Smart Business Magazine, January 2018

JJ DIGERONIMO EXECUTIVE IMPACT The power of no Take back your daily schedule and restore order to your life 10 Smart Business Cleveland January 2018 T he exercise includes six columns which quickly captures time and resource allocation Now many have initially responded with my day is not my own or I do the work assigned to me or some other version that pushes the responsibility elsewhere Admittedly I had similar thoughts However what I have learned from interviewing successful professionals for my books is that there are direct correlations between your commitments and the degree of relevance and future impact achieved Although I too have read What Got You Here Wont Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith and The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle I desired a quick and easy way to capture work streams impact and alignment I have shared this chart with many professionals that are working to maximize the use of their time to cultivate their goals Heres how it works Commitments Make a list of your professional commitments These are tasks meetings conversations and activities in which youre already committed to doing This column may take a few weeks to complete Requester Who asked you to work on this commitment This requester could be you a family member boss neighbor community person or co worker Alignment Does this commitment effectively align with where you are now or where you plan to accelerate your impact Use Y for yes and N for no Energy What kind of energy do you get from this commitment Do you look forward to this commitment or do you dread this commitment Use a if this commitment energizes you a if you dont look forward to this commitment and a if you have mixed feelings about this commitment Time When possible list the amount of time each commitment takes Time should factor into your decision for the next column A commitment that only takes a few minutes or a few hours each week might not be as big of a drain as a commitment that takes several hours each week Remove As you complete this chart examine every commitment you have listed Are there some commitments that can be removed or cut back based on where you are now or where you plan to have an impact next What I have learned is agreeing to the wrong requests for your time in the form of a commitment negatively influences the right requests and often impacts your ability to create your desired results For more details a chart and guidelines on future requests visit www jjdigeronimo com powerofno Just last week I was invited to lead a 2018 Accelerate Your Impact workshop for experienced professionals to enhance their relevance and impact for the fiscal year One of my primary talking points has been looking at leaders who have a hard time saying no Since most professionals are overcommitted this makes it difficult to find the time to align to current deliverables and future goals JJ DIGERONIMO President Tech Savvy Women Women in Tech and Girls in STEM Advocate JJs book Accelerate Your Impact Action Based Strategies to Pave Your Professional Path published by Smart Business Books is available for purchase on Amazon She is also the author of The Working Womans GPS www JJDiGeronimo com linkedin com in jjdigeronimo facebook com techsavvywomen @ JJDiGeronimo http amzn to 2cK3x13