At this point, we will continue to discuss how to conduct effective time management to balance the workload. Of course, you may have discovered that the first two problems are focused on solving things and people, but the two lines of things and people are intertwined with you in the end, and the contradictions point to the manager’s time.

For example, we have a friend who has become the head of a large company and manages about 300 people. He can be said to be a very high-level manager. But he found that there are more and more specific routine tasks that he has to do himself.

So he asked, “Although I know that this state is not right, I am really too busy. If I continue, I will fall into the blind spot of handling business and have no time to think about directional strategic issues. How should I manage my time?”

First of all, it is always right to have a good understanding of the business. All strategic questions are based on familiarity with specific businesses. So even if you become a senior executive, there is no such thing as “having to focus on strategic issues and not being familiar with specific businesses.” This is a wrong understanding.

However, because you have to be familiar with the specific business, you may fall into a blind spot when handling the business. This shows one thing: that you have not really familiarized yourself with the business and have not grasped the key contradictions of business problems. In other words, what is a strategic question? The key contradiction is the strategic issue.

Therefore, if we have a sufficient understanding of business issues, we can quickly and effectively grasp the business direction through the three key tools of “dashboard + project list + regular meeting”.

At the same time, managers must learn to plan their time. For example, they can make good use of the “four quadrants of time management” mentioned in our management camp courses and set aside dedicated time to sort out important and non-urgent tasks.

But it should be noted that planning should not be limited to just days. As he mentioned, a day, a week, a month, a quarter, and a year are all units of time planning. But for managers, the really important things are definitely not planned in units of days; at least monthly and quarterly planning is necessary.

For example, I once worked with a company executive who had a clearly structured schedule. On a larger scale, throughout the year, the focus of each quarter was different. The first quarter focused on strategic issues, the second quarter focused on organizational and cadre issues, the third quarter focused on strategies for the next year, and the fourth quarter focused on review and incentives.

To put it simply, each day had a different structure within each week: visiting clients on Mondays and Tuesdays, focusing on organizational matters on Wednesdays and Thursdays, meeting with important stakeholders on Fridays, reviewing and reflecting on Saturday mornings, and spending time with family on Sunday afternoons while planning for the week ahead. This executive had maintained this strong structure for many years, and everything was in order. Isn’t the above example inspiring?

By this point, we have covered the three questions and I will summarize them at the end. In the past few weeks, we have discussed how to use structured management thinking to solve problems at three levels: managing affairs, managing people, and managing ourselves. First, if you want to grasp the situation of the team, you cannot wait for subordinates to give active feedback; instead, you must use the three key tools of the dashboard, project list, and weekly meetings to expose problems. Second, if you want the team to grow, remember to use peer pressure as leverage to conduct structured reviews. Thirdly, for managers to manage their time effectively, they cannot neglect their understanding of business. Lastly, for important matters, at least monthly and quarterly planning should be carried out.