Colleagues,

Another way to find five minutes: stop yourself from taking care of someone else’s monkey!
 
You are a leader, and you get stuff done, so many people are happy to let you do their stuff for them. They want you to take care of their monkeys!
 
Next time someone asks you to do something that really isn’t your job, you can respond in several ways:

• “That sounds like a great idea! I don’t have time right now, but please feel free to go ahead and do it yourself.” (They won’t)
• “It sounds like this is important to you. Let’s do this. Think about five ways we could approach this problem and schedule a meeting with me next week.” (They won’t)
• “Interesting. Would you mind touching base with these five people and hearing what their thoughts are? We can then talk again next week.” (They won’t)
• “I would love to help, but I can’t right now. Have you thought about trying X strategy? Maybe give it a shot and let me know what happens.” (They won’t)
• “Hmmmm. I’ll need to give that some thought. Get back to me next week.” (They won’t)

 
If all of these things fail, ask the person to form a committee. You will never hear about it again!
 
Cheers!
 
Frederick

Colleagues,

Yesterday I asked you to find five minutes. Did you?
 
Here are five ways to find five minutes:

1. Spend five minutes fewer on your email. You didn’t finish it anyway, so what difference did five minutes make?
2. Turn off all notifications for one hour. You will have earned at least five minutes of time by being more productive.
3. Don’t do social media today.
4. Wordl 🤣
5. Schedule your meetings to be five minutes shorter and then end on time.

 
Choose one and let me know how it goes.
 
Cheers!
 
Frederick

Colleagues,

The rest of this week I’m going to help you to find five minutes a day. 
 
When all our time is spent on urgent stuff, how can we do the important stuff?
 
They key is to not try to create 50 minutes a day to focus on the important things.
 
Find five minutes. 
 
Five isn’t much, but it is better than 0.
 
Finding five minutes is possible, whereas finding 50 may not be.
 
How to find five minutes?
 
For the rest of the day, think about the things you are doing and figure out where you could find five minutes.
 
Cheers!
 
Frederick

Colleagues,

Mara here! Happy Monday!
 
I moved to Colorado for the winter with the main intention of learning how to snowboard. Along the way, I learned a lot more than just that.
 
Learning to snowboard is hard, and it’s even harder when you don’t have snow for weeks on end. 
 
Without the support and comfort of the soft snow, it is hard to take risks, to grow, and to gain confidence. 
 
Leaders can create that soft snow for people to take risks! 
 
This week, I challenge you to create snow where you can (even though I’m sure many of us are happy spring is here). Maybe someone will feel supported enough to take a risk. 
 
Sending sunshine,
 
Mara

Colleagues,

Here are four little changes we can make instead of four big ones:

1. Instead of adding another meeting or putting together a committee, replace one standing agenda item with another in our weekly (monthly) meeting. 
2. Instead of changing the schedule, look for ways to better use the time you already have.
3. Instead of implementing a culture building program with a book study and fun themes, just be present for people – fully present!
4. For that thing that is really holding your organization back, instead of developing a grand plan, focus on an A-B step to make it just a little better.

 
If you MUST do big change, go for it. Just make it optional for everyone else.
 
Cheers!
 
Frederick