If you’re looking for a productivity tip that can help you make the most of your day, then you might want to consider the story of the manager who found himself unable to move his career forward.
Meet Mark, who on many levels is a successful mid-level manager. Mark is attentive to the needs of his team and will change policies based on their feedback. He is also attentive to his superiors, carefully considering how his department can improve and move everyone toward their big picture goals.
Mark is a well liked, model employee. But every day, he makes a big mistake: He forgets to pay himself.
In Mark’s case, we’re not talking about the payment of money. Rather, he’s not getting paid in time. Specifically, the investment of time in himself.
Mark has fallen into the trap of believing that being good at the daily demands of a job means you’ll have a successful career. The manager has only so many hours in the day. He routinely spends them on everyone else’s problems or challenges. This is good for them but not for his long term career prospects.
Maybe you’ve been in that situation where you need to take some additional training to improve your skills or engage in some big picture thinking. But you never can find time to do it. As a result, your skills are frozen in time.
You’ve turned an unselfish attitude into a reason not to do things that will help you in the long run.
Maybe paying yourself involves not staying late or taking a coffee break during a busy day. Maybe it’s leaving the office for a few minutes to attend a child’s play or sporting event.
Mark means to get around to those things that will help his career and his personal life. They’re always on his to-do list and it’s good to have a to-do list.
But you need to make sure that your items aren’t stuck at the end of the list all the time. Mark fails when it comes to putting himself as a priority during his workday. He often finds himself staying late and hasn’t touched anything on his personal list.
In the midst of busy times, it can be easy to reduce your value, while helping others. It’s harder to say that you’re not going to wait until the end of the day to pay yourself.
Don’t think that your team and your superiors don’t want you to pay yourself. While they may be happy to have you take care of all of the busy work, they have a stake in your future success.
See if you can delegate some tasks to free up time. This can give someone else much needed experience or re-engage an employee who is looking for new challenges.
Communicate to your superiors that you need time to invest in your professional self. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that they won’t support your future growth. You may inspire them to do the same.
If you’re a parent, you may have experienced the same thing, when caring for your children eats up all of your “me” time. You desperately want it but never can find the time to take it. When it does happen, you feel refreshed and wonder why you put it off for so long.
Pay yourself.. Don’t neglect your needs.
Maybe it’s time to bring Ken Okel to your next meeting…
Read any good books lately?
