You're busy. But not thinking.

You're busy, but not spending enough time thinking.

Don't forget to check your TTFR.

Need a refresher?

Your TTFR is your Thinking To Formatting Ratio.

It's out of alignment when you've spent more time discussing the format of a presentation than you've spent thinking and fully leveraging your expertise to develop recommendations.

In chaotic times, this can be an issue everywhere:

• Sales (all stages of prospecting)
• Client Service (financial reporting, strategy, and renewals)
• Executives (business cases for internal resources to build your practice)
• And so on. And so on.

It's difficult to juggle competing priorities and find uninterrupted time to think and develop recommendations.

This week I've been experimenting with clients on scheduled 30-minute sprints with some great results.

I schedule 45-minute Zoom meetings.  After a brief chat in which everyone commits to the project we're tackling, we go on mute and get to work with some background music playing.

I have a timer with some fun chimes that alert us at the halfway point and with 5 minutes to go.

I was surprised how much my mind drifted to other projects. I had nobody to blame but myself for "interruptions" and I'm a little embarrassed to say that the timer and accountability element was useful. 

We overestimate how much time we can/will actually stay focused on one single project.

Let's get practical. Stop blocking hours to work on anything. It's unlikely you'll stick to it and you'll end up complaining about the interruptions. 

Conversely, we underestimate the impact a short sprint can have on moving a project forward.

Example? Set aside 30 minutes to get organized and make sure all of the documents you'll need are in place or get them together and over to the client or a colleague to take the next step. 

What could you accomplish with 2-3 sprint sessions next week? Give it a try and let me know.