Why You Should Be Under Scheduling

I found on the web an article that I totally agree with. Most of the time, in our business world, we don't stop piling up assignments, meetins, tasks, as we want to achieve as much as we can. Some people may also believe that the more your agenda is filled, the more effective you are.

But this is not the way LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner sees things. Indeed, he on purpose under schedule his agenda to find free time.

"As the company grows larger ... you will require more time than ever before to just think: Think about what the company will look like in three to five years; think about the best way to improve an already popular product or address an unmet customer need; think about how you can widen a competitive advantage or close a competitive gap, etc."

He then goes on to deconstruct the elements of such horizon-seeking. To 
do it well, Weiner says, you require:

• Uninterrupted focus
• Thoroughly developing and questioning assumptions
• Synthesizing all of the data, information, and knowledge that's incessantly coming your way
• Connecting dots
• Bouncing ideas off of trusted colleagues
• Iterating through multiple scenarios

And to do all that conceiving and re-conceiving, Weiner says, you need time, which requires stepping away from tactical execution to make room for strategic planning. This will only happen if you create the situation, he says.

"If you don't take the time to think proactively you will increasingly find yourself reacting to your environment rather than influencing it," Weiner continues. "The resulting situation will inevitably require far more time (and meetings) than thinking strategically would have to begin with."

I totally agree with his vision. At some point of my career, I was working like crazy. I did have no time to do anything but the assignments people were giving to me. I may have accomplished a lot, but was I really at my best? Was I really giving the best I could to the company that was hiring me? I don't think so. I was not able to provide any creativity, was not able to analyse the methods, the way I was organized, to see how I may be more effective, more efficient, and get better results.

It is important that you always find a way to step aside, and meditate on what you are actually doing, where you are heading on the long run. This may not be tasks you may measure in terms of stats, but this is at this time that you actually provide the best of what you can do.

As I sometimes say, Steve Jobs has not invented the Ipad while filling up some Excell sheet.