Working on the Weekend in Las Vegas

This last weekend -- on July 4th to be exact -- I had the opportunity to enjoy the Las Vegas Philharmonic against the greatest community asset Las Vegas has -- the Springs Preserve. On of the architects of this ecologically perfect environment is Craig Galati, President of Lucchesi Galati Archetects.

I admire Craig not only for his architectural talent, but for how he has merged and expanded his life by observing and discussing how we work, why we work, and how to work better, smarter and happier. The post below is Craig's online blog in the Las Vegas Sun, The Heart of Business. Craig gives us all much to think about and specific ways to make our business lives better. Read, learn and use. You will be Serving Your Own Success if you do.

By Craig Galati · June 29, 2009 · 11:02 AM

Remember the 1981 song by Loverboy, “Working for the Weekend?” You know the song and now you probably will be singing it in your head for the rest of the day. You’re welcome! “Working for the Weekend” was the anthem of working stiffs everywhere, and back in the ‘80s it was played every Friday at my office.

Fast forward to today. Everywhere I go, I see professionals working on the weekend. What happened to working for the weekend? Even though our country is in an economic slowdown, the business owners I know haven’t slowed down a bit. It takes a lot of work to find work, especially if your company is short-staffed.

I took time out the other day to have coffee with a couple of friends. All three of us remarked about how tired we each looked. I guess we are. My friends and I lamented about how we were working harder than we had in years, but this time with less tangible results. After leaving the coffeehouse (“It’s a Grind,” no less) I started thinking of some old, tried and true sayings, time management techniques, thoughts and quotes.

Don’t confuse effort with results. It has been reported that 80 percent of one’s efforts yield 20 percent of the results. Conversely, this means that 20 percent of our efforts are achieving most of our results. This principle, called the Pareto Principle after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, is widely accepted in business and has been used to describe marketing and sales efforts, time management and financial strategies.

Here is my take. Most people focus too much on doing. They feel productive if they are working on something, doing something. It does not always matter if what they are doing is productively achieving results or, more importantly, the results that are wanted. This comes down to a lack of vision, goals and strategy. Remember Stephen Covey’s habit, Begin with the End in Mind? Too often the end (result) is not clearly thought through or not communicated at all. Therefore, the plan of doing (strategy) and milestones (goals) are not geared toward achieving the result.
One way of helping people within your organization is not to reward effort for effort’s sake. Reward the results and I assure you that people will think differently and “Begin with the End in Mind.”

Focus on slaying the elephants first, before tackling the ants. If you believe, as I do, that 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your effort, then tackle the projects and sales efforts that will yield those results first before spending time on those that will not. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Then why do some people spend as much time on a proposal for a $2M engagement as they do on a $10M one? Or, worse yet, why do some professionals spend time fine-tuning their product library instead of the financial management and invoicing systems? I once heard from a colleague who complained to me that he was too busy working on a new logo for his firm to find time to invoice. I was dumbfounded. Secretly, though, I was happy he was my competitor.

Schedule your day purposely. Begin each day with a goal. What do you want to accomplish today? How does this goal fit into your long-term strategy? This goes well beyond making the traditional to-do list. I’ve found that most to-do lists are mostly busywork. It’s better to prioritize your to-do list using your vision or strategic plan as the filter. I break down my to-do list in three categories: 1) things I need to do to stay in business; 2) things I need to do to better my business; and 3) things that will move my business to its future. Obviously, the most important list is category 3, yet the most urgent is category 1. Make sure you do the things in category 1 but also make sure you spend time working on category 3 each day. I try to shift category 2 tasks into category 3 to make them more effective.

Work smarter, not harder. For many professionals, there is no other solution than to work harder. That is because they haven’t put the time into developing a strategic vision and plan. Once you develop your vision for the future, it becomes quite clear how to work smarter. That doesn’t mean you won’t work hard, but that you will be working on things that truly matter to your business.

I’d like to hear from you:
• Would you share your tips to managing time effectively?
• Have you ever analyzed how you spend your daily work time?
• Are you working on important or urgent tasks?
Until next time …
Craig