Now, Near, Future: Not Your Average Time Study
I read a post on LinkedIn the other day about different types of people in the workplace. According to Keith Bitikofer, there are
"Tell me what you want me to do, and I'll do it," people.
"Tell me what you want me to do, and I'll ask you a bunch of questions to see if what you want will actually give you the results that you are looking for," people.
You can read what we both said about the idea here.
When it comes to getting sh*t done, we teach people to optimize for right now. In truth, we should want people to optimize for now, sometimes optimize for about six months from now, and other times optimize for a year or two into the future.
I think you and your team should know, based on your role and responsibilities, how much time you should be spending on "Now" work, "Near" work, and "Future" work.
NOW work = percentage of time spent on this week's to-do list—meetings, tasks, conversations, and questions that need answering.
NEAR work = percentage of time spent on considering decisions. Make sure to distinguish this from decision-making; this is the time you invest in looking at information, data, and options before making a decision. Decision-making is a NOW task. These are often the strategic meetings with your colleagues where you discuss the future and help each other understand why you should prioritize and choose a path forward.
FUTURE work = percentage of time spent in R&D. If you're not learning, you're not growing. How much are you investing in improving yourself? Future work includes:
Learning about new technology.
Reading books that make you a better leader.
Going to conferences and events to explore new ideas and meet new people.
Dare I say it? Reading this Discovery Experiment is an investment in the Future You.
Add all these percentages up, and you should be looking at 100% of your time. The question now becomes, are you investing across all three, or are you stuck in the NOW and maybe someone who's just known for "getting sh*t done?"
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
What are your numbers?
What do you think they should be?
What do you think your boss thinks your numbers are?
What do you think your boss thinks they should be?
If you don't know or don't think they're the same, you should have a conversation with them. Don't you think?
This brings us to this chapter's Discovery Experiment, looking at your team's NOW, NEAR, and FUTURE numbers.
It's a great place to start.
EXPERIMENT
Open up your spreadsheet of choice or borrow our template here.*
List the names of the individuals reporting to you.
Enter their role level based on how you categorize levels.
For each name, enter what you believe their Now, Near, and Future Numbers are in reality.
Now for each person, enter what you belive their Now, Near, and Future Numbers should be.
Your results should give you a realistic overview of how your team is optimizing their time and how they should optimize their time.
Questions to consider.
Do you see patterns in the data?
Are there individuals whose numbers don’t seem in line with others? Is this Ok?
Are some of your strategic contributors spending too much time in the NOW?
Is your team investing where they should be?
AMPLIFY
Here are three things we think you can do to amplify this idea with your team and, in doing so, make it easier for them to Opt-Into the Future—a future for themselves, a future with you, and your organization.
What are your Now, Near, and Future numbers? - it’s worth sharing them with your team.
Imagine they did this exercise with each other and for each other. What might they learn?
What would happen if you shared these numbers with your manager? We’ve found it’s always a discussion promoting conversation.
INVEST
Want us to create this experience for your team?