pearl of wisdom I picked up from this article was this:

"Compare your calendar with the priorities. Label the purpose of every regular or recurring activity on your quarterly calendar and highlight those activities that are connected with your top five priorities. This simple exercise will reveal where you’re squandering your time."

Although this point is valuable for any busy manager I believe it is even more relevant to anyone who brings value to their organisation through contact with customers, suppliers or prospects on a regular basis. Your calendar will be a reflection of the relationships you are forming, building or neglecting and in addition to telling you where time is being spent (or squandered) you have a metric on which to measure your performance.

If you are in sales, how many 1st and 2nd meetings have you this week. Managers in support or services could look at how many existing clients they have "stayed in front" of through calls, meetings or mail. In partner management or procurement how many planning meetings or reviews have been done.

Take a look at each of your goals for this quarter and try to convert the "measurable" element to something you could see in your calendar, now look for the evidence. You will gain a great insight into your performance and you will also have a weekly/monthly measure of performance.